Rebuilding the Delfur legacy
AT Dundurcas Farm, Garry Patterson is hoping to rebuild the legacy of Delfur Simmental herd.
Based just outside Rothes, Aberlour, Dundurcas is part of 1000 acres owned by Conservative MSP Sir Edward Mountain. Local stockman Garry Patterson took over the management of the farm two years ago and he has his sights set putting the Delfur herd back on the pedigree map.
“Here at Dundurcas we have 130 pure bred Simmental cows with the majority registered pedigree. Since I started here I have been trying to build the herd back up again and I am keeping quite a lot of heifers to slowly bring the Delfur legacy back to the forefront.”
Garry came from his own farming background to work at Dundurcas.
He has his own farm in Keith where he runs both pedigree and commercial cattle.
“I’ve always worked with cattle, my dad had commercial cows when I was growing up but then he started to introduce pedigree females. That started to grow arms and legs but it means I have a history with Limousins, Charolais, British Blues and of course Simmentals.”
Since Garry started managing the Simmentals at Delfur he has already made some big purchases for the future of the farm.
“I started in May 2022 and by that October I bought the top priced bull at Stirling, Islavale Magnum from the Stronach family for 28,000gns. The calves we are getting from him are looking quite promising so hopefully he was worth it.”
At the Stirling Bull Sales in February, Garry then bought Kilbride Farm Nebulus 22 for 13,000gns from the Robsons.
“Hopefully by investing in these quality bulls I can bring the stock back up to a higher level.”
Garry also does a fair bit of work with AI and uses Paragon IVF for all embryo transfers.
“I try and use some of
the old bloodlines as the breeding is still there and it’s a way to get use out of the older cows by flushing them. I do the AI myself and it works well to keep precision in the breeding.”
When it comes to keeping cows, Simmentals are well known for their longevity but Garry does want to try and keep the herd fresh.
“If a cow is breeding well, then there’s no point in getting rid of her and that’s why we have had cows living until they are 16 years age here. It’s still important to keep bringing in new generations though and it’s why I am focused on increasing heifer numbers at the moment.”
Heifers calve at 24-36months of age over two batches. One half calve in the spring with the other half in October and November. All calving takes place indoors and the cows and followers are put back outside weather dependent, early May.
“The bad weather this year has made calving
more dicult. It’s looking like we won’t be able to get the cows out until we are further into May. We usually out winter some of the spring-calving cows out by the Spey but the weather was so bad they had to come inside earlier than I would’ve liked.”
The cattle at Dundurcas are fed home-grown silage and straw mixed with minerals. Over winter they also get fed some concentrate.
“We grow a lot of cereals here so we have 350 acres of spring barley used for malting and 40 acres of winter barley that we keep for feed. We also grow our own silage from around 100 acres.”
Surplus bull calves are sold as stores at Thainstone and any heifers that are not good enough for breeding are used as recipients for embryos. Garry also weight records and scans the bulls for future sales. “I want to improve the herds’ figures but I also want to ensure the easy calving and milk traits are maintained. I don’t pelvic measure the heifers but it’s something I am keen to maybe do going forward.”
Garry also makes sure bulls for sale get that wee bit extra attention.
“Bulls bound for the sales at Stirling get a bit more TLC and I feed them a Galloway and MacLeod concentrate mix to get them ready for the ring while the younger stock are fed Harbro beefstock nuts. My bulls are also all semen tested as fertility testing is something I am particularly focused on.”
It’s a policy which is paying dividends too as at the Stirling Bull Sales in October 2022 Garry sold Delfur Maverick for 16,000gns. Furthermore, at United Auctions last May his reserve overall champion Delfur Marvel made 9000gns with his pen leader Delfur Macbeth making 10,500gns.
For next month’s sale at Stirling, Delfur has five entered – Delfur Nimrod, Nightrider, Nemesis, Number1, and Northstar.
“Hopefully we will get a good trade for them. Any that don’t sell through the ring, I am open to sell privately. I have sold both males and females privately in the past so I am not opposed to it.”
In the past couple of months, Garry has also had
assistance of farmhand Andrew Kennedy who between them, hope to slowly but surely bring the herd name back to the fore. “We started showing again last year which proved to be successful, when we took the championship at the Agri Expo, senior reserve female at Stars of the Future and inter-breed and reserve inter-breed pairs at Livescot.
“Ultimately, if I can keep improving the figures and breeding in an eort to build up the quality of the herd I will be happy with that.”