GETTING started in the agricultural industry can be a daunting task as well as a very expensive one but thanks to the easy management of one of Scotland’s newest native breeds and a spot of luck when it comes to securing a farm, Dave and Annabel Stanners are certainly paving the way.
Having always wanted to be a farmer since he was just a young lad growing up in the suburbs of Newcastle, Dave managed to secure a stock managers job before taking on the contract farming agreement at Knowsley Park, Prescot, back in 2008. It was the following year, while still at Knowsley, that the husband and wife duo purchased the founding stock for their Tynedale Luing herd when they returned from the society sale at Castle Douglas with five in-calf heifers and a few bulling heifers from the Rockcliffe, Benhar and Floors herds, together with a stock bull from Attonburn.
“We went to the sale to try and buy the best we could, but we wanted 20 and that’s all we could afford!” Dave joked about their initial purchases.
“When at Knowsley Park, we didn’t have any facilities to house the cattle so needed something that could be out-wintered but would also do the job. We’d admired the breed for a while and already knew they’re nice and quiet and easy to work with,” he added.
Some of the bulling heifers for Castle Douglas
The duo slowly built up herd numbers and developed their own flock of 250 Lanark and Hexham-type Blackface ewes before they took on the tenancy at Low Chesterhope, on the outskirts of the village of West Woodburn, near Hexham, on October 7 and moved in just before Christmas – no mean feat with two young children, Isabel, seven, and two-year-old Finlay.
With them they brought 75 in-calf Luing females, as well as the previous year’s calves and those Blackface ewes to the 600 acres of Low Chesterhope, of which 200 acres is fell and rough grazing rising to 1000 feet above sea level while a further 100 acres is suitable for making silage. They have since bought the stock ewes from Low Chesterhope so that the now 400-head Blackie flock will be put to the Bluefaced Leicester to breed Mules and the 300-strong flock of Mules will be covered by a Texel, all with the hope of producing strong breeding stock for sale.
As with any new farm unit, the Stanners have a lot they want to achieve but if it wasn’t for the ease of management of the Luing breed they likely wouldn’t have been able to make those first steps to farming on their own.
A portion of the herd has enjoyed a winter inside
“They cows all handled the move in their stride, coming from grazing at sea level to grazing on the fell,” said Dave. “We hope to out-winter most of the herd, at the moment there’s around 36 on the fell receiving mineral blocks as well as the sale heifers, while a group of in-calf heifers and older cows are inside. They’re calved in late February/early March so that it frees us up for lambing, and means that when the spring grass comes through in May the calves are ready for it.”
Once calved, cows receive 2kg-3kg cow rolls and silage as Dave believes it’s good to start feeding the cows while the calves are young so that they get used to it before they’re brought inside at weaning time. During their first winter inside, the calves are pushed fairly hard with 4.5kg rolls and ad-lib silage so that the heifers grow enough to be put to the bull and the bullocks get a good head start for finishing. The aim here is for calves to gain 1kg per day so that they’re finished quicker.
These calves are pushed to gain 1kg per day
“We first started calving our heifers as three-year-olds but they grew ridiculously big so we now calve them down at two as the smaller cows still have that genetic potential and calve away no bother,” pointed out Dave.
There are currently three stock bulls at Low Chesterhope – the Benhar Murray-sired Benhar Panther and the College Kracker-sired Benhar Pheonix, both of which were bought privately, while the Benhar Lennox son, Finlarg Robroy, was bought at Castle Douglas for 8500gns. But the first bull to join the Tynedale herd back in 2009 was Attonburn Jackpot, a Benhar Commando son that really put his stamp on the females.
Dave explained: “We want a medium-sized cow that is very correct with great feet and he delivered just that. He had a great temperament and conformation too as at the end of the day, even though the Luing is a maternal breed, we are selling beef so want to breed for a 350kg carcase.”
And breeding for that carcase weight they are, as at Knowsley the pair finished bullocks at 19 to 20 months of age which killed at 350kg deadweight at a 55-56% kill out percentage. What’s more is the fact that 90% of these achieved an R grade. This year Dave and Annabel sold a batch of the same age as stores to JC Dunning, of the Tebay Services in the Lake District, as the group is looking to secure native cattle to sell through its butchery department. The latest word from Mary Houston, head of food quality for the group, is that ‘farmer, butcher and board room all extremely satisfied’, which just goes to show the eating quality of the Luing breed.
With a recent move under their belt and plans to develop the housing and fields at the Low Chesterhope site during the next few years it’s certainly going to be a busy time ahead for Dave and Annabel, particularly with Dave taking on the role of society chairman at the agm next week.
“I’m really looking forward to it as it’s easy to promote something you believe in and we’ve got a great group of people within the breed that feels the same,” he said. “We were down at the Royal Welsh Show last year and, being the only society to have cattle on the stand, we gained a lot of interest. Some people got a shock at how commercial the breed is as many still think of the Luing as a Highland crossed with a Shorthorn, but the breed is 50 years old now and there’s a lot of water under the bridge.
Stylish heifers heading to Castle Douglas
“You’re guaranteed good health with a Luing too as every member is part of a high health scheme and every bull’s dam is classified – for feet, udder, locomotion, teats, temperament, condition score and skeletal size – as we believe in getting the suckler cow right so that the bulls follow suit. Every bull must be an improver or it cannot be sold at a society sale.”
As for the Tynedale entry at the sale on Friday, February 10, you can expect 15 bulling heifers, all by the Jackpot, Panther and Pheonix bulls, which will hope to compare favourably against last year’s entry which secured the bulling heifer championship as well as the third best average on the day of £1488 for 12, in just the couple’s second year of selling at Castle Douglas.
“We are first generation farmers so had no preconceived notions from our parents or hand-me-downs to get us started. We’re looking at a real way of working to make our own decisions and the Luing ticks all the boxes,” Dave concluded.
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