Natives hit the spec’ at Bargaly
TAKING pride in their pedigree cattle and making it a passion is the Landers family and its Cairnsmore herd – they have certainly dedicated their lives to their stock based at Bargaly Farm, Newton Stewart.
Husband and wife, Bill and Jane, have perfected the art of exhibiting their Beef Shorthorns and Belted Galloways, with the second generation of the family now coming into the business.
Son, Bobby, is certainly learning the ropes along with his wife, Kayleigh, while Bill and Jane’s two other children, Kirsty and Katie, are both involved in farming, with Kirsty marrying into the Ramsay family and Katie farming in New Zealand.
Jane left her AI job to join Bill farming at Bargaly in 1985 and she soon aspired to have a small herd of pedigrees to run alongside the commercial unit, which is when the Beef Shorthorns were introduced in 1995.
“We chose the Shorthorns for their temperament. Farming on a hill that reaches 2300ft above sea level, the cattle needed to be able to withstand the harsh winters and put as much as they can into their calves. The cows not only do that and are able to flourish in the rough hill ground, but also manage to have style and presence, which we think is very valuable in the show and sale ring,” said Jane.
“Back then, Beef Shorthorns were almost a rare breed and seeing the transition to where the breed has come to today is extraordinary.
“Nowadays, the breed is one of the most popular native cattle, with more folk looking to go down that route,” she added, with supermarket chain, Morrisons’ scheme for paying a premium for Beef Shorthorns, certainly helping the breed.
Bobby added: “Our goals are still to promote the breed and to produce the best livestock as we can. It is this attribute which all our cattle have that makes them work on any type of farm because if they can do well on the bare minimum then there is no doubt that they have the ability to grow into strong cattle anywhere.”
In the beginning, we started our herd by purchasing four Shorthorn cows in the form of Newfield Tanzy, Newfield Victoria, Chapelton Floss and Glenisla Ruby.
“We wanted an elite herd to show pedigree cows,” said Jane. The first bull they bred, Cairnsmore Nike Sportsman, was used in the herd, making a real stamp.
It didn’t take the family long to make a name for themselves. In 2004 they ventured to the Royal Highland Show for the first time with Shorthorns and secured the breed championship with Cairnsmore Trisha, which was in-calf to their 11,000gns purchase, Fearns Scotsman.
It didn’t take long to make history, when they sold Cairnsmore Zidane and created a record at that time of 12,000gns for a Shorthorn bull at Perth Bull Sales, in 2008.
On the female front, the top price achieved was 5000gns in 2005 at Perth when they sold Cairnsmore Wanda. The team have had numerous female championships at the sales with the latest coming in 2017 when Cairnsmore Kirsten went on to make 4700gns.
On the flip side, the most influential bull in the herd was Chapelton Dauphin, purchased in 2012 for 15,000gns. As well as having bred a lot of good breeding females he also produced two bulls which sold at Stirling Bull Sales in 2018 – Cairnsmore Kestrel stood reserve champion before making 9000gns and Cairnsmore Kickass Jack followed at 8000gns.
More recently, Bobby ventured up to Stirling for the first part of Carey Coombs’ dispersal, and purchased the top priced lot, which came in the form of a cow and calf outfit.
The cow, Dunsyre Magic 20, sold with her March-born roan bull calf at foot, Dunsyre Scirocco, by Fearn No Limits.
“We have had the Magic family line before, so we know it is a good breeding line, however the bull calf was a one-of-a-kind type. He is exactly what we are looking for with the flashy, style and presence about him. We hope to be able to use him as our new stock bull next year,” said Bobby.
The team have six bulls for Stirling and Carlisle next year, and a total of nine
heifers available for sale this year, seven at Stirling and two at Skipton.
“It is the first time we have planned to sell at Skipton but there is a huge demand for the breed at the sale and we need to try different markets,” said Bill.
This year’s seven females are made up of four in-calf heifers and three maiden heifers, all sired by the 15,000gns Coldrochie Jurassic, and the ones in calf are due to Cairnsmore Thunder Rambo. Some of the bulls will be off of the current stock bull, Redhill Lord Thunder, which was bought at nine-months old in a private deal.
Showing is a huge part to the business as well, with the local shows, Stranraer, Dumfries, Wigton and Moffat all supported as well as the Royal Highland Show. Cairnsmore Thrasher did the double having won both the Highland and the Yorkshire in 2009, when he was brought out by Richard and Carol Rettie.
The family would love to head back down to the Yorkshire but feel they couldn’t do the Highland in the same year as it would be too much for the cattle.
In addition to the Beef Shorthorn herd, the Belted Galloways were introduced in 2010 and they are now running 20 cows, with the foundation females coming from the Lullenden and Mosstonmuir herds.
“I was brought up with Galloways, so I wanted to get back to those routes, at the time there was no value in Galloways, so I wanted to try something different and improve the scope of the Belted Galloways,” said Jane.
“Although they don’t yet have as big of commercial value as the Shorthorns, they have a place on our farm and have a huge environmental push on at the moment.”
The first stock bull, Coulmony Coll, made a real stamp on the herd, having produced Cairnsmore Jamie which sold across to Germany and he went on to win the ‘Green Week national show, in Berlin.
The Landers sell a lot to Germany and another included Cairnsmore Jack Flack, which was junior champion over there too, Cairnsmore Mariah Johan won female champion and her son took the breed championship in Berlin.
The best bull the team have bred to date was Cairnsmore Hamish, which won the Royal Highland Show in 2015 as well as various other championships throughout the year, before he stood with top honours in the pre-sale show at Castle Douglas and went on to make 7000gns.
This year, the team have three heifers and two bulls for Castle Douglas with the females being sired by the current stock bull, Glen Idris, and the males have some traditional bloodlines, being sons of Lullenden Anderson.
“We want something that is going to sell well, and we find at this sale it is the females that go on to do better,” said Jane, with last October reaching a top of 3600gns and averaged £2700 for five sold.
On the commercial front, the 100 spring calvers, have the main intention to be as self-sufficient as possible. Having previously bought a few Luing heifers and breeding replacements, the Landers made the decision to breed their own replacements.
“Although the Luing heifers were doing OK, when we crossed them with the Beef Shorthorn they produced more milk and less hair as well as calving a lot easier,” said Bill. The suckler cows mainly go to home-bred bulls with the addition of a Simmental, purely just to get new bloodlines into the herd.
Bobby added: “We chose breeds to suit our system, they are out wintered on rough hill ground and calf out there too, the hill is that spread out that we don’t want to be having any issues come calving.”
All calves will be sold at 18 months of age through Newton Stewart market, with this year all 110 will be sold on the same day.
Complementing the cattle, is the 700-ewe flock of North Country Cheviots which are used to maintain the upland hill, as well as producing strong store lambs.
Having looked for a new challenge, the Cheviots seemed to be the answer and in 2009 the family bought 20 gimmers from David Baillie, of Calla Craig.
Half of that flock now go to a Bluefaced Leicester sire to produce the Cheviot Mule and then these will then be put to a Suffolk tup to produce an easy fleshing heavy lamb. The remaining of the flock are all kept pure.
“The Cheviots are extremely versatile sheep and suit our system well here, managing to have that bigger carcase for a hill breed as well as all sizes of lambs being valuable,” said Jane.
Bobby added: “They can produce quality lambs under the most rigorous and demanding conditions and are noted for their longevity.”
Enough ewe lambs are kept for breeding replacements with a select few kept for shearlings to be sold at Lockerbie, with all other lambs heading to Newton Stewart on the same day.
“Newton Stewart is only five miles away, it is on our doorstep and we would miss it if it wasn’t there, so we are always encouraged to support our local market,” said Bill, who would like to get into showing Cheviots.
“We enjoy showing and supporting local events, you can meet so many likeminded people all over the world and it is a great way to make contacts,” concluded all the Landers.