LOW KIRKBRIDE FARM

Low Kirkbride is an organic farm situated in South West Scotland, ten miles north of Dumfries. It comprises of two farms, Low Kirkbride and Huntfield, the origin of our prefix.

The farm is run in a holistic way: it has been organic for over 25 years and we enjoy a whole farm perspective. Our cows are Belted Galloways, bred from the original cows that we bought over a three year period starting in 1995: Broadmeadows Lala, Boreland Hattie, Southdown Nuthatch, Park Wooser and Boreland Slamette.

Our cows are pedigree Belted Galloways and the criteria that we go for are good feet, a sound frame and a great temperament. We finish our bullocks at just under 30 months and average about 320kg. Our heaviest bullock was 374kg deadweight, he was by Aztec Warrior and out of Scamp, an average nice cow who always has the best calf.

We enjoy showing – it’s sociable, fun and a good way to promote the breed.

We finish our bullocks and they go to Dovecote Park who sell to Waitrose, a supermarket that has strong ethical ideas similar to our own. Dovecote Park won’t accept single animals, they always need a buddy. Likewise, when selling cast cows they also go in twos straight to Highland Meats.

We care a lot about our cattle and most are very tame. We halter train when they are weaned; the odd one being halter trained from day one when going to a show with their dam – the very best time to halter train.

Many of our cows are by the AI bull Southfield Major Ronaldo which we think clicked very well. Subsequent sires that we have used are Lullenden Aztec Warrior, another favourite, and lately Southfield Sonny Boy. Last year we bought Barwise Herdmaker and having natural service is a lot easier than artifical insemination. Though this offers less choice, we have Herdmaker calves on the ground and they are looking promising. We have also used some of our homebred bulls, Amnesty, Sebastian, Red Bull, Yohann and Yukon are the ones that come to mind.

We want our cows to have a great enjoyable life and high health plays a part of this. We are fortunate to be in a 4 year testing area for TB and we are accredited for Lepto, IBR and BVD, and Level 1 for Johne’s Disease.

Hardly any concentrates are used, mostly for training purposes and a wee bit for the autumn calves. The cows eat grass in the summer, supplemented with silage if it gets very dry, we are on stony ground, free draining and it burns easily. Most come inside during the winter but they have access to a good sized exercise area. They are split into autumn and spring calves but some migrate from one season to another.

If you’re looking for a relaxing nature friendly break surrounded by belties then there are two self-catering cottages on the farm,the Beltie Byre which sleeps 8, run by Pass the Keys and the Cheesehouse sleeps up to 4,find it on Airbnb.

We are deeply committed to our farm and try to do the best for it and the environment, being organic we don’t use sprays and very much feel that others shouldn’t either.