The Farmers Mart Autumn 2017 - Issue 52 | Page 65

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