Midland Longhorn Breeders' Club summer visit - report
The Midland Longhorn Breeders' Club arranged a summer visit which took place on Sunday June 30th in Northamptonshire.
Roger and Tom Elliott, were the Club's herd
competition judges last year and kindly invited the Club to visit their farming
enterprise. The enterprise is spread over three main sites based around The Homestead all of which we are
hoping to get round.
Roger and Tom farm 1500 acres,
350 owned and 1150 rented. They run approximately 800 head of cattle, made up
of 300 cows/heifers to calve this year and another 80 heifers going to the
bull. Breeding-wise they have 60 pedigree South Devons (est 1988), 70 pedigree
Shorthorns (est 2009), the rest of the herd is nearly all homebred with a mix
of mainly Shorthorn, South Devon, Salers and Angus cows.
All heifers calve at two years old
to the Salers, 2nd calvers to the Angus, and after that Angus, Shorthorn,
Limousin and British Blue are used. All cattle are taken through to
fat, usually killed between 14 & 20 months, with stores also purchased to
finish.
Roger and Tom run 50 poll
Dorsets lambing Sept/Oct, 800 NZ Romney/Lleyn ewes lambing outside in April. Also 150 Suffolk, Charolais,
Texel and Beltex to produce shearling rams to sell. The also have a few
pedigree Welsh pigs.
There is also a butchers shop run alongside the farming enterprises, which has been in the family for 120 years!!
Click here for some photos on Flickr.