Our Calves
Our best dairy cows produce dairy heifers that we rear to join our dairy herd or to sell to other dairy farmers if we have a surplus, the remainder are used to produce beef calves some of which we rear ourselves and some of which we sell to other farmers to rear. We use a mixture of native and continental breeds (currently Angus, Hereford and Charolais) as well as a pedigree Hereford stock bull who sweeps up anything missed by AI. We usually have calves available for sale, please contact us for details.
Grass Fed Beef
The beef calves that we retain to rear ourselves are kept out at grass so long as conditions allow and are just housed for the worst winter months. Enjoying grazed grass for most of the year they are fed grass silage when housed.
Grass Fed Lamb
When we first moved to Chapple Farm we ran a flock of Cheviot and North Country mules while we got the dairy enterprise up and running. As the milking herd got going we cut back sheep numbers in order to focus all our resources on the dairy and grow the herd to a sustainable level as quickly as possible. Now that we have reached our desired milking herd size and further increased our farmed area we are again running a small flock of North Country mules. Lambing in late spring we run an extensive system that allows us to utilise ground that is away from the milking platform and not suitable for making silage or cultivation. All lambs are sold off the farm by the end of September either finished or as stores.
