Cattle

We have around 200 cows on the farm making us one of the largest Aberdeen Angus & Hereford producers in the area. Virtually all of our cows are out-wintered so they need to be hardy and that is why we have traditional British breeds.

Aberdeen Angus cattle are world famous for their quality of meat partly due to the fact that they are slower growing which produces the marbling effect.

Some farmers are breeding larger and faster growing Angus by crossing them with continental cows such as the Limousin which they feed a high concentrate diet to make them finish quicker but reduces the quality.  At Glenurquhart Farm we let our animals mature and grow in their own time.  

The calves are left on their mothers for 8 months, then taken inside for the winter where their main diet is home grown silage.  In the spring some of the calves are sold to be finished by someone else and the rest are put out to grass for the summer. They are then housed for the winter where the diet is much the same but with a little more home grown barley and some locally produced nuts. This means that when they are sold they are at least 2 years old and not just 12-18months old and have had time to produce the marbling of the meat. Other farmers then finish them off on grass and barley before they turn 30 months.

We keep a few animals for ourselves some of which are for breeding and the rest are finished by ourselves.