Farm of the Week: Charolais breeders whose annual trip to the cattle sale is their holiday

“Sales can never be predicted,” says Jane. “Sometimes they are on fire with buyers, sometimes it’s different, but we were highly satisfied with our result on Saturday.”

“There were a lot of good bulls and we sold six of the seven we had taken. Our top price was 7000 guineas for Whitecliffe Stallone. He’s sixteen and a half months old and he’s out of a Whitecliffe Highlight dam by Westcarse Houdini.

That’s quite a combination in the Charolais world as fourteen-month old Whitecliffe Highlight achieved 31,000 guineas for the Hayhursts at the Spring Show and Sale in 2013, their highest price achieved in breeding so far, and still holds the Charolais breed centre record; while Westcarse Houdini had sold for John Christie at the same sale in the same year for 14,000 guineas.

“We like to go to the main sale at Carlisle every year,” says Jane. “It’s the nearest Mark and I get to a holiday, but it’s much more than that to us and we always aim to have bulls to sell there, while also selling a number of bulls to people who come to the farm to choose and buy.

“We sold eleven at last year’s sale and nine from home. We’ve sold six from home so far this year and we make sure we always have something available at any time as the Charolais bull is always in demand and there’s usually someone who is looking for a new one as a replacement.

“What we particularly like is getting repeat customers and we achieve that regularly both at home and at Carlisle. Last week four out of the six we sold were to previous customers and I like to think that says something about the quality we produce.

Mark and Jane bought the 220-acre Great Carr Farm twenty years ago having started out with a smallholding of 70 acres in 1999 and a vision of having their own Charolais herd.

“I liked Charolais cattle as a youngster,” says Jane. “My father always bred Charolais-crossed cattle at our family farm in Rosedale Abbey. I like their temperament, their nature, I like what they can do. They are just a fantastic breed and are a lovely breed to work with.

“Linkins Olivia was a very important heifer for us at Kirby Misperton. It was through her breeding that we achieved the record we hold at Carlisle, as Whitecliffe Highlight came through her.

“We now have about 100 pedigree breeding cows. The thing about cattle breeding is that you are always culling out cows and introducing new heifers. We don’t really sell the heifers for breeding because I like to keep the best of them and anything that isn’t good enough for breeding we will normally fatten and sell through either the liveweight market or deadweight. We support both systems because we are great believers that they both need each other.

It is the Charolais bull where the Hayhursts specialise in selling breeding stock and they make sure that everything is tightly controlled and constantly look at new bloodlines.

“We’ve only ever bought one live bull since we started,” says Jane. “Our herd has been completely closed since 2004. Our herd has high health herd status.

“Introducing new genetics every year to produce bulls that our customers want is vital to us. Mark AI’s the cattle. We breed some of our own bulls and when the cows are turned out we will use a sweeper bull, but the critical thing is the semen used and that has led to us selling four breeding bulls into Cogent’s stud.

“The Charolais is one of the best terminal sires because it just goes with most breeds,” says Jane. “It is also the most fantastic animal for putting weight on. It is that weight for age gain that makes it such a brilliant and popular choice as a terminal sire.

“It’s great because you can sell to someone who wants to breed store cattle by crossing the Charolais bull with virtually any other breed and there’s a margin for when the stores producer sells to the finisher, and again for the finisher. That way everyone is able to get a slice of the pie.

“A Charolais cow or Charolais-crossed cow will produce a really good calf that puts the weight on and finishes fast. And it works for our own pure stock too. Only three weeks ago we sold a 1000kg bull in the livestock market for £3 per kilo making the second highest price on the day of £3000.

Faster finishing cattle and bulls that provide easy calving cows are attributes that brought about the first importation of the Charolais breed to the UK in 1959 and subsequently the British Charolais Cattle Society formation in July 1962.

The breed has boasted impressive figures in key areas for many years and it is today’s performance statistics that Jane believes stand it in good stead right now.

“The thing we always do is performance record,” says Jane. “We have done that all the time. Prospective buyers like to see the animal, but they also like to see the figures that go with the animal.

“Now you have to do all sorts, like muscle scanning, DNA testing and the myostatin test. It all creates something as a different aide for the prospective buyer to look at when buying.

“We always try to produce bulls that provide easy calving. We buy different semen for different reasons. You have to have a good mix.

“Most of our business is to commercial buyers who are looking for healthy animals that will provide them with the fertility they require. Charolais-crossed stock always bring about consistent returns in local markets whether topping suckler sales or fatstock sales.

Great Carr Farm has 150 acres of arable cropping this year with a mix of wheat, barley, oats and beans all being grown for feed, with the rest down to grass providing silage and haylage.

“We have grass from two neighbouring farms farms,” says Jane. “We like to be self-sufficient as much as we can and we also then know what is going into the rations.”

Daniel Cockerill is the other main member of the Hayhurst team and is pictured helping prep the cattle for last weekend’s show and sale.

“Daniel is such an important person to us,” says Jane. “He came to us on an Askham Bryan College apprenticeship ten years ago and works here and on my mum and dad’s farm. Mark and I couldn’t wish for a better young man who gives one hundred per cent every single day. We are also lucky to have Helen Craggs who has helped us get the bulls ready for Carlisle and has shown our bulls for the last two years.