Summer meeting heads to Willow Grange Farm

The Traditional Hereford Breeders' Club summer meeting took place on 18 June at Willow Grange Farm in Chittering, near the historic city of Ely, where breeders enjoyed their annual get-together to discuss Club matters and to view the Willow Grange herd on the banks of the River Great Ouse in the Cambridgeshire Fens.

The Willow Grange herd grazing at Chittering, Ely

This was the first meeting under the charge of new Club Chairman Glenn Pritchard, who welcomed members to the farm and thanked host Fiona Dunne for inviting the group to meet within the fantastic new facilities on site. The day began with holding the Club meeting under a traditional-style marquee on the farm's function field area, where Fiona's daughter Clara runs a popular wedding and party booking business, and continued inside for lunch in the space usually reserved for workshops, food pop-ups, and fitness classes! The site also boasts an impressive new farm shop and café, showcasing the Traditional Hereford beef direct from Fiona's herd, plus a huge range of other foods from cupboard staples to treats and gifts, where a tremendous amount of work has gone into sourcing the right products from the right suppliers, all within East Anglia.

The cattle raised here are all Original Population Herefords, with Fiona's two main points of focus being to rear easily managed, low-input cattle to produce the finest beef for the retail business, whilst at the same time trying to preserve and proliferate some of the rarer female families of the breed. In 2023 Fiona purchased the cow Bredenbury Lively, one of only two remaining Original Population female descendants of the Lively family in the UK. Fiona has since been trying to preserve those rare genetics by conducting OPU (Ovum Pick-Up, a technique used in reproductive technology to collect eggs for IVF and embryo transfer) as well as running her with a bull, and it was great to see the product of that mating on the ground in the absolutely superb 2024-born heifer Willow Grange Lively, sired by Rhydri Fergus.

Willow Grange Lively at 12 months old

This heifer calf marks a success not only in terms of increasing numbers of rare females, but also in the production of another truly top-quality example of the breed, and now in it's tenth year since being established, Fiona's herd holds some outstanding Hereford cattle being run exactly as the breed were intended; thriving on marginal grassland to produce the finest beef for the consumer.

To read more about the important genetics being monitored and supported by members of the THBC, click here: https://bit.ly/4lxCB6V

GALLERY