This year’s Belted Galloway herd visit was kindly hosted by Will and Sarah Mack and their family at the beautiful Grange Farm at Surlingham in the Norfolk Broads.
After a rainy morning the sun came out for our visit and there was a good turnout from the region of just over 30 people. Will gave us a brief overview of the many operations on their 800 acre farm in the Norfolk Broads; in addition to the arable and cattle operations (both commercial and belted Galloway) the farm has embraced a number of interesting diversifications including a self-service farm shop, time share swimming pool, rape seed oil press and production facility and an on farm patisserie!
The visit commenced with a tour of the cattle round house, Will explained how the facility was used and the handling and health benefits it had bought to the cattle operation. We were then shown the rape seed oil press also located in the main farmyard, the process has the useful by-product of rape pellets which Will is able to incorporate into his winter feed ration.
Thereafter we all climbed aboard the two shoot trailers for a trip out to see the Belted Galloways. The first stop was the youngstock grazing a mix of yearlings and two year olds from the two stock bulls. The second group visited were the cows with Wills’ senior stock bull Barwise Barcode, a very fine looking beast. This group included most of his foundation cows from herds including; Croasdale, Cairnsmore, Hillfield and OfftheWall, together with their 2024 calves. The final stop was to the two and three year old heifers sired by Barcode who were running with Will’s junior stock bull Dornells Jack purchased at the Castle Douglas sale in 2022. This final group was located in a stunning field overlooking the River Yare, after which Will’s herd has been named, a fitting place to conclude the tour.
Thereafter the group returned to the farm to enjoy some food, drinks and a good catch up until late into the afternoon. A big Thank you to our hosts for a fabulous afternoon and of course to everyone who came along!
Nicola
