.jpg)
Please read on....
Herefords
We have several beef cattle. Herefords are not so rare, but we are working on getting some Highland Cattle. Until then, at least we have a good supply of quality beef. Below are two of the beasts, Edward and Bella.
Highland Cattle...
We finally settled on the type of cattle we are going to breed at Willowbrook. It was a close competition between Highland Cattle and Belted Galloways, but in the end the large horns and the extra long shaggy coats of the Highlands tipped them into pole position. This brought to a close our stocking of the rare breeds farm, and we are now running at full capacity and have only rare breeds on site, having sold on our Herefords.
The breed was developed in the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles. The breed was developed from two sets of stock,one originally black, and the other reddish. Breeding stock have been exported to the rest of the world, and once an 'extremely rare' breed, they are now only considered 'rare'.
Highlands are known as a hardy breed due to the rugged nature of their native Scottish Highlands, with high rainfall and strong winds.Highland cattle have been successfully established in many temperate countries and indeed in countries where winters are substantially colder than Scotland's such as central Europe and Canada. Their hair provides protection during the cold winters and their skill in browsing for food enables them to survive in steep mountain areas. They both graze and browse and eat plants which many other cattle avoid. The meat tends to be leaner than most beef because Highlands get most of their insulation from their thick shaggy hair rather than subcutaneous fat. The coat makes them a good breed for cold northern climates and they are able to thrive in outdoor conditions that would defeat most other breeds of domestic beef cattle. As such, Highland cattle are able to produce beef at a reasonable gross margin from inhospitable land that would otherwise normally be incapable of rendering a profit agriculturally.Whilst the UK domestic and worldwide popularity of Highland cattle has made trade in pedigree beasts occasionally the most lucrative - mainly on account of their handsome appearance - they are at their best agriculturally when used to produce beef in a cold climate from poor pasture and forage.
Whilst the beef produced by pure-bred Highland cattle is exceptionally tender and of high flavour, modern butchery and shopping trends tend to demand a carcass and a cut of meat of a different character. In order to address this market, Highland beef producers commonly run commercial Highland suckler cows with a 'terminal' sire such as a Shorthorn or Limousin bull. This allows the hardy Highland cow, grazed upon the rough hillsides of her natural environment, to produce across-bred beef calf featuring the tender beef of its mother on a more modern carcass of high commercial value at slaughter, thus rendering a gross margin from her grazing that would have been impossible from other breeds in that environment. There is also a healthy demand from fellow producers of outdoor-reared beef who farm on more forgiving terrain, for Highland cross-bred bulling heifers: most often Highland cows crossed with the Shorthorn bull, for use as suckler cows. These cross-bred beef suckler cows inherit the hardiness,thrift and mothering capabilities of their Highland dams and the improved carcass configuration or their sires. Such cross-bred sucklers, further crossed with a modern beef bull such as a Limousin or Charolaisto produce the finest quality beef are one of the mainstays of Scottish commercial beef production. It is this ability to pass on thrift and gross margin down the beef-breeding cascade that has secured this breed's place as a modern commercial beef breed.
Our Highland Cows...
Our first highland calf...
Wessex Saddleback Pigs
Below: Captain Jack and the girls - who are as happy as, well, pigs in mud!
The Wessex Saddleback is a striking looking black pig with a white belt, which includes the front legs, around the body. (Historically, the Wessex developed alongside the Essex Saddleback, which differed only in having white hind feet and tail tip.) The ears are lopped forward. The Wessex is both prolific and hardy, and does well as an outdoor pig – being bred originally as as a baconer (specialist bacon producer).
A Wessex Saddleback breed society was formed in Britain in 1918, but the breed (or a very similar one) may have been imported into New Zealand prior to this date.
Below: Our first Sow with her first litter...
and our second litter:
There is some confusion about the origin of the Wessex Saddleback. Some sources state that it began as a cross from "the black breed of the New Forest" and "the Old English Sheeted breed", spreading through Hampshire in the 18th century. The breed is claimed to be one of the few British pig breeds not to have been affected by crossing with "Neapolitan" (oriental / Continental) pigs. If this is true, it may be one of those closest breeds to the landrace pigs which foraged in woods throughout Britain for centuries.
Over the course of the 20th century pig farming became more and more intensive. The more extensive systems to which the Wessex is suited declined, and the breed declined with them. Today it is now considered a rare breed. Meanwhile, the similarly coloured, but otherwise rather different Essex had followed a similar course, and in 1967 the two breeds were merged in an effort to prevent both from becoming extinct. This hybrid breed was called the British Saddleback. However, before amalgamation some Wessex Saddlebacks had been exported to other parts of the world, and the breed survives in small numbers in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia in 2008 there are less than 100 registered breeding sows, and they are considered critically endangered by the Rare Breeds Trust. In 2006 embryos and semen from Wessex Saddleback pigs were imported into Britain to re-establish the breed.
Horses
His horns have grown from 1 inch nubbins over the past 9 months...
He was not very impressed at Lord Willoughby wanting to play...
The Dorset Horn, which was developed to its present form in the mid 1800s, and is known for its all round qualities as a meat and wool producer.
Its chief distinction is its horns – large and curled – in both rams and ewes. Ewes with horns of this size and type are unique to the Dorset breed among modern domestic sheep, while the rams’ horns are even larger and tightly curled in “regimental mascot” style.
The Dorset Horn is a big sheep, hardy and very active. It boasts capacious stomach and is an excellent “doer”; a ewe in good condition tends always to look as though she is in lamb and even the rams often look a little “preggie”. The fleece is of medium length, fine and very white, and the face and legs, clear of wool, are also noticeably white and show another of the Dorset Horn’s distinguishing features – a pink nose and light coloured hooves. This pink and white look is particularly marked in lambs where it appears to be intensified. A young Dorset has "hoofs of mother-of-pearl and a nose like a fresh raspberry".
Its chief distinction is its horns – large and curled – in both rams and ewes. Ewes with horns of this size and type are unique to the Dorset breed among modern domestic sheep, while the rams’ horns are even larger and tightly curled in “regimental mascot” style.
The Dorset Horn is a big sheep, hardy and very active. It boasts capacious stomach and is an excellent “doer”; a ewe in good condition tends always to look as though she is in lamb and even the rams often look a little “preggie”. The fleece is of medium length, fine and very white, and the face and legs, clear of wool, are also noticeably white and show another of the Dorset Horn’s distinguishing features – a pink nose and light coloured hooves. This pink and white look is particularly marked in lambs where it appears to be intensified. A young Dorset has "hoofs of mother-of-pearl and a nose like a fresh raspberry".
The breed’s other great distinction is the forwardness of the ewes. Dorset ewes can breed twice in one year although three lambings in two years is more usual. The lambing rate is good and they are excellent mothers with abundant milk.
The Dorset’s characteristics, the horns and the breeding rate, were bequeathed to it by a dominant ancestor – the now extremely rare Portland Sheep, found originally on and near Portland Island, very close to Dorchester. The Portland Sheep was first recorded in the sixteenth century and its origin is obscure, but it was spectacularly horned, and noteworthy because of its ability to lamb all year round – with up to four births in two years.
The Dorset’s characteristics, the horns and the breeding rate, were bequeathed to it by a dominant ancestor – the now extremely rare Portland Sheep, found originally on and near Portland Island, very close to Dorchester. The Portland Sheep was first recorded in the sixteenth century and its origin is obscure, but it was spectacularly horned, and noteworthy because of its ability to lamb all year round – with up to four births in two years.
Dorset Horn sheep were imported into New Zealand in 1897 and several times in subsequent years, but did not prove very popular. A further importation in 1937 marked a period of breed increase, but numbers remained low. By the early 1990s they had dwindled less than five hundred in New Zealand and were also rare in their homeland, Great Britain.
Their horns are no longer acceptable at a commercial level. They cause carcase damage in these days of trucking sheep rather than driving them, and the shearers don’t like them either. They are, however, an excellent breed on a smallholding, being extremely quiet and easily handled, as well as producing excellent meat and saleable fleeces.
Suffolk Sheep
Suffolk sheep evolved from the mating of Norfolk Horn ewes with Southdown rams in the Bury St Edmunds area. They were known as Southdown Norfolks, or "Black faces."The Norfolk Horned sheep, now rare, were a wild and hardy breed. They were black-faced, light, fleeced sheep. Both sexes were horned. The upland regions of Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridge on the southeastern coast of England are very rugged and forage is sparse. It was this dry, cold and windy area in which the Norfolk breed adapted itself to traveling great distances for food, thereby developing a superbly muscular body.
The first documentation of the crossbreed as 'Suffolks' was in 1797 when in his "General view of agriculture in the county of Suffolk" Arthur Young stated "These ought to be called the Suffolk breed, the mutton has superior texture, flavour, quantity and colour of gravy." But it wasn't until 1859 that they were exhibited in an agricultural show under that title. The first flock book was published in 1887. This contained 46 flocks ranging in size from 50 to 1,100 ewes and averaging 314 ewes. All 46 flocks were in East Anglia; 34 were in Suffolk itself.
Suffolks developed around the rotational system of farming in East Anglia, grazing on grass or clover in the summer. After weaning the ewes could be put on salt marshes or stubbles. Swedes, turnips or mangels were grazed in the winter in a very labour intensive system with a fresh area fenced off each day. Lambing was in February or March, outdoors in the fields with a hurdle shelter or in open yards surrounded by hurdles and straw.
The breed expanded rapidly, with the first flock in Ireland established in 1891, in 1895 in Scotland and 1901 in Wales. From the earliest days sheep were exported around the world, to Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, North and South America and the colonies (that's us in New Zealand!). Suffolks are now the most dominant sheep meat breed throughout the world. Suffolk cross lambs are ideally suited to today's trade requirements. They have an excellent lean meat ratio, large eye muscle, well-muscled legs, and succulent, well-textured meat.
The Jacob's sheep is a rare breed of small, piebald (black and white spotted), polycerate (multi-horned) sheep, that more resembles a goat when newly shorn. Jacobs may have as many as six horns, although four horns is most common Jacobs are usually raised for their wool and meat as well as their hides. They are kept as pets and ornamental animals, and have been used as guard animals to protect farm property from theft or vandalism and to defend other livestock against predators.
They are an "unimproved" or "heirloom" breed, one that has survived to the present day with minimal selective breeding. The Jacob is descended from an ancient old world breed of sheep, although its exact origins remain unclear. Spotted polycerate sheep were documented in England by the mid-17th century, and were widespread a century later.
Boer Goats
Above: Bramble
Jacobs Sheep
The Jacob's sheep is a rare breed of small, piebald (black and white spotted), polycerate (multi-horned) sheep, that more resembles a goat when newly shorn. Jacobs may have as many as six horns, although four horns is most common Jacobs are usually raised for their wool and meat as well as their hides. They are kept as pets and ornamental animals, and have been used as guard animals to protect farm property from theft or vandalism and to defend other livestock against predators.
They are an "unimproved" or "heirloom" breed, one that has survived to the present day with minimal selective breeding. The Jacob is descended from an ancient old world breed of sheep, although its exact origins remain unclear. Spotted polycerate sheep were documented in England by the mid-17th century, and were widespread a century later.
Boer Goats
We have 9 Boer goats: a Buck - Bracken, a Doe - Bramble, and a little Wether called Chestnut, 4 female kids, Audrey, Arabella, Briar, and Barathea; and 2 male kids: Badger and Bailey.
Above: Chestnut
Above: Bramble
Below: Bracken
Below: Bramble with Audrey and Arabella.
Boer goats developed in South Africa from an indigenous breed with the addition of some European, Angora and Indian breeds. The name comes from the Dutch word “boer” meaning “farmer” and was used to distinguish them from Angora goats which were imported into South Africa during the nineteenth century.
The present day Boer goat appeared in the early 1900s when South African farmers started selecting for a meat type goat.
The Boer goat is a large animal and is a specialized meat-producer. Landcorp first imported embryos of the breed into New Zealand in 1989 but they did not become commercially available until the mid-1990s when they were released from quarantine.
In New Zealand, purebred bucks are often used in grading-up programmes: many dairy goat farmers use a boer buck over some of their dairy goats does to produce kids that reach their goal weight faster than a purebred dairy goat kid would. Each purebred is tagged, and registered with the NZ Sheep breeders association (previously the NZ Boer Goat Breeders assoc).
.JPG)
Further to our previous post Bees and Hives, we now have bees at Willowbrook Park. We were approached by a lovely couple who make honey locally, and asked whether we would 'winter' their bee hives in the park. We are hoping to have their bees in the park permanently, and we hope to offer their honey in our country store, given the obvious Willowbrook connection.
We support the NZ Rare Breeds Conservation Society
.png)
