Throughout early winter, a lot of the work has concerned feeding and dealing with cattle inside. They got here in barely sooner than ordinary, in mid-November. The goal is a five-month winter, with seven months of grazing.

Shortly after Christmas, a small load of 20-month-old completed cattle steers was despatched to Yorkshire for slaughter. These cattle have been a part of our persevering with experiment to produce our prospects with low-carbon beef.

That they had been completed on purple clover leys over the summer season and didn’t obtain any concentrates throughout their lifetime.

The breeding cows have been scanned in November, and we have been happy to study that each one cows have been in-calf. This doesn’t often occur, however is a pleasing shock when it does.

See additionally: Calculating beef weaning effectivity and why it’s important

All cattle have been weighed, given vitamin boluses and fluke doses and had their heads, again and tails shaved.

We do that on moist, windy days because the dealing with amenities are in a shed. With the radio on the desk and loads of gentle overhead, it may be a pleasing job on a depressing winter’s day.

We goal to separate the calves round New Yr when the wind is blowing strongly from west to east, to make sure the noise is carried away from the village.

The cows and calves are weighed, and we calculate the proportion weight of every calf in contrast with its mom.

By doing this, we are able to decide that are our best cows, and which of them are much less productive and want culling.

The typical cow weight fluctuates annually and is usually a mirrored image of the grazing circumstances in the course of the earlier summer season.

Our common weight is about 600kg. A few of them are far too heavy, at 700kg or extra, they usually don’t wean larger calves.

Our goal is to have 550kg cows, rearing a 300kg calf with no creep at 200 days. Weaned calves get as a lot as they’ll eat of the perfect silage. This yr the herd effectivity averaged 48%, starting from 35-60%.

Beef cows will not be probably the most Environment Friendly animals to maintain, producing one calf a yr. They’re an incredible grazing device on an upland farm, however they have to be environment friendly.