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At Keer Falls we keep a small suckler herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle. A suckler is a cow that is allowed to rear its own calf. Nearly all our cows have been bred by us and have lived their entire lives here. Each year we sell a few heifer calves and all the steers. Only the bull and replacement calves if a cow loses her calf, are bought in and we go to great lengths to make sure that any bought in cattle are from bTB free herds. With Eric, our bull, we went out of our way to buy him directly from his breeder. Eric was born in Lancashire on a clean holding and has only ever been on that holding and this one. He is from the renown Roundtree herd and we paid £3,500 for him.
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Calves stay with their mothers until big enough to wean.
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Cows with their calves at foot grazing up near Docker Moor
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Typical man, Eric seems to think that all it takes is one mud pack and all the girls will fall for him, the trouble is, they do!
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Our herd is an established family and it's great to see them free to roam the farm all summer
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Our herd is an established family and it's great to see them free to roam the farm all summer, although we have to house them in the winter or the ground gets too ploughed up. The cows get a diet of grass or hay all year around and the calves get their mother's milk, grass and ad-lib creep feed so that they get onto solids as soon as possible.
Because the herd is all mother and daughter or sisters they all have blood lines going back to our first cows, the most productive of whom was 260. She had more female calves than all the others and they and their daughters make up the majority of the herd these days. 260 and all her daughters share one unusual behaviour, they are all good mothers and will easily adopt other calves. This is a useful trait sometimes and more than once I have had cause to be grateful for it.
Below is a picture of 39 with an adopted Holstein Friesian calf adopted on to her after she lost twins prematurely this year. She took this calf relatively easily and looks after it as if it were her own
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The calves seem to spend most of their time playing in a creche with one cow watching over them
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39 with her adopted Holstein Friesian calf
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