Beef Shorthorn - a perfect fit for environmental schemes - for now and for the future
Cut Thorn Farm, Burnopfield, Newcastle upon Tyne
360 acres grassland
51 pedigree Beef Shorthorn cows and heifers, plus followers 300 ewes with all lambs finished off grass
Diversification: glamping and ‘farm to fork’ retail beef
Cutthorn cows and calves
We headed to the Beef Shorthorn’s native North East of England to meet with Alastair Gibson, a National Trust tenant on the Gibside Estate who is finding that his Cutthorn pedigree herd is conducive not only to an exemplary low input management system and the Higher Level Stewardship scheme, but also fitting with the farm’s diversification enterprises.
Profitability and sustainability go hand in hand for Alastair and Donna Gibson who say their diverse business is for both the now and the future.
Alistair and Donna Gibson
The Gibson’s livestock enterprise is supported by their farm diversification projects - tourism and retailing Shorthorn Beef direct from the farm gate. “Added together, they enhance our links to our landlord, the National Trust and its Gibside Estate.” The property is a 600-acre historic garden annually attracting over 300,000 visitors.
“Once intensively farmed, the land is now sympathetically and extensively managed to achieve a diverse environment for our livestock and to promote a rich and diverse flora and fauna,” explains Alastair who is the third generation of the family to farm Cut Thorn.
“We entered 150 acres in to the Higher Level Stewardship scheme back in 2013, and our livestock continue to help the National Trust’s conservation plan. The support, including a supplementary payment for stocking a pedigree native breed, is ploughed back in to the business as future investment. The Beef Shorthorn herd is a commercial enterprise rather than an interesting sideline and it has to wash its own face - our objective is to breed useful bulls for commercial producers and in-calf heifers to fellow pedigree breeders. Overall, the breed fits like a glove; it makes for an ideal modern functional suckler.
“We’ve found Beef Shorthorn to be such low input cattle, they cost very little to keep on pure forage diets; they make for great natural grazing animals on an extensive set stocking system, and overwinter on grass silage and mineral supplements. They literally calve themselves, the calves naturally get up and suck, and their dams make for good mothers, they want to look after their calves.
“Docility is another asset. Beef Shorthorn are quiet and easy to work; which makes life easier when I’m working on the farm singlehanded. Docility is also important when the public are around and about most of the time - the cattle simply ignore them; our seasonal glamping enterprise attracts up to 2,000 guests a year whilst thousands of National Trust visitors frequent the public footpaths which crisscross the farm.”
Cutthorn herd performance
700-800kg mature weight
100% calves reared in 2019
95% calved unassisted
90% calved within six weeks
Seven to eight month weaned (steers 340kg to 400kg, heifers 320kg to 380kg)
Calving from 24 months
10 calf crops
Alastair took over the tenancy from his father in 2007. “The cattle enterprise I inherited comprised 10 cows, four of which were Northern Dairy Shorthorns and one Beef Shorthorn bull. Time spent working away from home with large suckler herds demonstrated the problems that many commercial producers face. Poor fertility, lack of milk, calving problems, dangerous cows or poor doers are just some general issues tackled by modern day herds whilst a lot of these issues can be easily overcome by this native Beef Shorthorn breed.
“We began by grading up the Northern Dairy Shorthorns and made our first investment at the Annanwater dispersal in 2008; we purchased just one cow with calf at foot, which later became our stock bull, along with one maiden heifer which is still with us today. The Haliburton herd was next to join us, we bought five cows and their progeny from the previous two seasons.
Beef Shorthorn look after their calves and make great mothers
Cutthorn Gabby with the herd’s next generation
“The herd has virtually been closed since those initial purchases, apart from introducing new stock bulls and the occasional heifer. Each year sees a growth in the number of cows calved, along with pleasing performance traits which are proving to be successful; 2017 saw 37 cows calved, whilst in 2019, the herd expanded to 51 cows.”
Success this year has been rewarded; the herd received several accolades from the Beef Shorthorn Cattle Society Northern Club 2019 awards large herds category, including first place in three classes - in-calf heifer, 2018 heifer calf and 2019 bull calf.
“Cattle breeding is a long-term process, we’ve been steadily working away, rigorously selecting over the last 10 years to achieve uniform, healthy animals and we finally reached a point in 2018 where we had in calf heifers to sell. We are members of a CHeCS scheme, we have a preventative health plan and our vet bills are absolute minimal.”
Beef Shorthorn are quiet and easy to work with, says Alistair Gibson
Alastair selects his breeding cattle over several criteria, but since Beef Shorthorn are natural grazing animals, a key element are good heads along with a broad muzzle to aid foraging ability, he says. Locomotion and soundness are vital to any good animal, and he is a firm believer that avoiding extremes has paid dividends. New stock sires are selected with commercial production in mind.
“They must demonstrate strong maternal traits along with power, frame and easily convert grass fodder into flesh. I look for milk to achieve early growth in the calves; if they reach 460kg at 13 to 14 months to calve at two years, then that’s saving time and money.”
He adds: “Benefitting both with an increase in sales of junior bulls and breeding heifers via pedigree auctions and also private sales, it goes to show that the breed standards go hand in hand for show cattle alongside commercial enterprises.”
Beef Shorthorn beef: from farm to fork
Location, location, location: Alastair and Donna Gibson have a ready retail market for Shorthorn Beef literally on their doorstep. In addition to their Mongolian yurts and shepherd’s hut providing a back to nature glamping experience, they also benefit from the thousands of visitors to Gibside’s historic gardens.
“We know we have a fantastic product - Shorthorn Beef is quality, it’s succulent, tender and above all else, it tastes great. We started by selling boxed meat, however it has proven so popular with glamping guests that we can’t always keep up with demand for steaks, sausages and burgers.”
“We are currently finishing and killing just six beasts a year, however we believe there is real potential to up that number; we need to carefully work out the logistics to process all the steers and any heifers not retained for breeding purposes. As time goes on, I’d like to sell as much beef as we can from the farm gate and perhaps eventually invest in a food van to take our product directly to shows and events.”
He adds: “Whilst we are producing high quality Beef Shorthorn meat with low food miles, we are operating on a ‘farm to fork’ ideology and building scale is set to become a reality.”