Managing a total of 485ha (1,200ac) on Salisbury Plain, 455ha of which is rented from the Ministry of Defence, livestock farmer Pat Holloway of West Lavington Farms gives us an introduction to her Cliffe herd of pedigree Hereford cattle.
"I have a mixed, organic farm, mostly on SSSI land which is currently in a Countryside Stewardship scheme where we keep cattle, sheep, arable and make a fair bit of hay. I have 100 ewes which I lamb in April, only keeping native breeds which are all grass fed. All of our stock is outwintered and individuals would only be brought inside if ill.
"The cattle are kept behind electric fencing as there are no permanent fences on Salisbury Plain. We work alongside army exercises and have to be in touch with Range Ops at all times. We leave 15m strips between each penning for small mammals and invertebrates, and the range is farmed very sensitively with Stone Curlew plots on the land. Feeding of forage is only allowed on the outside perimeter of the Ranges.
"I have diversified with a holiday let, container storage and the beginnings of a farm shop with a milk vending machine. The aim is to finish my own stock and sell the meat through the farm shop as well."
With a well-established and quality base of homebred animals that won the inaugural THBC Herd Competition in 2023, a major setback which is sadly currently affecting the Cliffe herd is Bovine TB, recently causing the distressing loss of a number of good in-calf cows and hindering the potential size of the breeding herd. Pat says:
"I first chose Original Population Herefords because I felt it important to preserve their genetics, with the female lines in our herd being Venus, Amethyst, Gaymaid, Julia and Sylvia. I am now just hanging on waiting for the TB to eventually clear so that I can rebuild our numbers. I will need a new bull next year so that will happen, but [in terms of increasing female numbers] we are basically in limbo at the moment and losing some beautiful animals."
With the herd currently made up of 24 cows plus a further 24 heifers due to enter the breeding group, Pat’s aim is to reach a total size of 100 breeding females plus followers, calving late spring and early summer.
Learn more about West Lavington Farms on their website westlavingtonfarms.co.uk, or keep up to date with the herd by following them on Facebook and Instagram!
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