Gundog Training Forum

This morning I loaded up one of our Belted Galloway steers to go to the abattoir at Leintwardine. It is the first time we have had any cattle, but it was pleasing to bring on a healthy animal to 30 months which has been grass fed and lived out all year.
I've got 3 steers left which I'm looking at selling before we get into the depths of winter, but if not I'll keep through to the spring. Happily we were tested and TB clear two weeks ago.

This is just a hobby for me, I'm hopelessly inefficient and don't have a enough numbers to do it at scale, blow in grain, bulk buy hay etc etc. but I enjoy it. In time I'd like to increase the cattle, breed our own and graze them with our Herdwicks, moving them after 48 hours and resting the ground for 30+ days a time. If it all sounds familiar I've had some inspiration from James Rebanks (English Pastoral). It is interesting trying to restore the soil health here after 30+ years of over grazing! Technology in the shape of GPS necklaces and invisible geo fence lines are perhaps the answer, I'm following a couple of trials to see how newbies get on with it, but it must be an awful lot easier than rolling out electric fence on steep banks with scrub on!

All good fun.

Good for you. Keeping livestock can be very rewarding if your livelihood doesn’t depend upon it. And these older, slower growing breeds make for good eating so a real bonus. Never tasted Belted Galloway but if they’re anything like Dexter or Long Horns then your in for a real treat.

Naj

There is a biggish herd of belties somewhere near you that I see when fishing the Teme. Is that where you got them from? The problems of TB testing, complying with all the regulations and arranging slaughter puts a lot of people off keeping livestock of any type. We have a small slaughter house fairly near us where my neighbour sends his welsh black steers but regulations have closed almost all of them which doesn't do much for animal welfare in my view. It is a family joke that I am 007 Licence to keep a pig! I was going to have two to share with a neighbour but before we got started he was moved by his work. Two would be too many for one family and I suspect come killing day there would be tears in the house and pleas for a reprieve. Fortunately a friend also keeps pigs and I stock up from her.

Just read your post properly and I see they are going to the small slaughter house I mentioned!!!!!!!

That's it Nick, I got them from the Powells at Pard farm who have circa 550 Belties. They were into more commercial animals but lost the lot to foot and mouth and decided to follow their passion when rebuilding. Lovely people and great livestock. I'm just up the other side of the valley from the hillclimb. The Teme is handy for working on water retrieves down at Stamford Bridge, the gravel area is ideal.

We've done pigs before and I can say from experience there is never a shortage of people willing to help you out when the meat comes back! It is astounding how much meat you get from one animal, and sadly how little appetite /knowledge there is for using it all now. My grandmother would be horrified!

Griffiths are great, but they were shut last week due to Covid and now have a backlog in what is their busiest time of the year. I do like Leintwardine, we used to have breakfast in the Lion (?) by the bridge before a shoot day near there.

PRH wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:38 am That's it Nick, I got them from the Powells at Pard farm who have circa 550 Belties. They were into more commercial animals but lost the lot to foot and mouth and decided to follow their passion when rebuilding. Lovely people and great livestock. I'm just up the other side of the valley from the hillclimb. The Teme is handy for working on water retrieves down at Stamford Bridge, the gravel area is ideal.

We've done pigs before and I can say from experience there is never a shortage of people willing to help you out when the meat comes back! It is astounding how much meat you get from one animal, and sadly how little appetite /knowledge there is for using it all now. My grandmother would be horrified!

Griffiths are great, but they were shut last week due to Covid and now have a backlog in what is their busiest time of the year. I do like Leintwardine, we used to have breakfast in the Lion (?) by the bridge before a shoot day near there.

Part of my pup's education is in The Sun at Leintwardine, a very dog friendly hostelry , down the road opposite the Lion next to the chippy! I always enjoy seeing the belties, a big herd of them does look magnificent and suspect I know the gravel bit on the Teme well and have always thought it as an ideal spot for a bit of water work!

Lovely breed, Belties, they seem much more level headed than many of the continentals

They are. I did hand pick these because of their quiet nature, and got it mostly right - one is a proper bully, and thinks nothing of trying to walk right through you. The others have much better manners (relatively). We get a lot of walkers on the Worcestershire Way and people and dogs have to walk around the cows as the lay on the path.

I enjoyed that PRH. I have seen these belted cattle on hobby farms a few times but did not know what they were. Congratulations on keeping a rare breed thriving and your concern for your soil. I grew up on a cow/calf cattle (Herefords) farm and miss my connection to livestock. Although I do occasionally get a fix helping my neighbour with his herd of limousins.

As it happens this was is the time for fresh local red meat here as well. The first week in November is our deer season. We only have one species, whitetails. I have hunted this week with the same two friends for almost 30 years now. We use to go at it quite hard but now are much more relaxed about it. (Funny the results are about the same .) We took a buck each morning so our season was over Wednesday. We were in the woods pre-dawn each morning but got all our deer before 9:00am.

The first morning one of my friends got a monster, the biggest deer of his life. Unfortunately, we were not careful about how we photographed it and the pictures are a bit bloody for a public forum. The second morning I got this nice fellow and a similar one the next day.

https://i.imgur.com/n1432rm.jpg

I put over 120lbs of meat into the freezer yesterday. As I write this his tenderloins are marinating in red wine, garlic and fresh rosemary. They will hit a red hot grill for dinner tonight. 100% organic, Non-GMO, no antibiotics, no hormones other than what nature provided and harvested 15 minutes from my door. Life is good!

/\ brilliant! I worked with a chap based in Dayton, Ohio, who used to go bow hunting for a week or so each year and was absolutely obsessed with it- nothing would make him miss that time. He didn’t always have success in terms of meat, but he had a great time with his friends.

The price of venison here fell through the floor earlier this year but is I think starting to pick up. We have Muntjac deer here and take one every now and again for the freezer- absolutely stunning eating and a family favourite is venison bolognese!