Our Cattle Gene Pool

We have twelve breeding cows, six from the Northmoor Herd and 6 from Forde Abbey.  Tim (the bull) is from the Bollowal herd….. It is really interesting to see the difference in their colouring and build.  All are pedigree and conform to the breed traits and characteristics.  All of our cattle are easy going, easy calving and relatively trouble free, however their colour really varies.  The Northmoor gang are darker and slightly thicker set, whilst the Forde Abbey girls are more of an amber colour and have a finer build – this could be as they are still so young (just over 2yrs old).  Tim is just rather glorious, shining like a dark brown nut in the summer, with a very slightly redder tinge with his winter coat.

The calves are mostly a combination of the mothers and Tim, we have a couple that are a very distinct Forde Abbey build and colour.  It will be interesting to see if this changes.

We are thinking of keeping one of the bullocks entire – we have six to choose from so are watching them carefully.  A favourite is Elgar who is a mini Tim, absolutely gorgeous, with a good strong build and conformation.  We shall see………,