To beef or not to beef?
- Alistair
- May 17
- 5 min read
Updated: May 17
That is the question
The Cefn Garthenor Galloways are very happy at the moment … as Robert, my farming neighbour, pointed out, they have hit the sweet spot whereby the grass is finally growing as fast as they can eat it. Winter is well behind us and grazing is just much easier.
As you may recall, the cattle are on the land to do a job. Without any large herbivores, the land would turn into woodland pretty quickly. We already have trees sprouting up left, right and centre. Good for carbon capture and also for nature, but for biodiversity we need a mixture of habitats, and by munching, trampling and browsing their way around, the cattle keep things open, which allow for a greater range of flora and fauna. We will end up with more trees than when we started, but also with areas of woodland meadow and scrubby places. In a word, diversity.
The secret is to get the right number of animals on the land, but that is not an exact science. The weather impacts plant growth, including grass and all the other things the cattle forage on. What is sustainable one year may not be the next year, and I really did not want to get into supplementary feeding. We started with 10 Galloways back in 2021, which (with advice) I thought the land would easily support for year-round outdoor grazing.
Year round, outdoor grazing is now very rare. Most herds spend at least the winter months in a barn. This is generally 4 or 5 months inside for beef herds and longer still for dairy herds. Why? Well, getting the cattle in for the winter allows you to breed for things other than hardiness, such as either rapid growth (for beef) or milk production (for dairy), and means you can have more cattle as you are not limited by the fact that grass grows very slowly, if at all, in the winter months. Arguably you can keep a better eye on their health, although it is equally easy to question how healthy conditions are in the barn. I won’t get into that here. Obviously, in the barn the cattle must be fed, perhaps partly from hay and sileage harvested in the summer (on your own farm or elsewhere), other forage crops (say kale, turnips, sugar beet), grains and feed pellets (mixes of soya, grains etc). In intensive systems, much of that food input will be imported.
Galloways were chosen as the are hardy, so happy to be out in all weathers, small(ish) so easier to handle and open to trying things other than standard rye grass. The original herd comprised one older matriarch, Gussy, who was eight at the time, now 13, plus a bunch of nine heifers (meaning female cattle that have not calved), all coming up for two years old, now around six and seven. To allow for a mixed age and evolving herd, Sir Loin, a young bull, joined us in 2022. He served the ladies twice, providing two rounds of calving, but he had to go towards the end of 2023, before the second batch arrived, to ensure he did not impregnate his daughters from first time around.
Adding bull does complicate things, so given our purpose is not to generate the maximum number of calves, it is not something for every year. So, since the arrivals in 2024, we have given calving a rest, but we will need to introduce a bull over the coming years to keep the herd going. By next year, the younger cattle will be mature enough to deal a bull, so there would be no need to split the herd, removing one complication. And all, bar Gussy, are still likely to be fertile.
As a result of Sir Loin’s activities, every heifer became pregnant and calves were born (at which stage their mothers become cows). As the herd are out all year, on the daily visit to check them, you watch carefully for births, but it generally all happens without you. You have a good idea of timing; gestation is just over 9 months, and the bull is a quick worker, so within a month of getting together with the ladies his job is typically done. The pregnant cattle obviously get heavier, and their udders drop close to giving birth, so there are plenty of signs. Sadly, not all make it. We had a few still born or who died very soon after birth. We had one set of twins. But most were fine. However, the end result is that you end up with a bigger herd. We peaked at 22, which over winter seemed to be about the limit, especially given the young ones would be hungrier next year.
Given we don’t have large carnivores roaming the Welsh savanna, it is down to me to control numbers. We castrated the boys (you cannot risk them impregnating their half-sisters) and then, in terms of cutting numbers, those bullocks (castrated males) are the obvious ones to go … they have no breeding potential. So, beef they became. The boys had a good life, I think, but I did not want the end to be anymore stressful than necessary. The other consideration, to be honest, was that I wanted to get a decent price.
What are the options? A big farmer might have a contract with a supermarket. I did not have that. What I did have were grass fed, slow grown, old breed cattle. No chemical inputs, so we produce good, clean meat. There is a market for that, but how to reach it? If I had the time and we produced more, a meat box scheme selling to regular customers might be an option. But we are not there yet, and perhaps never will be. However, I have got to know a local small holder, Gwyn Jones, who runs a meat box scheme himself, selling local, outdoor grass-fed beef. He operates with the help of my local butcher, Dai Davies, in Tregaron. So, my boys went to Gwyn, who fattened them up for a month or two, and were then dispatched at the local abattoir in Tregaron before Dai butchered and packed them. We are very lucky to have an abattoir so close, just four miles away. Better for the animals and allows for this small-scale operation.
For environmental reasons, I have been cutting back on meat consumption. However, what I aim to do is make sure that what I do eat is excellent quality, locally produced and that the animals involved have had the best possible lives. I can honestly say that the 10 kilos I bought back from Gwyn is superb and that I feel very comfortable with the life the boys had. The herd is now 16 strong and thriving.
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