Grazing the Somerset Levels

Whitcombe, Somerset
50 pedigree Beef Shorthorn breeding females (spring calving)
75 Beef Shorthorn cross cows (60 spring calving, 15 autumn calving)
305 acres rented and owned grassland, the majority lying at or just above sea level and within Higher Level Stewardship agreement for species rich grassland and water meadows

Ross and Clare Whitcombe with Henry

We are breeding a functional suckler cow, one that’s sustainable on our hard land, and has a good temperament; I have a full-time job so it’s vital our cattle are easy to handle and virtually look after themselves. We select for milk and frame. We are aiming for a mature cow ranging between 550kg to 650kg and weaning a calf 40-50% her body weight; that’s efficiency. In my opinion, a heavier cow eats too much in winter, she simply costs too much to feed, isn’t able to convert our poor grass and will poach our peaty soil structure.

Sires used in the Pedigree herd must be polled and within the breed’s top 10% for calving ease EBV – those are my most important criteria. The commercial herd is served to the Charolais and in my opinion, produce some tremendous suckler calves; we aim to wean at an average of eight months ranging at 250kg and 350kg off milk and grass.

The Brue Valley Beef Shorthorn herd grazing the Somerset Levels, a designated SSSI and RAMSAR site and within the HLS

It’s low input all the way for me. Our cows have to be tough and they are. Both herds graze from April to November, sometimes to December depending how kind the autumn months are; they thrive outdoors on an autumn flush of grass until weaning in November. The rest of winter is spent in woodchip corale type accommodation with a covered area offering shelter. The cows are fed second quality hay - as we are not allowed to cut until after 1 July and hay is an HLS agreement requirement which the land is entered in.

December 2020 update

We’ve had a very good summer. We haven't had too much rain, and we are lucky that we can grow grass in a hot summer; farming on the Somerset Levels means a wet summer affects us a lot more than a dry summer.

As a result, the Beef Shorthorn cows have reared their calves well but also kept good condition. We weaned and sold the steer calves earlier this year primarily because of having a clear TB herd test in early September which meant we had to sell the calves by the end of October. The steer calves were only 5-6 months so wouldn't be at normal weaning weights but still ranged from 230kg to 260kg.

We sold some steers privately and some through Frome auction. The auction cattle were well competed for and met a strong trade bearing in mind no concentrates had been fed.

The Beef Shorthorn cows were housed for a week after weaning, to settle and dry up, then turned back out to graze, we are lucky this year that our water levels seemed to be managed more favourably allowing us to keep the dry cows out. 

The cows with heifer calves have been placed in our wintering yard and recently weaned. Both calves and cows are looking well, with some cows looking too well for my liking.

The commercial herd has also had a good summer and autumn with all calves being sold and achieving some fantastic prices at auction.

Ross Whitcombe