WHITEBRED SHORTHORN CROSS SIMMENTAL CATTLE
Roddy Macleod, farm manager
for The Firm of Moy Farm, Banavie, Fort-William borrowed
a Whitebred Shorthorn bull to use on some Simmental X heifers.
He tells us of his experience;
The heifers all calved unaided, The male calves were
sold at Fort-William Auction Mart on May 30th 2008 at
around 8 months old. They weighed 337kgs and made £550,
that is £1.63/kg.
They weighed around 30kg less than Charolais calves of
the same age and around 10p/kg less. I intend keeping the
heifer calves as replacements for the herd, but I was
asked if I had heifers of a similar breeding and were
they for sale. I said no, not even when offered over £600
each.
Moy extends
to 680 hectares of which 45 are ploughable, 25 are permanent
grass and the rest is hill rising to 2800 feet. Situated
7 miles from the foot of Ben Nevis, the farm is split
by the Caledonian Canal with access by a 200 year old
hand operated swing bridge.
The farm carries 480 Blackface
ewes on the hill with no supplementary feeding. Scanned
twins are run on grass with silage only until end June
then put to hill. 70% lambs reared all sold store. Ewe
hoggs are wintered at home on grass.
60 Simmental cross cows are put to the Charolais
bull, with half calving late September/October, these
calves sold locally in May. Cows are then are put to
the hill until calving. The spring calves are born late
April/May, run on old pasture and sold in October. All
cattle are housed for up to 7 months at great expense.
After
trying AI, I borrowed a Whitebred Shorthorn bull to run
with heifers. 14 have now calved, all unaided. All females
are to be kept for breeding. My aim is to produce a more
economical suckler cow, i.e. smaller, milkier and docile,
these Whitebred Shorthorn cross calves seem to fit
the bill. In the future I may consider using a Whitebred
Shorthorn to produce replacements for sale.
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