To outwinter... or not?

Buying a small farm in Wiltshire in 2004 represented the realisation of a longstanding personal ambition. Originally a dairy farm (from the mid-19th Century onwards), it had not been actively farmed for over a decade and the infrastructure (farm buildings, fences, water supplies) were in need of considerable attention.

Included in the purchase was a commitment to allow a small fold of Highland cattle to live out their days naturally on the farm, which brought with it the requirement to be able to look after them in all seasons and also to handle them safely when necessary (such as for their annual TB tests).

With no suitable buildings in which to house the cattle, there was no choice but to over-winter the Highlanders outside and in spite of the tough weather that first year, they seemed well-equipped to withstand the cold, wet conditions with relatively small amounts of supplementary hay feed. As a new entrant to beef-farming, my confidence grew from this experience and following extensive research, it was decided we would build on this with the establishment of our own herd of English Longhorns – a hardy, traditional breed - selected for their combination of qualities in terms of milk, calving ease, longevity, docility, length and leanness of body.

Based on this experience, I have also developed a preference for outdoor wintering of cattle, as it appears that the animals are more productive outside and reach market maturity and condition earlier than those that are housed. Cattle produce large amounts of heat – when housed indoors they are unable to lose this heat and consequently eat less leading to lower conversion factors. Cattle outdoors eat more and the conversion rate is higher.

To overcome the problem of handling and to provide an alternative location for over-wintering I also decided to construct a woodchip corral, with a specially adapted crush for the horned cattle. This is an outside enclosure, bedded with large woodchips for over-wintering cattle. The woodchip bed works as a digestion unit: as the dung and urine is washed through the woodchips it is digested by microbes leaving an outflow of reasonably clean water. The breakdown of the dung means that the bed is never "mucked out" but is just "topped up" with 2 - 3" of fresh woodchips each autumn.

A combination of using a large “sacrifice” field and the woodchip corral has worked well so far and the English Longhorn cattle have thrived. In addition, I have agreed to let a team from Aberystwyth University use the farm to collect data for a project entitled ‘Identification and mitigation of the impacts of out-wintering beef and dairy cattle on sacrifice areas’. For this they assess a grass field prior to and after grazing by cattle during the winter period; a second field that will not be grazed over the winter is also assessed. Herbage, soil, water and gaseous samples were collected from each field and water samples have been collected from a nearby watercourse. A field grazing record sheet has also been kept to determine the stocking density of the grazed field over the measurement period. Results from this are expected later this year. In the meantime, the cattle are looking good and are living evidence of the success of this method of over-wintering outside.

Mark Perry farms 70 acres in North Wiltshire in HLS. He is hosting part of a Defra-funded research project measuring the environmental impacts of outwintering cattle. Click here for more information on this.

Image courtesy of polandeze, Flickr