Located high within the Yorkshire Dales National Park on the roof of northern England, Adele, my wife, and I live happily. Mother earth courses naturally through our veins. Living where we do we experience a plethora of flora and fauna which our livestock thrives upon. Additionally, throughout the year, there is always plenty of differing birdlife to be observed. For example on occasions during the summer months we can see from our kitchen window Swallows, Sand Martins and House Martins swooping over our pasture fields, whilst above are Swifts, all at the same time.
A small flock of Herdwick sheep also run alongside the cattle, all are quiet, bucket reared and respectful of fencing and wall enclosures. Otherwise, we would not keep them as we do not have time to be chasing them around North Yorkshire. Again, annually we have available for sale both young tups and gimmer lambs/shearlings.
Occasionally we have for sale both young bulls and heifers. All cattle are within the Bio-Best health scheme and are one of the very few UK herds currently accredited ‘Elite’ for all of the four major, common diseases i.e. IBR, Johne’s, Lepto and BVD. There is no need to annually vaccinate our cattle as we are clear of these problems. We are also located within a 4 year TB test area, never having experienced a positive reading.
Stock includes all that is listed on our produce page. All emanating from my desire some years ago to keep half a dozen ducks. However, at the centre of our stock holding sit the Beef Shorthorn Cattle.
We are in the process of slowly growing our cattle numbers, very importantly via our own breeding so as to minimize any disease transfer issues. Our initial foundation stock arrived from the IoM Wenmar dispersal sale of 2002.
Currently we are using a home bred bull out of the famous Princess Royal line of females, by Loch Awe Lysander - A famous Perth Champion of some breeding renown. This young bull (Greensleybank Damaris), known at home as 'Dennis' is maturing into a first rate, thick set, easy moving sire. He is tended daily by my 8st. wife, in the process being a pleasure to both work and own. 'Dennis' has been used this year as a yearling, and will also be used next spring time throughout our herd. Following this work he will be made available for sale to some lucky individual during the second half of 2012.
We selected this particular breed of cattle for the following basic reasons:
