The lovely weather of the day before, when
I visited Delfur had changed as it does, to mist and drizzle.
As my mum would say “the kind of rain that gets you
wet!” I set off to Michael Durno’s farm at Auchorachan
in the Glenlivet Glen, Ballindalloch and overlooking the
beautiful Glenlivet Distillary. What a wonderful place to
live. The scenery is spectacular! So, I was to find out,
were the cattle.
I knew Michael previously only by reputation
for producing outstanding stock and was to leave even more
impressed than when I arrived. Our first stop was to look
at the “show calves” for the forthcoming sale
at Thainstone, which went on to sell to a top price of £1500.
From there we walked up the field to look at some of the
150 mostly Simmental x cows which help populate the 2800
acre farm together with 500 Blackie ewes 400 of which are
bred pure with the rest being put to the Charollais.
The
Charollais prime lambs are usually all away by Christmas
with the Blackface lambs finished by the end of March. The
cast ewes being sold with mule lambs at foot in May. The
farm sits at around 850 ft and rises to 1150ft with 2200
acres of heather hill, which was blooming when I arrived.
Michael’s grandfather came to Auchorachan in 1953 and
I could see why the family have stayed since although I wasn’t
standing on the hill in the middle of the winter!
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| Typical Cow and Calf at Auchorachan |
Simmentals
have been kept since their early introduction to the UK in
the 1970s, shortly after the first Charolais arrived. Prior
to that the sucklers were mainly Hereford X and Angus X Friesian
which at that time together with the Blue Grey cow would
be the main type of suckler cow on the North of Scotland.
The first thing that struck me about the
September born calves which we saw first, was the back end
conformation on both the Simmental and Charolais cross calves
all bar a few of which were out of Simmental Cross cows.
They were nearly a year old and would be due to go for finishing
in mid September and I could clearly see how the same buyers
bought them every year for their consistent quality and uniformity “We
like to use a darker coloured bull here.” explains
Michael.
“I’ve always thought that the darker
cows milk better and tend to be a bit hardier”. “We
usually get a good trade in the back end selling into the
Aberdeenshire finishing farms, but they like the Charolais
X calves to be that dark yellow colour which is the tell
tale sign that the dam is a Simmental X which assures them
of the growth potential of the calves. While 45 of the cows
are spring calving, all of the heifers calve in the back
end. Ideally I would like the heifers to be 30 months old
at calving but we still calve about half at 2 years old.
Normally the replacement heifers are all homebred with the
odd one or two purchases to supplement numbers.
Great care
is taken with bought in animals as the herd is in the Hi-Health,
health scheme and is accredited for BVD. Finding replacements
has become a problem in this area with Simmental cross heifers
with calves at foot often averaging around £1300 locally
for fairly average beasts. Almost all of the farms in the
Glen are now trying to breed their own replacements, to cut
costs and ensure they get the quality they are after as well
as the health benefits of keeping their own.
The winter here
is severe and the ground heavy, so with the exception of
the spring calvers which are brought in about two weeks before
calving, it is not practical to winter the cattle out doors.
The current heifers are by Hockenhull Mohawk, who appeared
to have very poor milking figures, which concerned Michael
as his progeny appear to be milking very well. Many of the
cows in the herd are by Brinkton Brilliant and they were
also showing excellent milking ability and were suckling
calves by Woodhall Prowler. Michael was also waiting for
calves from his own home bred bull, by Mohawk, who had an
exceptional carcase and outstanding general conformation,
including very good legs. He was currently sharing a field
with wife Morag’s show horses and it was obvious that
Michael’s was not the only eye for good stock on the
farm!
“I always look at the breed lines before buying
a bull,” says Michael “I believe it is better
to have some knowledge of lines within the breed than to
go by figures. In theory EBVs should be a useful tool for
commercial men but they need to be more accurate. Calving
figures are important, but farmer weighing needs to be authenticated
to add accuracy and credibility. The way the milk figure
is arrived at through weights doesn’t make sense to
me though I find that the Simmentals tend to milk well regardless
of their milk figures Mohawk has proved this, being –8
on the previous system and has greatly improved milking ability.” The
cows we have here tend to last for a very long time if we
can keep them clear of mastitis which can be a problem due
to the number of forestry shelter belts around the farm.”
Looking
at the cows in the fields they struck me as being good sized
cows and I questioned Michael on the age old perceived problem
that “the Simmental Cross cow just got too big” he
laughed and said that there is one shed on the farm where
a tractor can’t get in and where the cows are wintered.
Apparently it takes the same number of barrows to feed the
same number of cattle in that shed as it did in the 1960’s
when the stock were black Herefords!
The farm grows 25 acres
of its own feeding barley and the back end calves are fed
six weeks before sale on a mix of dark grains, sugar beet
and barley. One cut of 140 acres of silage is taken and good
use is made of the draff available from the local distillery
which I could smell in the air as it wafted across the hill
from only a mile away. While I was sadly, never to venture
inside the Glenlivet Distillery, we wandered through the
fields next to it where there was a mixture of cows of various
breeds and calves that were obviously potential show animals
of the future. Although some of the cows had Belgian Blue
or Limousin Sires and the calves were mostly Charolais, Michael
was quick to point out that all of the cows had Simmental
mothers and that’s where the ability to grow and milk
had come from.
As I stood looking at these outstanding animals
I would have like to have shown the sceptics that the Simmental
is a good base for everything whether a sound suckler cow,
a terminal sire for fast growing steers and heifers or the
grand dam of some of the best show calves in the country.
Either way it was great to spend a day with someone who takes
a real pride in breeding good stock for whatever reason and
pays attention to detail to ensure he produces not only what
he wants but what the market needs in all areas. |
