Sussex cattle

FarmerDanny1989

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
I’m looking for a few new stock bulls and Iv came across the Sussex breed to which I like the look of, but i know nothing about the breed. Are these cattle good to finish or sell at stores? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
 

Formatted

Member
Livestock Farmer
There isn't a premium market, something like Angus or Hereford where there is a premium is better surely? If that doesn't matter, I have some lovely Red Devon bulls I can sell you.
 

pgk

Member
Will always buy any at right price as stores, do well on the hls grassland and rarely need any hard feed to finish. Bought one last weekend, only one in sale to go along with Hereford and Longhorn stores bought to keep Fils grass down for summer. Could do with another 80 to be honest.
 

Wooly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Romney Marsh
Great breed.....but then I might be biased as I have a few hundred of them.

They live and thrive off very poor grazing. Don't need to be fed concentrates, docile, and manageable. Similar to nearly every British native breed.

The Queen has the biggest herd at Windsor and she has already taken some up to Balmoral.

How many do you want !?!
 

serf

Member
Location
warwickshire
Do the calves look the part that are crossed with a lim , do they sell well as stores , any one got a pic of the offspring from Sussex cow x lim bull , thought Sussex were a smallish cow , the milk and temperament are appealing with the cows .
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Down here where @Wooly and I live we don't have all this food that many of you seem to have. Our cattle and sheep have to eke out a living on the windswept marshes and the poor land that borders them.
Sussex cattle are a very well kept secret and are also on the NBAR list (National Breeds At Risk). The may be a little slow in finishing but that is more to do with them only eating grass or low quality forage. We sell heifers to local Butchers from 18 months and will do 320 to 340kg.
Steers at 2 years old on a similar diet will do 360 to 380. If they were fed that stuff out of a bag they would I am sure do more.

Cows are easy calving and we have to keep them on very ordinary hay, that way they calve easily or they can get too fat if on silage.
Good local market for them and the more modern types have a little Limousin blood in them.

Great breed easy to manage but like everything down here you need patience. My Father always said that Patience is Cheaper than a Bag!
 

Wooly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Romney Marsh
A few pics of our cattle ....... and what they look like on very little grass.
0849BB1C-E5B4-4735-BD5D-7163D158A297.jpeg
44DB6891-A692-4F91-8E60-16749939EB29.jpeg
6A1C0784-F3AC-4AF7-9E80-A2F1C1C06111.jpeg
 

Wooly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Romney Marsh
Do you sell as stores or finished, have calves in pic had any creep ?

All females are sold for breeding heifers, except for a very few.

I sell some steers as stores to a neighbouring farmer at 12-15 months old, that eventually end up in a local butchers shop at 23-25 months old. A perfect carcass size for the butcher at 315-350Kg.
I finish several and box beef them.

We do try and not feed anything concentrates. I did abit this year on one herd due to the severe drought we had and serious lack of forage. Luckily our cattle can live off large quantities of straw.

Our organic herd are forage fed only and are zero concentrate fed.
 

serf

Member
Location
warwickshire
I have recently started a job working with Sussex cattle. They are so incredibly quiet! I love the bull/steer? In the middle photo! Is that a pure Sussex or crossed?
They do look good cattle , how are you finding the ones you work with for milk , do they have plenty ?
 

Wooly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Romney Marsh
I have recently started a job working with Sussex cattle. They are so incredibly quiet! I love the bull/steer? In the middle photo! Is that a pure Sussex or crossed?

It was a pedigree Sussex......... but don't get many coming out like that. I should have left its nuts on.


Can you get them polled?

I have got a homozygous polled Sussex bull. The only trouble is the odd heifer has grown small stumps on their head after a couple of years. Better just to have a traditional bull and disbud the horns rather than have ugly stumps !

I have a
Damn fine cattle. I see now why they do so well in South Africa.

There are big herds in Africa. They were taken there in the 1960's as the Africans found that Sussex cattle didn't have eye problems caised by the Tetsy fly. Something to do with the dark colour of the Sussex cattles head, whereas the Hereford, with their white faces had eye problems.

Big herds in Australia as well.
 

Matt77

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Great cattle, when I first started working with them, the phrase “finish on fresh air” was chucked about, which I ignored, it’s now a phrase I use! Easy to work with, (when they don’t have horns!) nice temperament even when calving, we have a few sucklers and buy in stores too, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
 

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