The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: Cowgirl on September 05, 2013, 10:14:11 pm
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My husband and I have a small farm which we bought in 2004, but I think we are more smallholders than farmers really, as we have other jobs. We have a small herd of rare breed cattle (Traditional Herefords) as well as horses and chickens.
I'd love to know if there are any other Traditional Hereford breeders out there in Scotland - I think we may be the only ones.
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Hello and welcome from arbroath :wave:
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Hello and welcome from Carnoustie :wave:
Loved the Traditional Herefords when I saw them in Wales. We have Shetlands :)
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Hello and welcome from Carmarthenshire :wave:
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Hello and welcome to TAS from me in Lesmahagow :wave:
I'm sure there's a chap near Lanark who breeds Herefords, think his surname is Patterson :thinking: I'll see if I can find out more details for you.
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Hola from North Ayrshire..... :wave:
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Hello!
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Thank you those who've replied - I'm amazed that there are members on this forum from all over the UK and further afield!
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Hello and welcome from the bigchicken living up in Five. Love Hereford cattle I remember they used to be used on the Ayrshire cow on some of the farms my father worked on. Know your part of the country well used to work out of Ayr. How did you get into Hereford cattle.
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How did we get into Herefords? Initially we were a bit scared of getting into livestock but the farm seemed dead without them. We had no experience of keeping sheep but we thought if we could handle horses, we could probably cope with cows. Most farmers round us have continental cattle, especially Limousins, but my only experience of them was them showjumping over hedges and being really aggressive at calving - I suppose they're not all like that but I wasn't prepared to risk it! Angus were too expensive. I had always liked Herefords but modern commercial Herefords were nothing like what I remembered from my youth - absolutely HUGE. Then we thought of rare breeds and considered several breeds. Then we discovered that Traditional Herefords were just like I remembered them AND a rare breed! Ta-dah! BUT there weren't any in Scotland and most were in high TB areas - ours came from Berkshire. The breeder was a real enthusiast, downsizing because his wife is poorly. We went to see them and they were so sweet natured. We bought 2 in calf cows and three yearling heifers - now we have 10 altogether and more calves due in the spring!
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berkshire to southern ayrshire is a bit of a trek for all those lovely coo's do you have a bull or is it all AI?
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berkshire to southern ayrshire is a bit of a trek for all those lovely coo's do you have a bull or is it all AI?
Yes it was, but we had no choice.
We have a young bull now but mostly have used AI - want to carry on using a mixture. It was hopeless trying to observe the cows bulling (Herefords are very secretive) so we use a hormone protocol. Semen is from Rare Breed Survival Trust.
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Hello from Banff :wave:
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:wave: and welcome from sunny Shropshire. I have friends in Arran who have a Hereford bull.
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Hello from Dumfries! :wave:
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Nice to hear about the Traditional Herefords.
Are you coming to the Scottish Smallholder and Grower Festival?
Maybe next year, you could bring some cattle and let folk see them :thumbsup: In fact you COULD bring them this year :eyelashes:
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Thanks again to all those saying hello!
Rosemary I wanted to come to the smallholders festival but was gutted to find it was the same weekend as I have to go down south for work, and the trouble is I do the same thing at the same time every year!
The other thing that worries me about taking the cattle anywhere is that we are SRUC PCHS members and probably would have to vaccinate and quarantine them? I don't know how that works - I know lots of people show their cattle and are still in a health scheme, but they are taking a risk surely? What do you do?
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We just keep our fingers crossed :)
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Hi Jim here try SAC at Ayr they may be able to tell you who has a heard neer you
Jim Watson