Strong stock
On Saturday, we took our simmental heifer ‘Ambrose’ to the
Moreton in Marsh show, where she came 3rd in her class,
which we were pleased with as there was some strong
competition.
Things are looking good in the Simmental herd at the moment
as another one of our heifers has just calved, producing not one,
but two baby heifers, both of whom were fathered by our winning
show bull Moretonhall Vanguard. We will grow these heifers up and
add them to our expanding herd for breeding and showing.
It’s not just our beef herd that’s doing well,
our dairy heifers are also producing some fantastic calves. Our
local market is even starting to get queries asking if Warwickshire
College has any dairy bull calves for sale, as they have been such
top quality calves. I’m really pleased to hear this and it really
shows the hard work, time and effort the herdsman and the farm
staff put in to looking after the animals.
The majority of this seasons lambs have now gone to
market, as well as some of our older ewes. My plans to increase the
flock size are coming along, with the purchase of 40 replacement
mule ‘theaves’ (un-lambed 2 year old sheep). 13 home-bred Suffolk
cross theaves will also join them and go out with the tup (male
sheep) in October, with a view to lamb in March. This will give us
an increased flock of 320 ewes this year.
In addition to these ewes I have also
purchased another Texel tup who has good conformation and size and
some fantastic growth rate figures. I hope to retain his daughters
to form the basis of a small Texel flock. We nicknamed our last
texel ‘Terrance’, please let us know any name suggestions for our
new one!
In the next few months we will be thinking
about getting cultivations completed, start bringing cattle closer
to home, giving all the ewes an ‘MOT’ before they go out with the
tups and getting the maize harvest completed.
Busy times ahead!!
Written by Jonathan Clarke, Farm Manager
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