History of Agricultural Education in Wiltshire - Lackham Countryside ...

The original cows (1959) had a high proportion of "Normead" blood
from the Ben Cooper herd in them and further purchases of Normead
bulls were made in 1961 and 1963, both of which were bought as calves
for £50 each and reared at Lackham..
Only one purchase of cattle was made into this herd: 15 heifers from
Norman Pike for £975 in 1967/68, so the herd has ben more or less selfcontained
throughout. Performance in this herd has progressed satisfactorily
over the years and now (1976) also stands at over 1100 gallons
per cow.
Both herds of cows have always been used for teaching purposes and
are milked by different students on a weekly basis throughout the
College year while, at the same time, each is still looked after by one
man, in 1959 two men looked after a total of 75 cows while today the
two men are able to look after 155 cows.[i]
THE BEEF HERD
Pedigree Herefords formed the basis of the beef herd for many years. From
very small numbers in the early days the number rose slowly to 10 - 12 cows and
one bull in 1959 and were maintained at around 15 cows until 1966/67. For all
but the last year or two the cows single suckled their own calves born in the
spring.
The original cattle were from the Everlode Herd of Brig. General Winser with
subsequent bull purchases from the Wraxall Herd of Mr S M Evans and the Cheyney
herd of Mr T L Parker. Sales comprised of steers sold fat or as stores while, over
the years, a useful trade in the sale of yearling Hereford bulls for crossing purposes
was built up. Most heifer calves were reared and retained.
With increasing production costs it became increasingly more difficult to make
these single sucklers pay on the class of land which was used and so to try to
improve the level of output each cow was given a foster calf to rear along with her
own. This idea worked quite well but then the point was made that if more than one
calf was to be reared there were better cows for the job than the pure Hereford.
This led to the decision to change the breed of cow and in 1966/67, 20 Aberdeen
Angus x Friesian heifer calves were purchased from Southern Counties Agricultural
Trading Society for £138 and reared to form the basis of a new suckler herd. A
Hereford bull was used on these cross-bred cows and as they calved down the
remaining Herefords were sold. These Angus cross cows have proved very suitable
for double suckling and still form the basis of the present herd of 20 cows.
Hereford bulls were used on them until 1973 when a change was made to using the
Charolais to produce a larger framed calf. Today, the 20 cows and their 40 calves
paddock graze during the summer on 12 acres of permanent pasture by the river,
!