FAST GROWING SIMMENTAL CALVES
KEY TO PROFITABILITY AT HIGH MOOR FARM, TADCASTER Simmentals have long been at the heart of Richard Elliott’s commercial suckler herd near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire but a change in policy has resulted in the herd now being almost pure-bred.
R
ichard Elliott has never been afraid of making changes to his farming business, believing that it needs to constantly evolve and adapt to changing circumstances. Mr Elliot farms with his son, Tom, and wife, Virginia, running a 200 head suckler herd at High Moor Farm near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. Until five years ago he was using Charolais bulls on his Simmental cross cows, finishing all the progeny and mainly buying in replacement heifers.
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He says: “This had always worked well, but increasingly we were finding that bought in heifers were bringing disease into the herd. This coincided with a change to the amount of land we had access to, so space to finish everything was at a premium.”
