The Herd

April 2005
Our herd is comprised
of mostly Pedigree Aberdeen Angus - a breed renowned for the
superb taste and texture of it's meat - with the addition of some
pure bred Hereford females. Our stock bull is Fordel Enterprise,
purchased at Perth, and replaces Aynho Proud Galaxy from February
2006. In December 2007 our own Standlynch Elton was introduced
to the herd and was initially run with a group of
heifers. We keenly await the results this autumn.

Our first stock bull, as pictured on our home
page, had good height and length. Galaxy was chosen to improve our
herd by adding breadth to the rump and showed excellent
results - see photograph below, and Enterprise was chosen to
continue the trend, as well as to bring improved calving ease
indices.
Our first Angus were purchased in autumn 1999 from
Howard and Alison Smith (the Bramshaw Hill herd). With further
purchases both from them and other local sources we have females
with other such herd prefixes as Dark Lane, Gadevalley, Heath House
& Shade Pond, and our first heifer from Lockerley. We now have
over 50 pedigree Angus breeding females.
The majority of the summer grazing is in the
meadows of the river Avon. This land has been entered into the Avon
Valley ESA from the start of the scheme. It receives no nitrogen,
and the minimum amount of weedkillers, to spot treat docks and
thistles. As such it is a haven for many breeding birds. On the
chalk downland, as part of our Countryside Stewardship agreement we
have a total of 65 acres of Arable Reversion - former arable fields
now grassed down, and with no inputs and a corresponding lower
grazing density. We hope that this will start to look like
traditional downland in a few years time.
The best bull calves are left entire to
mature into breeding bulls, and the remainder will be fattened for
slaughter for top quality beef.
During this period of expansion in the herd our
best heifers have been kept back for breeding here. However we hope
to have breeding heifers for sale in 2008 or 2009.
The future? - well young Rachel here seems to know
where she is going -
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