The Oxey Herd of South Devons
The Oxey herd of South Devons was started in the late 1980’s with 15 pedigree heifers and 15 x-bred heifers. We are now calving 225 cows and the herd is 95% pure. The x-bred progeny of those early cows have now been graded up to pure pedigree animals. Our current policy is to buy in the majority of breeding bulls and breed our own replacement heifers.
All other stock are then transferred to our beef finishing unit and heifers, bulls and steers are sold to a range of outlets.
Herd Management
The objective has been to build on the excellent qualities of the South Devon in terms of growth rates, size, quietness and flavoursome meat.
The herd is grass fed and over wintered indoors, mainly on straw and silage, which we believe leads to a long and healthy life for our cattle.
One of the challenges we have given ourselves is to breed a polled herd, and we are currently using four polled bulls. At present there are about 50 polled cows in the herd with a further number amongst the heifers coming into the herd this coming spring.
The herdsman is Darren Russell and he has been with us for several years.