Regular readers might remember that last year we purchased a Beef Shorthorn bull to ‘work’ on our Galloway cows, which marked a change in direction for our beef breeding.

The Galloway hails from the South-West corner of Scotland and is renown for its hardiness and ability to shrug off the most inclement weather. It has a thick hairy black coat and an even thicker hide which can withstand the worst extremes of the winter with ease. To say that they are good mothers is an understatement – they are actually ferocious mothers and will happily chase you around the field bellowing at the top of their voice if you so as much glance at their offspring. This makes tagging (every calf in the UK has to be identified by a unique numbered tag in each ear before it reaches the age of 7 days) and castrating interesting work indeed.

As I get older the ‘fun’ of playing cowboy when dealing with these wild beasties has diminished over the years and with so many campers and school children visiting the farm I decided a change to a more calmer breed was in order. Hence the Beef Shorthorn which was a recognised commercial cross with the Galloway and promised a quieter life.

Unfortunately, whist the bull was certainly a gentler animal, the calves he sired were enormous and proved very difficult to deliver. In an ideal world, your average beef farmer would like to go out in the morning and be pleasantly surprised by each newborn happily suckling on its mum. With the Shorthorn we had to drag each calf out of the cow with the assistance of the modern equivalent of a medieval torture tool known as a calving aid. This device can exert great pulling power on the emerging calf, but can leave both the cow and calf (and indeed the farmer) feeling bruised, battered and drained.

So the Shorthorn has left and has been replace by a North Devon – known as a Ruby Red in recognition of it fabulous deep colour. These smaller animals are renown for being docile to the point of comatose and will quite happily put on weight merely looking at a field of grass. These are both qualities that are ideally suited to our organic system and as middle age approaches I can see that me and the bull will have quite a bit in common as we go about our business, gently piling on the pounds. Although - I should hasten to add - here the similarities end and only one of us is here to serve the old cow!