WHEN Clive Rowland took on the farm manager ’ s role at Garrowby Farm , part of Lord Halifax ’ s estate , in 2001 , little could he have thought that one day he would be running a pedigree Limousin herd of such quality and increasing renown as today , that also saw him recently pick up an award he might never have imagined as Cattle Farm of the Year at the Pavilions of Harrogate .

The Garrowby herd is now firmly established as one of the UK ’ s leading pedigree Limousin herds and Clive couldn ’ t be happier with the way things have gone , especially with the improvements made to the herd in the past four years .

“ When I arrived at Garrowby I assessed what we ’ d got and where we were going to head with the tools I was given . I ’ d been managing a farm before coming here , but not to the scale of Garrowby today . We now have cattle , sheep and arable across what runs to around 750 acres .”

Garrowby Toffee

“ I ’ ve always been more interested in the livestock side of things . I grew up with cattle and sheep . My mum was a Scottish farmer ’ s daughter . My uncle farms in Cambridgeshire , my cousin too and I spent a lot of time with them . I enjoy sheep work , but cattle are where my heart lies . They are my passion .

“ I had always found the fat cattle side interesting . Buying store cattle and seeing them through to finished stock means that you take immense pride in what you are selling through the live market , but it was always the breeding side that interested me more – what bull you were going to put on what cow , then waiting months , seeing what she had . The genetics side . What worked what didn ’ t , so it was always the suckler side I was going to work with .

Clive started at Garrowby with a herd of 130 cows based around South Devon and Aberdeen Angus cows put back to Aberdeen Angus , South Devon and Limousin bulls , but he found that he was having a job selling them locally

to anybody . It was this dilemma that brought about his initial change in direction .

“ I was travelling across country to try and earn some premium . It just seemed so much better an idea to breed something that I could sell to people nearer at hand .

“ I had always taken an interest in Limmies , but from a distance . We introduced them here in the early noughties and we ’ ve stuck with them since . We started a very small pedigree herd alongside the

commercial cattle , but that has grown since the purchase of another herd .

The purchase was to propel Clive ’ s Garrowby Limousins herd up the Limousin league table and it was a considerable investment at the time .

“ I ’ d bought bulls from the herd for many years which had improved the quality of the Garrowby herd . I approached James ( Lord Irwin ) and his father Lord Halifax about it . We talked through the investment and how it would set up the herd for the future , the way in which the investment could be recouped over time and made the decision to buy the herd in its entirety .

“ It happened in February 2020 and a lot has happened since . We ’ ve purchased other bulls to match up with the cows we ’ ve got .

“ We now have around 200 suckler cows of which 100 are commercials , based around Limousin and Limousin X Blue cows put back to a Limousin bull . We showcase our own homebred bulls by running them with commercial cows and then the calves they produce people see in local markets . We pick up customers from the quality of our commercial calves .

“ We don ’ t fatten anything . They are creep-fed until the point they leave the farm , selling through Malton , Leyburn , Darlington markets . They go at 7-8 months .

“ The heifer calves surplus to requirements are largely bought as replacements for other suckler herds . The male calves are all left as bulls with the majority going into bull beef but some of the better ones sold as breeding bulls . They all go as stores to markets where we already have some renown .