Unable to find the right suckler herd replacements at the right price, Carl Stephenson breeds his own. Now two thirds of his 60 cow suckler herd at Pikestone, Woodland, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham are pure Limousins, run commercially.

Most of the land farmed by Carl and his wife, Julia, levels at between 1,150 and 1,200ft, with little protection from cold north easterly winds, snow and rain. Pikestone is part of the Raby Estate and runs to 174 acres. Now the Stephensons also farm the neighbouring 131-acres on a tenancy, which is restored open cast land. A further 35 acres is taken on a grazing licence.

Carl's father quit milk production in the early 1970s when Charolais, Simmental and Limousin bulls were used - but the Limousin left the others standing, making more money. Ever since then there have been Limousin cross cattle at Pikestone, but pure-breds, most of which are registered, have been in existence since 1979. The remit then was to sell high quality stock to compensate for lack of numbers. In the past, Pikestone cattle have won the suckler sale at Middleton in Teesdale Mart six years out of eight. Once the neighbouring farm was taken on, more cross-bred cattle were bought to increase the numbers, with the intention of changing them for pure Limousins when possible. Up to eight heifers are kept each year from the best cows to retain in the herd.

"We used to buy heifers and calves but couldn't get the ones we wanted without paying an extortionate price, so we began to keep our own pure-bred heifers. They do very well for us," said Carl Stephenson.
Within another couple of years the whole herd will be pure Limousin, but run on commercial lines with the best females registered.

Another consideration in moving towards a closed herd is the health status of the cattle. Home bred cattle cope better with the farm's weather conditions, as well as deficiencies in copper and selenium.

Around half a dozen bulls are kept each year for breeding and the other pure Limousins are castrated and sold after the first premium claim has been made.
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This year seven pure bred Limousin bulls have been sold locally and all reared under commercial conditions. One sold last year went on to sire the champion at the Middleton in Teesdale suckler sale for C & M Dent, of Lunedale. This seven month old bullock sold for £1,080 in November 2000.

"I don't believe in pushing weight for age. Feeding intensively is not for the good of the animal. It costs money to put flesh on these bulls and it has to be wasted off before they are in working condition.
"In the current climate and you can't afford to lose money. It comes down to what it costs to put on a kg of weight and the cheapest way to do that is from milk and grass," he said.

The herd calves in three batches. January-born calves are sold in November, with April calves being sold the following February and the July calves sold the following May which aids cash flow. There are 25 early calvers, with 15 in May and 20 in July. The main sale is in mid November at Middleton-in-Teesdale, with the calves being housed for a month before they are sold and fully weaned before the sale to ensure they settle more easily for their buyers. They are also vaccinated against pneumonia and wormed. Six weeks to two months prior to the sale the calves receive 2kg of creep feed a day. "If cattle do not go on and do well, the buyers will not come back. We sell to the same buyers year after year," said Mr Stephenson. After the sale these cows go back out and the summer born calves and their mothers come in. These are the only cattle housed for the whole winter and the only cows to calve inside are the January calvers. All cattle are fed only silage during the winter.

The Stephensons had their best sale last autumn at Middleton in Teesdale when they sold 11 and 12 month old bullocks to average £620. Another calf bred at Pikestone, Pikestone Gertie, went on to take the commercial championship at Limousin 2000 for Dougie Lloyd, of Shropshire and this year one of her bulls was sold by Christine Williams for 7,000gns. One of the bulls which has left his mark on the cross bred cows, producing top priced calves, was Shire Albert, bought at 14 months and bred by Doug Edgar and a son of his imported bull, Umar. Unable to use him any further on the herd, Albert was sold on and continued to work until he was 14 years old. One of the current stock bulls is Greenwell Louis, a son of Daim, bought from the Nattresses of Lanchester, Durham. He was bought privately at a year old with the attraction for Carl Stephenson being his well muscled hindquarters and a history of good milk production - Mr Stephenson had seen his dam, grand dam and great granddam.

His first batch of heifers has recently calved and they are producing a lot of milk. More recently, another Nattress bulls, Greenwell Oliver was bought to serve Louis' heifers. Again he was bought at a young age to best judge his potential and was bought for his muscling ability and calving ease.

"Limousins have stood me in good stead. There's only my wife and I on the farm, with increasing help from the children, and the Limousins look after themselves, being good to work with and we don't have to calve anything," said Mr Stephenson.

"Our cows have calved to Louis for three years and we have literally never touched a cow. I like to go to bed at nights and not have to worry about calving cows," he added.

The farm's other enterprise is sheep with 100 of the 450 Swaledale ewes being kept pure and the remainder crossed.