Jennifer MacKenzie is an agricultural photo journalist with almost 30 year's experience. Operating from her base in Cumbria, Jennifer undertakes mainly industry-related freelance writing and photography.
Farming without Roots
Beef farmer Kenny MacGregor runs a successful enterprise on the Scottish
Border – and he doesn’t own or rent a farm!
Kenny’s career in farming goes back to 1975 when he first started
work, however when redundancy followed 10 years later he decided to become
self employed and bought six Limousin cross heifers at Bellingham mart
and it all started from there.
He kept the heifers in buildings at East Loan End farm just west of Berwick
and one of his neighbours was the Limousin enthusiast Robert Crichton who
bred the famous bull Broadmeadows Cannon.
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| Kenny MacGregor with stock bull Overthwaite Chartered |
By that time Kenny had bought another five heifers and he bought a bull
from Robert Crichton to run with his newly established herd.
“Robert was a great influence on me and the bull I bought from him,
Tweed Fellow by Virginia Action, bred a lot of quality calves for me that
went on to be shown – one of them took a third prize ticket at Smithfield,” said
Kenny. “The bull lasted for 11 years.”
More than two decades on, Kenny now runs 65 suckler cows, housing them
during the winter from mid October to mid April in buildings rented from
long time family friend Mrs Margery Taylor at East Loan End who helps with
the cattle in the mornings.
For summer grazing he rents 70 acres of grass parks eight miles away over
the Scottish Border and he makes 700 bales of silage off 35 acres in a
one year ley in the arable rotation at East Loan End.
Most of the herd replacements are bought as bulling heifers from Hexham
and Carlisle markets and calves are easily sold privately at 10 months
old with bullocks averaging £670 and heifers £620.
While he doesn’t find much time for showing cattle these days, in
the past he has won the suckled calf championships at Wooler and the former
Rothbury market on a regular basis and one Limousin bullock went on to
be shown at the Birmingham Winter Primestock Show.
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| New stock bull Overthwaite Chartered bought for 12,000gns at the February 2009 sale in Carlisle |
Heifer replacements are Limousin sired out of British Blue crosses with
the aim of producing a top quality calf when put back to the Limousin bull.
At last year’s Carlisle March two day sale of suckled calves he paid £1,200
for a stylish in calf heifer from Len Skelton, of Low House, Maryport.
Kenny is also prepared to invest in his stock bulls and in 2007 he paid
6,500gns for Wilodge Adjudicator, bred by Christine Williams, of Shifnal,
Shropshire, the full brother to the 30,000gns Wilodge Tonka sold at Carlisle
in October 2003. Both are by the French bred bull, Oxygene.
He has had a high level of fertility and only one of the 65 females he
ran with proved not to be in calf.
At the February 2009 Carlisle sale he paid 12,000gns for the June 2007
born Overthwaite Chartered, one of three bulls in the sale to make five
figures for Lancashire-based breeders RS Harker, Overthwaite, Holme, Carnforth,
to use to breed herd replacements from his own heifers and build herd numbers
up to 100 cows.
“He took my eye because he is a stylish bull with a sweet head and
plenty of width,” said Kenny. “He is by the prolific AI sire
Sympa which is very easy calving and out of the dam UVA.
“I’m looking to produce the best I can from the best of females
and bulls I can afford. My philosophy is that it costs as much to produce
a good calf as a bad one so you may as well go for quality,” he added.
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| Overthwaite Chartered with a heifer |
The herd is predominantly spring calving, with 50 to calve in the spring
and the remainder in the autumn. Cows which are not in calf get another
chance with the bull and those which are not fertile are sold.
As well as good fertility, good temperament is another important characteristic
for Kenny who runs the cattle on his own as well as doing contracting work.
He has his own mower and baler which he uses for his own silage and for
other contracting work. He also has a 25ft livestock trailer.
The cows are fed ad lib silage up to calving. Calves have access to creep
feed from birth. They are fed barley, dark grains and sugar beet pulp to
a maximum of 2.5 kg a day to prevent them putting on too much flesh, along
with ad-lib silage.
The spring born calves are weaned a month after housing. They are vaccinated
against pneumonia at housing and wormed at turnout.
