Mixbury Hall Farm Feature

NOTHING TO BEAT SIMMENTALS FOR

‘PRODUCTIVITY AND MATERNAL’ TRAITS

AT MIXBURY HALL, NORTHANTS

Here we profile the high-quality 70 cow pedigree Mixbury Hall Simmental herd of father and son team Vernon and Jon Bailey, Mixbury Hall Farm, Brackley, Northants

Pedigree Simmental cattle are proving a winning formula for the Baileys from Northamptonshire, with the family firm believers that they are a stand-out breed, offering high growth rates, good temperament and plenty of milk.

Father and son team Vernon and Jon Bailey, farm 530 acres at Mixbury Hall, near Brackley, in Northamptonshire, and run a mixed farming enterprise of 70 pedigree cows, 550 Lleyn ewes and grow wheat, barley and oats for market and home use.

The family first introduced the Simmental on a commercial basis in 1989 when they purchased their first Simmental bull, closely followed by two pedigree females Sacombe Felicity-Parine from Bridget Borlase, and also Marlborough Telli 8, at the Marlborough herd dispersal.

We instantly saw the benefits of the Simmental breed in our previous herd of commercial cows and could see there was nothing to beat them for productivity and maternal traits,” said Vernon. The breed’s temperament was another big attraction for us as the cows are so docile and easy to work with.”

Jon added: “Our aim is to produce a hardworking, medium sized cow as the very large cows are not that well suited in the dry summers we can experience in our part of the world. It’s certainly a balancing act on how to breed them though as the small sized cows obviously don’t produce the size of cattle we require.”

Over the past three decades, the family has maintained a strict culling policy, particularly with performance, as any females which do not produce a quality calf each year are culled from the herd, meaning only the best, most productive and reliable cow lines remain.

This has certainly paved the way for the Baileys as the Mixbury Hall herd now includes consistency, with most of the females stretching back to the first two foundation females.

“We run a closed herd of spring calving cows and only buy in stock bulls either privately off farm or at Stirling Bull Sales,” commented Jon, adding that they haven’t bought in any females for over 20 years.

“All females start the breeding programme at two years of age, a policy which we have followed for the past 32 years. We know calving that little bit later at 2.5 years would be ideal but because we are only calving in February and March, we don’t have the option of keeping autumn-born heifers as replacements. We feel calving at two years does benefit the animal from a maternal aspect and of course the profit of the business.”

Each year, 10 to 12 heifers are kept as replacements to keep family lines going, with the remaining heifers sold to other breeders. Last year’s batch sold privately to Scotland, Yorkshire and Cornwall, after them being advertised on Facebook. Vernon and Jon have also built up a market for pedigree bulls, selling 95% of them from home to commercial and pedigree producers, with many repeat customers coming back time and time again.

They keep 15 young bulls entire each year to sell at 15 to 17-monthsold and any of these bulls not suitable for breeding are finished and sold direct to the slaughterhouse, likewise with the cull cows which regularly make good prices. The remaining male calves are sold as yearlings through the local Thame market in February, where they regularly average £1150.

At the beginning of January, the 2021 crop of steers topped at 520kg at 10 to 11-months-old and the heifers at 500kg, while the heaviest bull came in at 600kg.

The herd comes inside at the end of October/beginning of November when the calves are weaned and introduced to a mixture of good quality ad lib silage and a home mix of barley, oats and concentrates pellets.

This is the beauty of the Simmental breed – you get a good weight for age,” said Jon. “The cows are easily kept over the winter too and receive good quality ad lib silage.”

In recent years, top stock bulls have been purchased from leading herds, including the most recent one Grangewood Kingpin, bought for 8000gns at Stirling in February, 2021. Kingpin is a son of Grangewood Baron, which stood junior champion at Stirling in 2012.

Other bulls that have produced the bedrock of the herd include Tilbrook Keystone and Mixbury Hall Magnus, both sired by Salisbury Challenger, as well as Mixbury Hall Vibrant, sired by Starline Klassik, which was kept for eight years and produced the best of milky cows. Tilbrook Viscount, Sundial Paul, Astcote Cruiser, Mixbury Hall Grandeur (sired by Bel Dhu Capercaillie) and Curzon Giovanni (by Sacombe Excel, out of Revelex Majenz dam line) have also made a stamp.

“When purchasing a new bull, we want the animal to be very correct, with good confirmation, locomotion, an upstanding presence and well-balanced with plenty of length,” said Jon.

“We then make sure the bulls breeding will compliment the breeding of our cows and we do consider EBVS, particularly plus milk figures, 400-day growth and a bull good on calving at minus 4 to plus 4 is the range we like to keep within ideally.”

At present, the family has a group of young bulls which they believe is the best crop bred to date. They are all showing great potential and are sons of Tilbrook Frank (overall Male Champion of the Society’s 2021 Virtual Show) Sacombe Icarus (an Islavale Fagan son, out of a Clonagh World Class daughter), and Mixbury Hall Grandeur.

Both Vernon and Jon commented that Tilbrook Frank’s progeny has superb style and quality, with the retained daughters boasting milk quantity and good mothering instincts.

The health status of the herd has always remained vitally important, being BVD and IBR accredited, Johnes Level 1 and Lepto vaccinated.

With this in mind, showing has very much been kept to a minimum for the herd although Vernon and Jon do see the benefits of getting cattle into the show ring for advertising purposes. The Baileys did enjoy a snippet of showing success in 2018 however, when they stood reserve female champion in the May at Worcester with Mixbury Hall Ida.

Looking to the future, it’s clear to see just how well thought of the Simmental breed is at Mixbury Hall, and there is no doubting that it’s here to stay for many years ahead.