Northern Longhorn Breeders' Summer visit report

The Northern Longhorn Breeders' Club held their summer herd visit on Sunday 30th June 2019 at Raby Castle, home of the Raby herd of Longhorns.

The day started with 30 club members and friends arriving at Raby Estate at 10.30 and gathering at the tea rooms.  Robert Sullivan, Farm Manager for the estate gave the group a brief history of the castle, estate farming practices and the Longhorns and deer whilst members listened on with cups of tea and coffee.

The Longhorn cows and carves where grazing within some 250 acre parkland along with 200 red deer and 200 roe deer around the castle and lakes.

Members got into cars and led by Robert and his team set off into the park to find the Longhorns. The herd was found laying on a hillside but not for long once the cars had parked up and everyone was out and on foot they soon made over the hill out of sight. The convoy of cars set off to follow the herd which led us to the perfect place right in front of the castle and lake where they settled and we got right in amongst them for an quite a while until they had had enough and gradually moved on down to the lake to drink.  In convoy we moved through the estate to home farm where the herd is housed during winter and to see the steers and heifers before returning to the tea rooms for a late lunch.

Many thanks go to Lord and Lady Barnard, Robert Sullivan and his team for hosting a great day and giving us a good Longhorn fix.

Click here for more photos on Flickr, kindly taken by Graham Walker

Graham Walker, Secretary, Northern Longhorn Breeders' Club