Raising English Longhorns started as a hobby for Leicestershire farmer Pat Stanley but is now part of a thriving beef business she shares with her husband John on their 2,000 acre farm.
“Now the cattle that everyone considered to be a huge joke are the only profitable side of our agriculture business,” she said at the Commonwealth Agriculture Conference held in Calgary July 13-15.
The family had one of the top 10 Holstein farms in Great Britain, but poor milk prices forced it to leave the dairy business. Meanwhile, in 1989 Stanley had started Blackbrook Longhorns and developed a niche beef and breeding stock market.
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She chose Longhorns because they were docile cattle she could manage on her own. She was also attracted to the long history of a breed that nearly died out by the Second World War. It has since been revived and there are about 4,500 breeding cows among 300 breeders in England.
Stanley liked working with a rare breed but she was also concerned about the state of the British beef industry. Meat quality was variable and consumer confidence had eroded.
Commodity beef no longer paid. A better option was building a niche market with her own brand, offering special quality attributes to a more discerning consumer.
“Since the BSE crisis the consumer has become more selective,” she said.
Cattle older than 30 months are not allowed into the Britsh food chain, which Stanley said has improved meat quality.
Another problem was the heavy reliance on dairy cattle to supply beef. At one point about 70 percent of British beef came from dairies. That has dropped to about 50 percent but still creates quality problems.
Stanley embarked on a breed improvement plan of her own and has promoted her cattle through livestock shows since 1990.
“The show is my shop window where people can come see my cattle,” she said.
Cattle destined for her meat market are finished on grass in a low stress, high welfare environment. They are weaned at nine to 10 months and are slaughtered at 14 to 15 months at 600 kilogram carcass weight.
Stanley offers her customers complete traceability on every link of the animal’s life using the British cattle movement system identification numbers as well as farm records.
She tries to supply customers year round and will use young bull meat if no steers are available. She sells freezer packages to a growing customer list and includes all cuts to make sure she can move everything.
On the production side, her cattle’s horns have never injured workers or other animals.
“They are very gentle, docile cattle. If you give them time they just work their way through,” she said.
Live exports from England have resumed and Stanley has participated in a sale to Germany.
“While we have been here at the conference the first exports of animals out of our country have gone out and one of my Longhorns was in it,” she said in an interview.
The breed has been recognized since the Middle Ages and was used for meat, milk and work by peasants who grazed animals on common land. They vary in colour from dark brindle to pale roan with long creamy white horns that curve out or around the face without training.
Robert Bakewell started breed improvements and kept performance records in the 18th century. He wanted to raise them strictly as beef animals and sell the meat to people moving to cities during the industrial revolution. Much of his work died with him and the breed languished as producers began opting for Shorthorns.
The breed revived in the latter part of the 19th century, with a society formed in 1875 and a herd book established in 1878. However, breed numbers started to drop and the Longhorns were categorized as a rare breed until breeders such as Stanley came forward and helped rebuild.
Although the animals are horned and have a roan coat, they are not related to Texas Longhorns. They have a deep body and well muscled frame producing naturally marbled meat.
