Herd community

We work with a careful selection of hardy northern breeds to supply our business with the best beef our land can produce.

Our beef herd is made up of around 100 cattle from hardy traditional breeds that do well on our wet and hilly pastures. We buy young stock from farmers in the North of England and Scottish borders whom we know and trust.

Blue Greys are particularly well suited to our moorlands. These mottled grey and polled (hornless) animals were first bred in the 19^th century in Northern England and the Scottish Borders using a Galloway cow and Whitebred Shorthorn bull (also known as a Cumberland White).

The compact red-brown beasts that graze beside them are Luings (pronounced ‘lings’), a cross between Highland cattle and Beef Shorthorns first bred in the Inner Hebrides in the 1940s.

The cattle graze on areas of woodland pasture, where they can forage from the trees and hedges, as well as the grass. They also spend time within our rotational system, where we move them onto fresh pasture regularly. This allows the grass to recover and the variety of plants bring added feed and health benefits.

At the end of their lives, our Farm Manager, Sion, and Head of Butchery, handle our cattle and take them to one of two family-owned Cumbrian abattoirs within a 40-mile radius of the Farm. During these short journeys in the care of people they know and trust, our animals are treated with dignity.