65794 - Gary Atkinson.pdf 1 26/09/2017 09:55:39
Weighton Wold Farm
C
M
Y
GARY ATKINSON & SONS
FENCING SERVICES
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
Quality workmanship and
service you can rely on
• Post and Rail
• Stock Netting
• Rabbit Netting
• Poultry Fencing
• Deer Fencing
• Gate Hanging
Proud to be working with Robert
Rook of Weighton Wold Farm,
wishing him continued success.
Contact Gary on
07732 793 991
Market Weighton
‘The study tour was a light
bulb moment for us. There
were five of us initially and
we imported 100 embryos
that landed in 1996. They
produced 57 calves in 1997
and today there are over
10,000 performance recorded
Stabiliser cows in the UK. It is
one of the beef breed success
stories of the past 20 years
and is growing at a rate of
10-12 per cent of recorded
females a year.
Richard, Robert and the
other cohorts initially saw the
Stabiliser as something purely
for the group but they soon
realised the potential was far
greater – particularly amongst
those who had become
disillusioned with beef from
dairy herds.
‘Although British
beef farmers are pretty
conservative it soon became
clear that many more farmers
wanted to be a part of the
breed when they saw the
results, uniformity and quality
produced. The breed in the
UK is now run as the Stabiliser
Cattle Company and we
have 100 farms contracted
as multipliers and the breed
is kept as far and wide as the
Orkneys to Cornwall.’
Robert is the chairman of
the Stabiliser Cattle Company
and explains how it is run, far
different to traditional cattle
breed societies.
‘We run it more along
the lines of a pig breeding
company than a cattle society,
which means we run it with
greater control than if it
was a free- for-all of lots of
interested parties and it has
become a family that is always
growing. Givendale Prime
has now been marketed at
Bill Burton’s butchers shop in
Pocklington for several years
and we have developed a
significant relationship with
the Morrisons supermarket
chain.
‘Our aim has, and always
will be, to produce an
economically efficient suckler
cow that in turn produces
calves used in further breeding
and also produces quality beef.
Work on EBVs is a constant job
and in a recent project we’ve
looked specifically at feed
efficiency utilising a system of
Grow Safe feed boxes from
Canada. A transponder in
the beast’s ear informs the
computer of the animal that is
feeding from the box at any
time and the feed calculation
is made from the amount that
was in the box prior to eating
and what was left at the end of
the meal. Each separate meal
is recorded and at the end of
the day we know what each
animal has eaten. That means
we then know the net feed
efficiency (NFE). Each beast
was weighed every week. We
were able to calculate how
much they had eaten and
how much they had grown.
‘A group of us
went over to
the States on
a study tour in
1995 and this
provided the
impetus for
everything that
has happened
since’
By recording this way you can
better identify the best animals
in terms of feed conversion.’
It’s all about then
producing animals that are
up to the specifications the
supermarkets are looking for
and with the current trend
towards smaller the work
being conducted is pivotal to
the breed’s continued rise in
popularity.
www.farmers-mart.co.uk Autumn 2017 65