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Livestock

The cattle come in from the pasture in the autumn and stay inside until spring. This is to protect them from the worst of the winter weather and feed them on hay and silage but also to stop them from poaching or digging up the ground too much. They have permanent bedding in the rear compartments whilst the front area is regularly scraped out and the manure put on the manure heap before being spread on the land.

At Occombe we adhere to organic standards, which for animal welfare reasons includes giving the cattle more space in the barns than at conventional farms. Of course this means we need more barn space for the same number of animals.

It is about 18 months before a cow can go to market and each year we will need new cows to replenish the herd. We also use the Occombe herd to graze other sites managed by the Trust such as Berry Head and Maidencombe. Organic farms tend to rear their beef cattle as suckler herds. This is where a cow suckles its calf until it is weaned at about nine months of age, then fattened as store cattle. The cattle are usually kept in family groups to follow their natural herding instincts and reduce stress.

Young female cattle are called heifers, some males are castrated and these are called steers or bullocks. Until recently, since the BSE crisis, beef cattle had to be slaughtered when they are aged between one and two and half. Animals like our Ruby Reds that graze freely tend to take longer to put on weight than those fed on concentrates or cereal based feeding. The average weight at slaughter is around 300kg but the dressed carcase in the butcher's weighs about half this.

The upland sheep are small and hardy, suited to the harsher conditions on the hills or mountains that they graze. They are often brought down into the valleys during winter to feed on hay and silage made in the summer. Although there are a large number of pure breeds, in recent years cross-breeding has become very popular. Most lowland ewes are hybrids - the result of cross-breeding with mountain breeds. They are mated with down land rams to produce lambs that will grow fast and are bred for slaughter.

At Occombe we have an organic flock of Dorset Downs - a traditional native breed which is classified as ‘at risk' by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. The Dorset Downs were developed in the 19th century from crossing Southdown rams on to Hampshire and Wiltshire breeds. Polled with a white fleece and black face, the sheep produce high quality wool and their lambs are renowned for the exceptional quality of their tender meat.

The shepherd's year begins in late summer when he starts preparing his ewes for mating by ensuring that they are in good physical condition and healthy. This is the time when sheep are dipped to kill off sheep scab mite which can be a serious disease. Organophosphate chemicals have now been banned due to their adverse affects on human health but there are now concerns about the replacement synthetic pyrethroid dips and their effects on wildlife if they end up in rivers and water courses.

In October the ewes are mated with a ram - timed so that lambs are born when there is grass or alternative feed available. There is pressure to have lambs as early as possible to reach the market earlier and fetch a higher price. During the winter months the sheep are fed on hay, silage and root crops such as turnips and the shepherd must watch for the development of foot rot in wet weather. In some areas sheep are housed inside over the winter.

Lambing is the busiest time of year and starts in February or March. Upland ewes have one or occasionally two lambs whereas lowland ewes usually have two and sometimes three. In April lamb's tails can be docked to help prevent the catching of diseases and some male lambs are castrated. In May worms and fly attack are a threat so the shepherd will try to use clean pasture often alternating between sheep and cattle each year. If this is not possible drugs and chemicals are used to prevent problems. The sheep are shorn in June, preferably in warm dry weather, with an expert shearer able to shear more than 300 sheep in a day.

The lambs are weaned from their mothers in July at between 12-16 weeks of age as the ewe's milk production dries up. Some of the best female lambs are selected for breeding whilst the rest are reared for their meat.

20 breeds of British farm animals, such as the Lincolnshire Curly Coat pig, became extinct in the last century and many were reduced to a few thousand individuals or less. We need to protect our rare breeds because they have distinctive characteristics such as being suited to certain environments or less intensive farming methods. There are a number of rare breeds that are native to Britain and were found here in pre-Roman times including Soay sheep. The Trust has a flock of Soays on the coastal slopes in Torbay where they suit the poor quality grazing and harsher weather conditions. Until the 1980s over 40% of Britain's ewes were mated to Downland breeds but this declined with the introduction and promotion of foreign breeds and the mistaken belief that Downland rams produced fatty lamb.

Cattle were domesticated as far back as 5000BC and were raised both for their beef and for their use as draught animals to pull ploughs and carts. Modern beef breeds are the descendants of selective breeding started by farmers such as Robert Bakewell in Leicestershire in the eighteenth century. At this time beef farming was helped by the introduction of clover and turnip crops that provided winter feed. At the same time lighter machinery allowed horses to replace cattle as draught animals. British beef breeds include Hereford, Galloway, Aberdeen Angus and North or South Devon's. Recently large continental breeds such as Charolais, Limousin and Simmental have been introduced.