As farmers and contractors with a long-established hay & straw merchant business, the East Worcestershire-based Whitlow family have plenty to keep them busy. From arable and grassland crops to Christmas turkeys and their herd of prize-winning Hereford cattle, John & Helen Whitlow and their sons Richard and Andrew have an eye for detail when it comes to selecting what works for their business.
Managed to a ratio of approximately 70 percent arable and 30 percent grassland, Andrew Whitlow explains the setup at High House Farm: “Currently on the arable side we are growing wheat, barley, oats and beans. As well as this, the grassland is split into three types: herbal leys and permanent pasture for cattle grazing, silage and haylage leys as winter feed, and bespoke leys which we bale for our hay customers.”
The High House Hereford herd was established in 2013 with a view to bringing livestock back onto the farm. Andrew continues: “We knew we wanted livestock in some form and after a brief spell in sheep, we soon decided that those weren’t for us! Having decided on cattle, we wanted to make sure that the system was fairly simple and that the cows gave us as little hassle as possible. We started out with 15 maiden heifers and it soon became clear which ones were going to suit our farm and which ones would not, and we have had to bite the bullet to cull animals that had any issues, leaving us with a herd that requires little attention.”
With the herd currently standing at 35 breeding females calving in January and February, Andrew says: “The bulls born early in the year can go to work the following summer at 16 to 18 months old and do not need to be housed for a second winter. Heifers are selected for breeding based on their weight at 15 months of age, which is usually around 500kgs. They are then put to an easy-calving bull to calve at two years old.
“Any bulls or heifers that don’t make the target weight for breeding are then finished over the summer and sold for beef. Our aim is that any animal which isn’t coming back into the herd to calve at two doesn’t see a second winter inside. We started calving at two after experimenting with letting heifers calve at around 30 months old in the autumn, but this gave us the headache of watching for calves when we were busy on the arable side. We also looked at calving at three, but the drawbacks of this were the cows getting too big while not actually seeing any difference in cow and calf performance. The heifers that calve at two sometimes look a bit small after they first calve, but after a summer at grass they catch up and grow into a good, moderate-sized cow.”
Looking at the cow families which now remain from the animals they began with, Andrew says the qualities they were looking for have consistently shown up in the Roulette, Oyster Gem and Dowager: “These lines have always given us the least trouble, tending to be the easiest calving and weaning the heaviest calves.”
“When we first started looking at getting into Herefords, the number one thing that drew us to the horned genetics was the consistency of the cowherds. There were a lot of big herds that we looked at which ran them very commercially, and this drew us to them. It’s all well and good to have a few exceptional cows, but in our view, it’s getting the average standard up across the herd that really counts.
“We have also found with the horned-bred cattle that it’s been particularly pleasing to finish the stock without having to really push them with feed. When trying to find marginal gains, it’s hard not to take this into account. I also think there has been an unfair stigma attached to the horned side of the breed with regards to de-horning, sometimes being made out to be a bigger job than it actually is. We currently de-horn using paste when we tag the calves at three days old, and because we have to handle them anyway, dehorning at that point is the most efficient way for us. Once you get the knack of it, it takes no time at all and is a cheap and easy method.”
With one eye always on the future, the herd continues to seek genetic influences which will suit its own specific aims. Andrew says: “This year we purchased two new stock bulls, both different types and each chosen for a certain job. Ervie Advance 212975 was bought to go on heifers as he is easy calving, also being used with some of our larger-framed cows to try and breed a more moderate type. Haven Voltage has then been used across the rest of the herd to keep the size up on some of our smaller cows, as well as trying to breed more milk into the cattle.
“Last year we also purchased a heifer in conjunction with Craig and Luke McCreath of Longridge Herefords. The heifer was F.H. Fancy, part of the F Harrington dispersal sale at Tullamore market last November. She has turned into a great animal, PD’d in calf to the Ervie bull and due to calve at two years old.”
Homebred High House animals are now sold across a variety of customer types, and the herd has gradually been building a firm reputation, marketing themselves via social media as well as exhibiting at Society shows and sales. Andrew says: “We sold seven bulls for breeding this spring to different systems, along with a few breeding heifers finding new homes, plus having some animals processed for beef and sold direct to consumer. We were delighted to have success in our HCBA area herd competition, winning the medium herd category, best bulling heifer with High House Oyster Gem and best yearling bull with High House Azzuri, the same bull then going on to be Intermediate Male Champion at the National Show at Tenbury. This was extremely pleasing as his sire and dam both have the High House prefix on their pedigree, which shows we are heading in right direction.”
To keep up with the High House herd, follow their page on Facebook
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