Pedigree or commercial, it’s Blondes for Tangier Farm)
The Tangier pedigree registered British Blonde herd was only established by Steven Gregory and his enthusiastic twin daughters Emma and Lucy in 2018, but pure-bred Blonde cattle and crosses have been on Tangier Farm, Bishops Waltham, Hampshire for more than 25 years.
Tangier is very much a commercial operation on 200 owned acres and around a further 300 rented. There are some 400 commercial beef cattle including the 80 head of suckler cows plus followers, and around 100 beef cross calves which are bought in out of dairy herds. The pedigree herd itself runs to about 35 breeding females plus their progeny and a small farm shop has been on-site since 2021, selling their own beef and locally-sourced lamb and pork. The Gregorys also have an agricultural contracting business and are therefore well equipped to carry out most operations on their own farm.
Originally a dairy farm, the switch to beef came in the early 1980s when Steven and his own father would buy in Blonde crosses for finishing, and so pleased were they with every aspect of the breed, Blonde bulls were used from then onwards after the suckler herd was established.
Says Emma “Our dad has always said it’s nice to have cattle you enjoy looking at every day, and we certainly do. Mine and Lucy’s preference is for the darker ones, but whatever colour, they all have that good conformation and despite what you sometimes hear about the temperament of Blondes, I don’t think we have ever had one that was in any way wild or difficult.”
Both Emma and Lucy are very much involved with the farm despite studying part-time for degrees in agricultural business management and, working part time on another beef unit in the area. Brother Thomas is full time at home along with one employee.
“We have loved cows since we were small when we would bottle feed some of the calves, and for our tenth birthday we got a Belted Galloway of our own to rear,” they say.
The first pedigree bull bought was Samoht Meikillu bred by Paul Thomas in Wokingham and which has five daughters in the Tangier herd, while the first two pedigree heifers were from Andrew and Kate McNeil’s Katem herd near Doncaster, However, accounting for most of the young pedigree Blondes in the herd is the 2018 born Wingfield bull Otter, bred in Thomas Beckingham’s Chesterfield based herd. The home-bred four year old Tangier Sampson is currently following on. He is by Fiveways Ollie out of Katem Nelly and many of Tangier’s foundation cows, including the first two heifers, came from Katem. Several others are from the Chippenham based Mintys herd of Minty Mayew, and Sue and David Knight’s Doncombe herd near Bath. The oldest cow in the herd is the September 2014 born Willowdene Jodie whch is still breeding and, according to Emma and Lucy, is holding her condition really well.
While the twins are both keen on ‘pedigree’, they are also commercially minded. “The Blonde sired cattle we are finishing are often at the higher end of the price lists in Salisbury market where we sell most months of the year. There is no doubt buyers like them and ours often go to the same ones,” they say.
“While we do prefer selling in the auction, the recent Bluetongue episode meant we have had to go deadweight for a while but even then, our cattle were grading well and pretty much matching the auction returns. We would normally sell our home-bred Blonde crosses at 26 to 28 months and we do not push them to get to either side of 600kg. In summer they are grazed and then when they are housed from November to April or May, along with the breeding cows, they are on grass and maize silage based tmr. Everything is on straw yards, with muck going back onto the maize ground,” say Emma and Lucy, and they also point out the pedigree herd gets no special treatment either at grass or inside.
The Blonde bulls used on the commercial cows are home-bred but not necessarily registered. However, several dairy farms in the area also buy bulls off the Gregorys.
“These farms are very pleased with the quality of calves out of their dairy cows and some are perfectly happy to use them on black and white heifers without any problem. Fortunately for us, we are able to buy back some of the Blonde sired calves which are part of the 100 or so head we buy each year,” say Emma and Lucy.
The pedigree Tangier heifers are normally served no earlier than 30 months and the commercial herd is split into three calving groups which enables finished cattle to be sold pretty much year round. Calves are weaned at around eight months old.
Apart from bulls sold into dairy herds, a small number of pedigree heifers have been sold to date but most have been retained as the herd has been built up and improved. No sexed semen has been used so far, but remains a possibility for the future as does performance recording and getting the Tangier prefix into some of the Breed Society sales.
Pressure on time and labour has meant there has not been the opportunity to do any showing although that too is something Emma and Lucy would like to do in the future. However, the Gregorys are active in the regional club and ‘Steven Gregory and Daughters’ have regularly been in the cards, not least with Wingfield Otter which has twice won best stock bull and progeny, and last year, Tangier was judged best large herd.
As for the future, while Emma and Lucy already own a few individuals in the Tangier herd, they have sights set on one day establishing their own prefix.
Farm Facts
- Tangier Farm 500 acres owned and rented
- Pedigree Blondes and commercial sucklers
- Farm shop
- Grass and home-grown maize
- TB1 area (no breakdowns to date)
- Testing for BvD, Johnes etc