With chilly winds, rain and sleet across Dartmoor and the South West, our cattle are now cosily installed in their large winter barns where they can enjoy deep straw beds and plenty of organic food. Our Aberdeen Angus cattle are sturdy with thick coats so why do we bring them indoors you may ask?
Well, the main reason is that we need to protect our organic pasture during the wet and muddy winter months.  The hooves of cattle are flat and can turn a green meadow into a muddy bog within a few weeks during wet weather.  The second reason is that the organic grass and forage which is the mainstay of the cattle’s diet does not grow as strongly during winter ‘hibernation’ when there is less sunshine and colder temperatures. We simply wouldn’t have enough natural grass to feed all the cows! 

So whilst they’re in the barns, we feed them on hay and silage collected from our fields during the summer months (read posts on silage & hay July 17th & July 23rd)) and they also have access to fresh drinking water and plenty of room to move about and sleep.

Our new bull ‘Elevation’ (read September 11th) has settled in well with his lady friends and the entire herd will now stay indoors until early spring when the pastures start to dry out and the fresh grass begins to grow. This photos shows some of our cows in one of our farmyard barns.