Breeds
Gloucestershire Old Spots
Our main breed of pig. This is reasonably large pig which produces excellent bacon and pork with crackling to die for. It is very good natured and is very hardy.
All the pigs spend there days roaming and rummaging and of course sleeping in large outdoor pens. We have 2 house boars. They live in a family group each with several females all out doors. The females come in when they are due to farrow, they could stay out but it is easier for us to keep an eye on them as they tend to have there young at the most awkward of hours. After 8 weeks they piglets are taken away and go to their own pens, again outdoors.
They feed off what they find in the ground and a wheat and barly mix that we have made specially.
It takes around 8-9months for them to grow to our ideal finishing weight.
Berkshire
The Berkshire is a relatively small breed, It has black hair, but dresses out white. We can make bacon, but it is on a smaller scale to the Old Spots, the pork is where the Berkshire excels. Its moist light flavour underneath a superb crackling is what roasts are all about.
These little pigs are perfect for the small holder they finish slightly quicker than some traditional breeds. Their size means that the pork produced won’t completely swamp the families freezer.
With this in mind we always try and keep some livestock for sale to the small holder or amateur pig keeper.
Shetland Sheep
A hardy native breed of Scotland, known more for its wool than its meat. It’s a lightweight breed full of character and very easy to work with. Every one of our ewes has a name, every one is instantly recognisable with distinctive colours and markings that are described in the traditional dialect of Shetland. Descriptions like Katmoget, Gulmoget, and Yuglet , describe these patterns. They are wonderful mothers and produce good strong lambs.
The lamb is delicious and tender, with a flavour of its own. The smaller cuts, on these lightweight lambs, are always popular.
Shetlands are known for there wool, which is available for sale. We are currently trying to produce our own fleeces, but as usual we are battling against red tape and the EU, but I am sure fleeces will be available soon.
Castlemilk Moorit Sheep
Another native breed of Scotland, originally bred on the Castlemilk Estate Lockerbie. They are wild tempered things that run like deer and cause us all sorts of problems. Their striking appearance and adorable lambs make it worth while, not to mention the meat. This is best taken again as hoggs and as we don’t have many they are all kept as hoggs, this produces a strongly flavoured dark meat, which is lean.
Castlemilks are about as rare a sheep as you will find, and you can understand why when you work with them for a while.
Dexter Cattle
We now have a reasonable number of Dexter cattle. They are a hardy, native breed of the UK. They are in fact a miniature breed – of course, they don’t realise this and are the noisiest, feistiest beasts you can imagine but they are great characters and a pleasure to work with. They are totally grass fed so are naturally high in omega 3. Best of all, the beef is quite simply the best beef you have ever tasted – the strongest beef flavour we have ever come across. I really cant say enough about these little wonders!!
All the cows are pedigree and the new bull, DeeJay, is settling in. If you want something different then give it a try.
Recently featured on The Great British Menu on BBC2, they agreed it was outstanding.
Rose Veal
Not really a breed but a system of rearing. We take the unwanted and under used bull calves from dairy units. We rear them on milk for 12 weeks, then wean them fully to cereal and grass. We keep them until they reach 8 month old. They are always kept in groups and during the summer months outside. In the winter they are in our barns, bedded on straw and in plenty of space. We use a mixture of Fresian and Ayrshire calves, depending on what we can get.
They are then used as our free range veal.
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