Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello MyFarmers. We’re with the Stockman Mark again, talking about cows for our next
vote, and this is our Shetland herd. Mark, how many Shetland females have we got?
We have fourteen senior cows ready to go a bull in the summer.
And as the name suggests they’re from Shetland.
Shetland. A little story I always tell visitors when they come to the farm is – again they’re
dual purpose, meat and dairy – a good cow that was milking, they’d put her in a little
rowing boat and row between the islands and get her out and milk her for the crofters.
They’re very small as the name Shetland implies. So, they could put them in a little
boat, row them between the isles, and one cow could keep several families going in milk.
You don’t do that now then?
We don’t do that now, no. Not on the lakes.
In terms of the size of the cow, does that make a difference in terms of the meat they
produce, or the milk?
They’re only ever so slightly smaller than a lot of our Rare Breeds. This animal, if
you go into a pen of fattening cattle, the first ones onto the lorry, going off to get
meat and sales into the farm will be Shetlands. They finish really, really well. They’re
good converters of energy and protein. They can live on fresh air out in the parkland,
but when they come in and we give them good quality food it shows virtually instantly.
So if you’ve got all the breeds lined up it’ll be a Shetland that goes on the lorry
first.
And in terms of genealogy and the Rare Breeds again, is there work that needs to be done
on this herd, is there something you’re working towards?
There are a lot of people working on Shetlands, but one little personal thing is we try to
encourage some red. You get red and white and black and white. The majority are black
and white. And we just try to introduce a few red. So we’ve got three lovely red and
white cows in here that would go to a new bull. And hopefully they’ll produce red
and white calves – we’ll have to see. So fingers crossed.
Great, thanks Mark. Remember to watch the videos we’ve got about Gloucesters and the
Irish Moileds as well