Highlands & other breeds...

[hendrebc]

Funny old thing, daughters are already heavily into showjumping so things cant get much worse... can they?
My Wife is the one behind the Highland thing here as well...

Oh no not horses show jumping sounds expensive as well
There will be no Highlands here I can tell you that now... Wife wants bloody pigs as well but I bet it would be me looking after them
If you want to do box beef Dexters are meant to be really excellent beef. Small and a bit of a novelty as well. At least with cattle of some sort you can get some of your money back that way horses just eat it and you'll never get any of it back. I don't have anything nice to say about horses (there was 5 or 6 here at one point) so I won't say anything else about them

 

[neilo]

Oh no not horses show jumping sounds expensive as well
There will be no Highlands here I can tell you that now... Wife wants bloody pigs as well but I bet it would be me looking after them
If you want to do box beef Dexters are meant to be really excellent beef. Small and a bit of a novelty as well. At least with cattle of some sort you can get some of your money back that way horses just eat it and you'll never get any of it back. I don't have anything nice to say about horses (there was 5 or 6 here at one point) so I won't say anything else about them

@Juggler is clearly having trouble coming to terms with being a ‘hobby’ farmer. I think he might really struggle to be a ‘Dexter’ farmer….

 

[Ysgythan]

Longhorns. Docile to the point of dopeyness. My outlaws have had them since the early 80s and don’t own a calving jack. Can’t remember a Caesar and I’ve been going there 20 years. Got the coat to out winter, but not the extreme of the Highlands. The society will register disbudded/dehorned cattle now as well. They will frown though at the blue strain, which have black horn tips, because in the 18th century the horns were used to make lamps In my view they’re nicer looking cattle and a real niche for someone. Cheap to get going because they’re all busy culling them on the quiet currently.

 

[JP1]

Longhorns. Docile to the point of dopeyness. My outlaws have had them since the early 80s and don’t own a calving jack. Can’t remember a Caesar and I’ve been going there 20 years. Got the coat to out winter, but not the extreme of the Highlands. The society will register disbudded/dehorned cattle now as well. They will frown though at the blue strain, which have black horn tips, because in the 18th century the horns were used to make lamps In my view they’re nicer looking cattle and a real niche for someone. Cheap to get going because they’re all busy culling them on the quiet currently.

Good tip. I like Longhorns too

 

[steveR]

Highland calves are without any doubt, the cutest calf in existence!!

I would qualify this by stating here and now, I have resisted mahooosive female pressures over many years, and still don't have a Highland on the farm.

 

[steveR]

Longhorns. Docile to the point of dopeyness. My outlaws have had them since the early 80s and don’t own a calving jack. Can’t remember a Caesar and I’ve been going there 20 years. Got the coat to out winter, but not the extreme of the Highlands. The society will register disbudded/dehorned cattle now as well. They will frown though at the blue strain, which have black horn tips, because in the 18th century the horns were used to make lamps In my view they’re nicer looking cattle and a real niche for someone. Cheap to get going because they’re all busy culling them on the quiet currently.

Disadvantage is they are BIG cows which goes against teh OP's need for outwintering stock, unless he is on sand...?

Advantage is a decent commercial offspring.

 

[Juggler]

@Juggler is clearly having trouble coming to terms with being a ‘hobby’ farmer. I think he might really struggle to be a ‘Dexter’ farmer….

Bang on the money there Neil!
Although with only 30 cows & 100 ish sheep previously, I wasn't a 'proper' farmer in most people's eyes even then! But I think a couple of cows would definitely put me firmly in hobby territory...

 

[delilah]

https://www.britishwhitecattle.co.uk/

 

[cheggars]

Not really planning on showing Highlands if we go down that route, I'm going to get her a couple of baby beef fatstockers to show.
The highland thing goes against the grain for me having imersed myself in ped lims & blues for years, I loved the Angus I bred for the last 5 years of breeding cattle but they weren't as hands off as I had initially hoped. Mind you some of the bulls we bred weighed more than the Lims on much less feed so maybe wrong type.
Having said that I do like the highlands to look at, very charasmatic & cute calves, its just what the market would be like for them here, sell as youngstock to smallholders / holiday parks? Home kill branded beef?

The best outlet for the highland is as boxed beef. It seems to sell itself very well. We usually kill 2 beast at a time, with both usually sold by the time we get them back..
There's a reasonable outlet for Heifers , cows etc to the hobby market , which tend to sell through Facebook etc.

 

[Juggler]

I would qualify this by stating here and now, I have resisted mahooosive female pressures over many years, and still don't have a Highland on the farm.

This is the battle I'm currently engaged in... which is why I'm looking for a viable alternative!
Still, I lost the battle where the horses were concerned so I'm obviously waaayyyy too soft so don't be surprised if you see me posting pictures of hairy coos in 'today at work'...

 

[Juggler]

The best outlet for the highland is as boxed beef. It seems to sell itself very well. We usually kill 2 beast at a time, with both usually sold by the time we get them back..
There's a reasonable outlet for Heifers , cows etc to the hobby market , which tend to sell through Facebook etc.

Thanks for that, what would they make selling to the hobby market? Roughly what would a steer or heifer return when selling on a boxed beef basis? PM if you prefer.

 

[Juggler]

Oh no not horses show jumping sounds expensive as well
There will be no Highlands here I can tell you that now... Wife wants bloody pigs as well but I bet it would be me looking after them
If you want to do box beef Dexters are meant to be really excellent beef. Small and a bit of a novelty as well. At least with cattle of some sort you can get some of your money back that way horses just eat it and you'll never get any of it back. I don't have anything nice to say about horses (there was 5 or 6 here at one point) so I won't say anything else about them

Showjumping is as expensive as you want to make it, which would suggest it could be not so expensive doesn't it? Sadly that's a lie... a big hairy bare faced lie.
I was soooo close to getting rid of the money wasters* for good last year then lock down happened and they re-discovered the shiny, gold plated world of the long faced ones, oh well, at least they're happy....

* That's the donkeys not the daughters...

 

[delilah]

Roughly what would a steer or heifer return when selling on a boxed beef basis?

It's the butchery that kills it financially. If you can just pay for the killing and be at a scale/ skill set to do the butchery yourself then there's a good margin to be had. We pay the abattoir to do it all right through to vac packed and packed into boxes, and they do a fantastic job, but the margin would be the same (with less work) if they were just shoved in the market.

 

[Juggler]

Longhorns. Docile to the point of dopeyness. My outlaws have had them since the early 80s and don’t own a calving jack. Can’t remember a Caesar and I’ve been going there 20 years. Got the coat to out winter, but not the extreme of the Highlands. The society will register disbudded/dehorned cattle now as well. They will frown though at the blue strain, which have black horn tips, because in the 18th century the horns were used to make lamps In my view they’re nicer looking cattle and a real niche for someone. Cheap to get going because they’re all busy culling them on the quiet currently.

Must admit I do like the look of the longhorn, big cattle though, not sure how they would fare on the area I've got in mind.

 

[Juggler]

It's the butchery that kills it financially. If you can just pay for the killing and be at a scale/ skill set to do the butchery yourself then there's a good margin to be had. We pay the abattoir to do it all right through to vac packed and packed into boxes, and they do a fantastic job, but the margin would be the same (with less work) if they were just shoved in the market.

With the amount of tourists we've got here at the minute, I'm sure we could sell boxed beef relatively easily, however like you point out, the costs involved would probably blow it out of the water on the scale we'd be talking about, probably better to concentrate on the hobby / holiday park market as it would realistically be only a couple of beasts a year.

 

[Dry Rot]

Funny old thing, daughters are already heavily into showjumping so things cant get much worse... can they?
My Wife is the one behind the Highland thing here as well...

You could of course, get Highland ponies. They are a very good market just now, prefer to live out unless driven rain, attract lycra, and are nice people. They don't have horns either.

 

[Juggler]

You could of course, get Highland ponies. They are a very good market just now, prefer to live out unless driven rain, attract lycra, and are nice people. They don't have horns either.

Not more horses!
I would like to scratch the bovine itch again, in whatever shape it comes in, I do miss cows.

 

[ImLost]

Why not get a mixture of breeds that you like the look of? I personally love the look of a nice mixed native herd.

If you like any one particular breed more than others, you could always get a bull of that breed and breed your own herd up.

 

[JP1]

Why not get a mixture of breeds that you like the look of? I personally love the look of a nice mixed native herd.

If you like any one particular breed more than others, you could always get a bull of that breed and breed your own herd up.

Good thinking, he'll end up with a Galloway herd in that way

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Long horns are probably the only beef animal I would keep just like the looks have a mega long back to them do you breed pure or cross always fancied a continental over one see what came out

Ours always threw brilliant calves too the Lim!