56
Beef from the British Friesian
fter 40 years of milking a successful and profitable British Friesian herd, brothers Ben and Adam Pullen could have been forgiven for wanting to take a step back from the daily routine of managing cattle. However, as Ben explains, the desire to keep cattle was still there. “The British Friesian has provided us with a wonderful life, helping to raise our families and develop a really solid business for Adam and myself. "So when we sold the cows, we decided to keep up our interest in the breed by rearing some Friesian steers. Our decision was also influenced by our desire to keep the two excellent staff we have, Alex and Rupert, and to create an enterprise that suited all four of us”.
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This change of direction has grown into a business that purchases about 360 calves a year from three west country
British Friesian herds. Paying a premium to ensure continuity of supply, the Pullens make fortnightly trips to each of the three herds to collect the British Friesian bulls and any crossbred calves born since the last collection. The mixture of purebred bulls and crossbred calves has run at about 50:50 for the last year.
“Thanks to the high fertility and impressive longevity of the British Friesian dam, we’ve seen the herds we purchase our calves from elect to keep their cows longer and have more choice of which females they breed pure to produce followers, allowing the remainder to be served with beef sires, adding additional income which is so important, particularly at the moment,” says Ben. On arrival at Home Farm, Churchdown, situated beside the M5 motorway between
Gloucestershire British Friesian enthusiasts Ben and Adam Pullen have converted the family unit from dairy to beef production.
Gloucester and Cheltenham, the calves are housed in hutches until weaning at about two months old, when they are housed on straw in groups of about 15-20 and fed an ad- lib diet of home grown forage, wheat and barley with flaked maize and a urea-free 17% protein mix.
Cattle go out to grass at about seven months of age.
These purchased feedstuffs come from George White of GLW, who also provides nutritional advice and has worked with the Pullens for many years and the three of them have developed a real feel for feeding the British Friesian for optimum performance. Once the bulls are castrated at about three months old, they are moved on to a grass and maize silage mix fed using a mixer wagon. “We used to rear entire bulls, but were left with a large group in 2001 when
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