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ILC Visit - The CHATSWORTH HERD
To be a pedigree Limousin heifer in the Chatsworth
herd means spending the summer grazing in stunning parkland which
was laid out by Capability Brown in front of the magnificent Chatsworth
House in Derbyshire, recently voted England’s finest stately
home, and the destination of over 2 million visitors in 2003.
 Chatsworth
House was initially constructed in 1552 by Sir William Cavendish and
his wife “Bess of Hardwick”. This awe inspiring building,
set in the midst of the breathtaking Chatsworth estate has been the home
of the Cavendish family ever since.
The 140 plus pedigree breeding females in the Chatsworth Limousin herd are just
one of many livestock enterprises overseen by Farm Manager since 1980. His ability
to recite the back breeding of any pedigree Chatsworth Limousin, pointed out
at random, suggests that of the thousands of stock in his care, the Limmies are
his favourites. In addition to the pedigree Limousins, there is a 60 head suckler
herd of Limousin crosses, bred in the estate’s dairy herd of 240 pedigree
cows, the majority of which are Holstein Friesians. There are also some Dairy
Shorthorns and dainty Jerseys – the Chatsworth Jersey herd was founded
by the current Duke’s father.
As well as supplying home-bred commercial herd replacements, approximately 20
in-calf Limousin first cross heifers, carrying 3/4 Limousin calves are sold privately
each year to local suckler herds.
The 5,300 plus acres of the moorland and grazing at Chatsworth also carries a
sheep enterprise totalling almost 4,500 breeding ewes - 3,000 Mules, 500 Mashams,
850 Swaledales and 50 Jacobs.
A range of breeds are employed as service sires – Texels, Rouge de l’Ouest,
Suffolk, Charollais, Teeswater and Bluefaced Leicester. Annually on the second
Saturday in September, Chatsworth stages a sale of store lambs, breeding/feeding
lambs and breeding sheep. At the 37th sale in 2003, a total of 6,236 sheep were
catalogued.
Ian Turner introduced the first pedigree Limousins to Chatsworth in 1987 – two
cows and two heifers from Peter Pitcher’s Cockleshell herd in Lincolnshire.
The following year a further nine females were purchased. The herd was then closed
to females. Now in 2004, every single female in the pedigree Chatsworth herd
is home-bred. Of the 313 registered Chatsworth Limousins in early April 2004,
only five of the six stock bulls did not carry the Chatsworth prefix. The bulls
have been sourced from numerous herds – the senior bovine romeo is Hartside
Nelson who is usually awarded between 40 and 60 of the pedigree cows. Grange
Ovipare and Harrison Sanyo, particularly easy calvers, are used on heifers, including
the commercial first cross Limousin heifers, most of which are sired by the home-bred
Chatsworth Pisces. All other romancing duties are dealt with by Bolsterstone
Superior and Procters Trooper.
 When
selecting a new stock bull Ian Turner veers from the traditional path
of doing battle in the sale rings of Society sales. He prefers to buy
bulls privately from the breeder. “ By going to the farm I’m
hopefully able to see the sire and dam, plus possibly some half brothers
and sisters, maybe even full siblings. I seek naturally done bulls which
haven’t been pushed and look as if they will leave progeny which
will do well off forage, and daughters which will make good replacements.
If the herd is performance recording I consider the EBVs, particularly
the figures for milk, but the bull still needs to look right – I’ve
seen some bulls with high EBVs which look like bloomin’ hat racks!”.
When the decision was made to introduce the first pedigree beef herd to Chatsworth,
Ian Turner had the vast range of native British and Continental breeds to choose
from. He decided upon the Limousin for numerous reasons. “Here in Derbyshire
we’re in a good cattle area, with plenty of either beef or dairy herds
around us. I believed that we would be able to easily sell Limousin bulls locally
into both types of herds. Currently we’re selling over a dozen bulls each
year to local beef and dairy farmers”. “ Also we needed cows which
would survive and thrive on the farm – the land runs up to 900 feet, so
although they’re in-wintered, the cows still have to handle some pretty
harsh spring and autumn weather”. “ Our pedigree Limousins do not
get any special treatment – they run alongside the commercial cows and
are treated the same. “We’ve found them to be hardy cows, with good
feet and mobility”. “When selecting replacements I have sought to
retain heifers from easy calving, milky, meaty cows which are natural thrivers
and do a good job of rearing their calves. We weigh all the calves at weaning
and place a lot of emphasis on these weights when considering replacements”.
This selection policy has met with independent approval - in 2002 the Chatsworth
herd was runner- up in the hotly contested Large Herd section for the North West
Midlands and North Wales region. The one thing a beef breed must do is produce
BEEF and Chatsworth has an excellent way of ensuring that their cattle are producing
the goods. From far and wide, every day, customers flock to the Chatsworth Farm
Shop which boasts a taste bud titillating array of tantalising goodies. The main
attraction however is the lip smacking display of meat. The beef and lamb is
of course home-produced, with calving and lambing organised to ensure a year
round supply. Over half of the ? Limousin crosses bred in the commercial herd
are sold through the shop, plus some of the pures which do not make the grade
for breeding. The remaining commercial cattle are sold as stores in nearby Bakewell
market to regular customers from Lincolnshsire and Northamptonshire. Two or three
head of finished cattle are slaughtered weekly at a local, family-run abattoir
at Glossop, then hung for two weeks before being vacuum packed and matured for
a further week.
 “
When selecting cattle for the shop, obviously conformation is important,
but so is finish – the 21st Century customer does not want too
much fat”, explained Ian. “And because it’s difficult
to get a Limousin to go over- fat, the Limousins give us great flexibility
when we’re gauging the supply of cattle for the farm shop and our
mail order customers”.
The butchery section in the shop has become so popular that in spring 2004 the
decision was made to double its size. Head butcher of the large butchery team,
who work in full view of the customers, is Paul Neale who came to Chatsworth
eight years ago after 28 years in a High Street butcher’s in Chesterfield. “ Before
I came to Chatsworth I had hardly worked with Limousin beef”, explained
Paul. “My initial and lasting reaction is that it’s the perfect butcher’s
meat – the carcase conformation and the amount of muscle in relation to
the small amount of bone is excellent. In particular the Limousins are really
meaty where it matters – particularly in the eye muscle”. “ Our
customers tell us that they shop with us because of the quality and the traceability
of the meat, (Ian Turner makes sure there are usually either sheep or cattle
grazing adjacent to breeding”, explained Ian Turner. This has helped us
to be objective in our replacement selection and we’ve House.
Beyond the gardens lie the Park, laid out by Capability Brown in the 1760’s.
Since the pedigree herd was founded, very few females have been sold for breeding – the
best have been retained, with the majority of the surplus gracing the dinner
plates of the lucky farm shop customers. Over the last seventeen years the Chatsworth
pedigree Limousin herd has been moulded into a naturally thriving, meaty and
milky herd, calving easily and making a great job of their calves.
Later this year – on October 8th (2004) the Chatsworth herd will hold its
very first Production sale – 50 to 60 lots of young animals - first calvers
with calves at foot and in calf again, in-calf heifers and maidens. “ We
started with a small number of foundation females which has made it easy to identify
the way families are reached the stage when we have a lot of youngsters which
we would like to keep ourselves. So if they’re good enough for us, hopefully
they’ll also appeal to other breeders”. The history of Chatsworth
spans hundreds of years, during which time livestock farming has been an integral
part of the Estate. Over these Centuries various traditional native British beef
breeds have grazed the Chatsworth pastures.
Thanks to the Farm Shop, the complete beef production story, from conception
to consumption can be followed at Chatsworth. The dominant theme which runs through
this modern beef story is the Limousin breed, which despite less than 40 years
of its own British history, blends seamlessly into the centuries old Chatsworth
tradition of an on-going quest for the maintenance of the very highest standards.
More than 105 acres of marvellous gardens, complete with spell-binding water
features, surround Chatsworth Over the centuries Chatsworth’s grandeur
and its surroundings have proved irresistible to many of the great landscape
artists, who have captured the image in oils and water colours. Some of these
paintings show majestic groups of deer grazing in the parkland. For 21st Century
artists, the deer are still there, but what Capability Brown nor the early artists
could have foreseen – now they share their grazing with pedigree Limousin
cattle which proudly carry the Chatsworth name and are very much part of the
landscape of this wonderful place.
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