Change for more weight to meet customer demand.
It was a nice spring afternoon when I was introduced to Mervyn Thomas who was happy and proud to
show and talk me round his herd of Blonde cross commercial cattle.
Five years ago Mervyn Thomas from Haywood Farm, Callow Nr Hereford was selling lambs at Ross market when he “wondered round the corner” and saw British Blue cross Holstein heifers for sale that he decided there and then that he was going to buy them and build himself a suckler herd.
This all sounds a little bit rash, but these were the thoughts of a very successful business man who farms 1000 acres of arable land with his brother Bryan and now has a herd of 90 breeding females and is happy to share the pleasure that the stock have bought him.
He started off using a bull from another continental breed but found the progeny were fit at 550kgs before going fat. With customer demand looking for heavier weights, he wanted an easy calving breed with exceptional growth,
therefore turned to the British Blonde which will grow a tremendous carcass to between 600 and
650kg which is what the customer is looking for.
Romance aside Mervyn took his wife to the national British Blonde society sale in Carlisle on their wedding anniversary and purchased their first British Blonde bull, Kinaston Viscount, otherwise known by his stable mates as “Roy”. This was a two year old bull which had shown successfully at the Royal Show by breeder Roy Kinnish who owns the Kinaston herd from Aston Botterell, Nr Bridgenorth, Shropshire.
Every year as Mervyn culled ewes he replaced them with another twenty heifers to build his herd and reduce his flock which stands at 255 Suffolk cross ewes crossed to Charolais rams which he lambs in January. “We ran 900 ewes at one time, but I love the cattle” says Mervyn.
Generally spring calving works best for the Thomas’ however a small percentage of females calve in the autumn.
Once calved they remain housed until turn out for the summer, bull and heifer calves are separated. Bull calves have creep feed through the summer and are weaned in the autumn where they then have a home-grown cereal mix adlib. Whereas heifers summer out at grass and then are fed adlib silage and home mix, selling at twenty four months finished. We find the Blonde cross bulls kill out up to 65% which is excellent grading Es and Us.
At twelve months old the bulls are weighing approximately 550 - 600kg. Over a thirty seven day period in February/March they had a weight gain of an average of 2.1kg per day.
Calves are dosed with Ivomectin when they come in for the autumn. The heifers and cows are vaccinated for BVD, Lepto, Rotavirus and BT.
The 1000 acres of arable produces grain to sell, as well as corn to mix with rape and beans, producing their own finishing mix for the cattle.

Mervyn is delighted with his Blonde cross cattle, they not only give a fantastic killing out percentage with excellent grades but the temperament of these animals is great. This is understandable from the hand that feeds them but proof was there when as I was talking to Mervyn he invited me to join him in the cattle pens as we walked amongst these mighty strong stock, they were not at all phased as I snapped away with the camera. Mervyn says his grandfather kept pedigree cattle years ago and it’s good to have cattle back on farm.
The pride for the cattle shows as Mervyn guides me round the cattle yards and introduces me to his second bull Kinaston Arnold, otherwise known as Frank. Throwing slightly smaller calves he is perfect on the heifers and he is equally as placid as Roy.
As we head back to the house for a cup of tea we check the cow Mervyn is expecting to calve. As we enter the large pen with ten other ladies in waiting she calves, a bull calf, happily licking her offspring and appearing to be very content.
The calf looks alert, Mervyn is pleased and the whole cycle starts all over again.
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