Freddie's Farm

Cows:

We are now a six cow family; Two Devons plus one (Betony and Borage and Betony's foster calf, an MRI) and three Dexters. (Rosemary, her calf and Bok Choi)

We started off with Rosemary and Myrtle bought in 2004 after a long hard struggle to find some local beef and to convince Julian it would be a good idea.

Rosemary & Myrtle 2003

Rosemary is a pedigree non-short red Dexter and her calf Myrtle was one year old when we first acquired them. Myrtle caused us no end of trouble. She was always escaping and spent some time with our neighbour's cows after one particularly adventurous trip. She has also been found in the polytunnel, helping herself to tomatoes and cucumbers. So we didn't feel too guilty when it was time for her to go to the freezer and we have been so pleased with the taste of our own beef. I am sure we have both gained a huge amount of weight and our cholesterol has gone through the roof!

Since then Rosie has calved three times Bergamot, Bok Choi and the latest calf has no name. We have been using a Devon bull on her and this has made for some fast growing, handsome crossbreed calves.

After a year we decided we needed to get another cow as company for Rosie. We had been looking at getting a couple of steers for the freezer and were debating which breeds we liked. We had always liked Red Ruby Devons so we started to check out websites regarding the breed. Before we knew it we were visiting Little Dart Raffe Farm, which has a pedigree herd of Devons and one heifer "which might just suit us". Well we were doomed from the minute we walked onto the farm.

We went to look at the cows and we really liked them, our only concern was the money (these were pedigree animals and we had a limited budget!) We decided to have a think about it and over a cup of tea, Angus and Joy produced the pedigree for the heifer they thought might suit us - her name was Betony. Betony being the next herb in the book next to Bergamot! Well you can't deny a symbol of fate like that. Angus did a special deal with us for Betony (a two year old in calf heifer) and Basil (a one year old steer) and so we increased our herd.

Betony & Basil September 2005

The bonus with having native breeds is that they seem to tolerate all weather conditions very well. All our cows are kept out all winter, although they were not so keen when it snowed. They have the field shelter for protection from the elements and plenty of hay and they seemed pretty happy.

This site was last updated 23-10-2007