Wales: Beef Shorthorn expanding its presence

Beef Shorthorn, expanding its presence in Wales

We travelled to Ceredigion to meet Keith Jones who is amongst a growing number of Welsh commercial producers who are swapping their Continental cross suckler herds for Beef Shorthorn.

“For us it’s all about low input farming, making the most from grazed grass and forage, keeping things simple and developing a system for the future, explains Keith Jones who has found in Beef Shorthorn the perfect fit for a modern function suckler cow. “So much so, we are currently in the process of building a purebred Beef Shorthorn herd at the expense of our Continental crosses, and we’re about half way there,” he says.

Why the turn around? “For starters, the cows and heifers have a lot more milk and I firmly believe if you have the milk, then you can work on the rest with a terminal sire. However, if you have no milk, then you have no calf. Milk is more important than shape.

“Next, Beef Shorthorns have a great temperament, they’re a lot quieter, so easy to handle which is increasingly important to us as we get older,” says Keith who manages the Talgarreg, Llandysul based unit with his partner, Helen.

“Furthermore, compared to the Continental cross cows, they eat noticeably less; they thrive on pure forage diets and an annual mineral bolus and they’re fertile; more than 75% of the herd is calving within the first cycle, and the remainder within a six-week period which coincides with lambing; we prefer it that way, flat out.

“Cows and heifers consistently calve close to their scheduled date and whilst relatively easy to calve, we don’t have to worry about the calves, they’re up and sucking within minutes, and their dams look after them.

“We’re also pleased with these calves which grow well on pure milk and grass diets. We wean at 10 months at an average

Fact FILE

33 pedigree Beef Shorthorn cows, heifers and replacements

14 Continental cross cows

300 breeding ewes and followers, Continental cross and native mix

77ha grassland, all in bye

Keith Jones

360kg, introduce forage and minimal supplementary feed and sell through the ring two to four months later at an average 490kg invariably to repeat buyers. They’re achieving prices that match if not exceeding their Continental cross counterparts. In the last two to three years, we’ve seen an increasing demand for Beef Shorthorn sired calves in the marketplace; trade partly driven by Morrisons Shorthorn Beef Scheme, and partly by finishers becoming more and more aware they finish well and actually weigh more than they appear to.”

Turn the clock back over 10 years ago and Keith used to buy in replacement Continental cross cows with calves at foot. “They were getting more and more expensive to source, they didn’t have enough milk and we were having to give the calves supplementary feed. The entire herd was put to a Continental sire and the calf crop kept for up to 20 months.

“Initially we swapped the Continental bull for a Beef Shorthorn to grade up the herd, however as our confidence grew in the native breed, we decided to go pure and retain selected heifers for replacement purposes and build our Cetris herd,” he explains. “My selection priorities are zero Myostatin, positive calving ease EBV, followed by one that looks modern to the eye, square and with length.”

Homebred replacements have been supplemented with purchases, and heifers from Glenisla, Plynlimon and Sandwick are amongst Keith’s latest investments in 2021. “I would prefer to invest in livestock than machinery and equipment, simply because they have the potential to bring monetary returns, and eventually we plan to sell added value breeding stock.”

The native breed’s benefits extend beyond the Talgarreg farm gate. “We’ve met so many interesting new people who farm Beef Shorthorns, we’ve learnt a lot about the breed and different ways of farming, and we’ve picked up the odd new tip - we’re never too old to learn,” he says adding: “I believe you have to enjoy your work, and we certainly do.”