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Report on the 2010 Society Open Day
The 2010 Society Open Day was held at Pilkington Farms, Hitchin, Herts on Sunday 20th June.
Our hosts for the day were Jon and Sarah Birchall and after the formalities of a short EGM, Jon took the floor to talk about the reasons why he chooses to keep Wiltshire Horns and how they fit into his farming system.
Pilkington Farms is a mixed farm of 2250 acres managed by Jon Birchall under the ELS and HLS stewardship schemes. Having looked at other native breeds to graze the chalk grasslands of the farm Jon settled on keeping Longhorn Cattle and Wiltshire Horn Sheep. The Wiltshire Horn was chosen for it's self shedding abilities and low maintenance attributes. Having previously keep mules which were lambed indoors Jon has been able to over winter his Wiltshire Horn flock in the field, lamb outside in April and maintain his previous lambing percentage with the benefit of less cost and less labour. Jon was keen to stress the quality and flavour of Wiltshire Horn lamb and the farm's successful award winning boxed meat scheme is testimony to this.
Jon was joined by Matt Perry a land advisor who works closely with him on the various environmental projects on the farm. Matt spoke of his admiration for the Wiltshire Horn and said he felt that large conservation grazers had yet to discover the advantage of using the Wiltshire Horn over primative breeds. Whereas all qualify for payments under HLS the Wiltshire Horn has the advantage of delivering the premium of an excellent saleable carcass.
Jon and Matt's enthusiasm for the breed was truly infectious and a lively question and answer session followed.
After a BBQ lunch of Pilkington Farm's own lamb, pork and beef burgers visitors were treated to a trailer ride around the farm to see the livestock. The first stop was to see the Wiltshire Horn ewes and lambs grazing with views over the Hertfordshire countryside then on to see the herds of Longhorn cattle and Middle White pigs.
A successful day finished with many visitors saying how enjoyable and informative they found the visit. Many visitors were new to the breed and three new members joined on the day.
Our thanks go to Jon and Sarah Birchall for their hospitality and to everyone who attended our Open Day.
Teresa Hodgkinson
Photos copyright Sarah Birchall 2010
Submitted: 07-07-2010
