Blue Grey
Suckler Cows at Glensaugh Research Station
 Glensaugh
Research Station, run by the Macauley Institute,
lies on the Eastern Grampian Hills of Scotland.
The altitude ranges from 122 to 456 metres above sea level
and the area has an average rainfall of 1040 mm.
The research station comprised 865 hectares of semi-natural
plant communities, 78 hectares of predominantly rotational
grassland and 70 hectares of permanent pasture and is stocked
with 400
Scottish Blackface ewes and 700 crossbred ewes, 80
Blue-Grey
spring-calving
suckler cows, together
with 120 breeding red deer hinds and stags with 200 yearlings
and
calves.
The heather hills are grazed
by the herd of 80 spring calving Bluegrey cows run with
Charolais and Limousin
bulls.
Cheap wintering on straw and feed blocks and the extensive
use of natural hill grazing are the founding principles
of management.
Naturally good foragers the cows utilise
the rough hill vegetation up to 1500 feet on the Cairn
O'Mount and produce weaned calves in November that average
0.9kg daily live weight gain.
The Cows and heifers prove to be easy handled,
fertile, naturally robust in character and well suited
to outwintering on cheap roughage diets.
"These cows will thrive where few other breeds would
manage to produce milk," says David Nelson
manager at Glensaugh. "The ideal cow for the hill situation".
 Glensaugh
Research Station
<< back |
|
|
Other Blue Grey Links
Upland Management
Blue Greys at Ardjachie
Limestone
Country Project
Bloch Blue Greys
The Contribution
to Biodiversity made by the Blue Grey Cow
Northumberland National Park Drovers
Project
Outwintering Cattle
|
