Mr Mike Mitchell
Nr Gloucester
Mike Mitchell's family have been farming here in Gloucestershire since 1948. The farm is a total of 570 acres, of which 100 is woodland,. There is some cropping on the farm, which is carried out by a neighbouring organic farm on the basis of share farming (which is where the land is owned by one partner, and the work done by another, with the profits being shared). The major enterprise on the farm, and the one which takes most of Mike Mitchell's time, is beef cattle production. He uses mostly pure-bred Aberdeen Angus cattle on the farm.
Mike describes his farming system :
"The suckler herd was started in 1994 with the purchase of 15 six-month old heifers [young, female cattle which have not yet had a calf], followed by ten more in 1995. The aim of the suckler herd [a herd of beef cattle where the cows are not milked, but are kept purely for producing beef calves] was to expand with the Farm’s conversion to organic farming, which also started in 1994. The original target was to have 60 cows as I thought that would be enough for me to look after but this has somehow grown to 72 cows this year.
"All the heifers that have been born into the herd have been kept for continual expansion of the herd, so other than about 4 calves that were bought from other organic farms to replace lost calves, the herd is closed [it is self-contained in terms of breeding]. Although the cows are not registered as pedigree they are 95% pure-bred [Aberdeen Angus] and the 2 pedigree bulls run with the herd between July and September.
"The cows are turned out [let out from the over-wintering buildings into the pastures] in the Spring, having calved, and will stay out until late October/early November, depending on the weather. At this point the calves are weaned from the cows and will spend the next eighteen months of their life growing and fattening. During this time they are only fed grass or silage and a small amount of home-produced organic oats or barley towards the end of the fattening stage.
"The herd has grown out of the old cattle yards and now have a brand new shed, so they are all under one roof, which makes management of them easier and allows them more space. The cattle are tested once a year for any deficiencies in minerals which are then corrected and this keeps the animal in good health and saves unnecessary handling through the year. The farm is well sheltered with hedges and woods around most fields and gives protection to the young calves in the early days."
