| Livestock
thing I’d do differently is to have selected
animals without horns due to complications
that can arise later on.”
More than 70 per cent of the Estate is farm
land. Englefield Home Farms comprises 2,000
acres for livestock and arable farming. The
prize winning herd, which now has 190
members, includes 70 cows and all the
followers including heifers, bulls, bullocks,
steers, and 65 calves.
The move to beef cattle meant a slightly later
start in the morning for Terry who was up at
4am with the dairy contingent. With the
Herefords he’s up around 6am.
“I still absolutely love them all,” he says.
“During calving season, my last visit will still be
around 8pm or 9pm, when I’ll make sure all the
calves are behaving themselves, and
everyone’s settled.”
Terry regards his herd as friends, if not
family, and many are named after members of
the Benyon family. He can recognise each of
them from their looks and personalities, which
he says are all quite distinct. Can he really
recognise them all?
“Oh yes, I remember all their names and can
identify them all by the way they act,” he
assures me.
Currently, he’s got a lot of ‘Catherines’,
whose names are proceeded with a number, so
he has Catherine one to 20 at the moment.
“They’re beautiful animals,” he says. “But
they’ve got a funny old streak in them, they’re
hard work if they don’t want to do something,
you have to tell them to stop mucking about,
and they give up as soon as you’ve cornered
them!”
He must have a favourite? “Oh no, I don’t
think I have a favourite,” he adds. “Only when
we’re winning shows!”
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Terry and his team select 18 of his prime
specimens for the show season early in the
new year; seven to show, plus a cohort of
reserves. Once they’ve become used to their
halters, Terry will give them a few lessons in
obedience and how to walk the walk.
“Obviously they play up a bit and pull you
around,” he says. “But within weeks they’ll walk
with you like Labradors,” Terry says. “They’re
more intelligent than people give them credit
for.”
Terry swears by linseed oil to add that extra
sheen to the animals’ coats, which he says
require precisely the right amount of blow
drying. “I’ll start giving them wash and blow
dries, twice a week, I don’t do it too early
because they get dandruff,” Terry adds. “They
absolutely love being fussed over,” he
continues. “When you’re getting ready to go to
a show, they’ll push you around because they
want to get groomed, they think it’s super.”
Terry’s first show is the Surrey County Show
in May. This year he plans to show at five
shows including the Royal Three Counties
Show, the Buck County Show, the Romsey
Show and the Berkshire County Show in
September rounding off the season. Terry tends
to go to the shows where he thinks the most
interest might be.
“They’re my shop window,” he says, adding
that he sold around £20,000 worth of cattle
following the Berkshire County Show last year.
The walls of his office, resplendent with
rosettes and certificates, are a testament to
Terry’s devotion and genuine love for his cattle.
“I haven’t the faintest idea how many we’ve
got,” he says. “300-odd maybe. One of the
lads who works for me insists on putting the
certificates up too, we’ll be hanging them on
top of each other soon.
“Our animals are getting better and better
every time,” he adds. “But I don’t think I’ll ever
know everything there is to know, I’m learning
all the time.”
“Oh yes, I remember all their names and
can identify them all by the way they act”
For the last five years, Terry has helped train
Berkshire Agriculture College students at the
farm. This, he says has been a highlight of his
more recent career. And somehow, he
manages to find the time to run his own
gardening business.
So what’s the secret to his success? “I think
it’s attention to detail,” he ponders. “And you
get to know the judges, and what they like.”
I suggest to Terry it could also be down to
his genuine care for what he does. “Oh yes,” he
adds modestly. “You’ve really got to love what
you’re doing. I just wanted something to do
when I retired, and it just took off. If I had my life
all over again, I wouldn’t do it any differently. It’s
a way of life.”
August 2017 | Farming Monthly | 33