Improving the nutritional and environmental condition of vegetation on hill land can be achieved while also increasing agricultural production from the same upland areas.

Brothers Brendan and Barry Douglas have managed to do this on their hill farm near Castlederg, Co Tyrone, by re-thinking what livestock they carry on their land.

Brendan and Barry farm 900 acres of mostly mountain ground and have a share in a further 500 acres of commonage. Up until 2010, only sheep were kept on the farm in a traditional hill farm system with Blackface and Cheviot breeds used.

Although these sheep are bred for upland conditions, the Douglas brothers found that vegetation on many areas of their hill were not being properly grazed and were becoming overgrown, which subsequently led to even less grazing being available.

Brendan looked into various breeds of cattle, which could be used to graze parts of the hill that sheep were not making best use of. The first cattle arrived on the farm eight years ago and, after beginning with a few Belted Galloway cows, the brothers now run a herd of 60 Galloway cows.

The herd is pedigree registered and some male progeny are sold as breeding bulls, but most are finished on the farm as steers.

Brendan said that the Galloway steers are usually slaughtered at around 620kg to 630kg liveweight and produce a 320kg to 330kg carcase, so a typical kill-out of around 52%.

The final carcase weight is higher than with the Belted Galloways, which tended to get overfat at these higher weights, said Brendan.

Low input

The Douglas brothers run all their cattle on a low-input system with all stock grazing on the hill ground. A finishing ration is usually introduced around eight to 12 weeks before slaughter and steers are finished between 24 to 30 months of age.

Female progeny are either retained on the farm or sold as replacement heifers to other farmers. Brendan said that most of the herd originated from Scotland, and some in-calf heifers are still sourced from farms there.

The Galloway cows on the farm are typically 500kg to 550kg mature weight and the herd calves down in two blocks, with around 30 calving down in the spring and another 30 in the autumn.

The Douglas brothers sell their finished steers to a local butcher, so calving in two blocks allows for a steadier supply.

The other benefit of the autumn-calving herd is that the cattle do not need to be housed during the winter. The spring-calving group is usually only housed in late January and go back to the hill in mid-March after calving. Baled silage is fed as a supplement to cattle in round feeders and feeding trailers, in dry areas of the hill from mid-November.

The Douglas brothers said that the Galloway cattle are able to graze mountain grasses, heather, sedges and soft rushes throughout the year. During the winter, cattle will also eat white grasses and harder rushes.

There are some areas of the hill block that can be cut for silage, as well as a several fields around the farmyard. These areas are generally used for making baled silage and for finishing lambs.

The ability to out winter the Galloway cattle on the hill means that the Douglas brothers did not require a significant investment in winter housing when they diversified into suckler beef.

All sheds on the farm have solid floors, and the spring calving group are on straw bedding when housed.

Blue Grey

Brendan and Barry have recently started crossing around 20 of their Galloway cows to a Whitebred Shorthorn bull. The Whitebred Shorthorn is a separate breed from both the Beef Shorthorn and Dairy Shorthorn, and crossing with Galloway cows produces the traditional Blue Grey.

These cattle are bred for their maternal traits and Blue Grey cows suit suckler systems on marginal or lowland farms where they can be crossed to terminal sires.

Barry said that this breeding system mirrors the traditional sheep system where Blackface and Cheviot sheep on the hills were crossed with Leicester and Suffolk rams to produce maternal sheep for lowland farms.

Vegetation

Grazing by the cattle, along with a limited amount of mulching in some areas, has significantly improved the nutritional quality of vegetation on their hill in recent years. The regrowth from vegetation that has been grazed off by the cattle is also much more palatable for sheep, which has meant ewe numbers have not had to reduce as cattle were brought onto the farm.

The Douglas brothers run 150 Cheviot ewes with 100 of these crossed to Suffolk rams and the remaining 50-bred back to the Cheviot ram for replacements.

There are another 300 Blackface Lanark type ewes on the farm that are all bred pure.

Promoting Galloways and hill farming

The Douglas brothers believe there is potential for beef from cattle grazed on mountain ground to be marketed as a healthy and environmentally friendly product to consumers.

“It has been shown that beef from hill grazed cattle is high in omega 3 and 6 and has the same health benefits as eating salmon.

‘‘Galloway beef has good eating quality and a high percentage of marbling. Upland grazing cattle are maintaining the hill areas for biodiversity and carbon storage,” Brendan said.

The brothers maintain that the right marketing and supply chain development could deliver a premium for hill-grazed cattle which could be an incentive for more hill farmers to get cattle onto the uplands.

Brendan and Barry are active members of the Galloway Cattle Society and are taking a pedigree cow and calf to the society’s stand at Tullamore Show later this month to promote the breed.

“A standard suckler cow would be no use on our hill ground.

‘‘With the lack of shelter and the quality of grazing available it would simply not have worked. It takes a hardy breed to do a good job on the mountain,” Brendan said.

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