The North of England Highland Cattle Breeders' Club
Happy 20th Birthday NEHCBC! - 20 Years of Success
The Story of Our Club.
In my working life as a funeral director education played an important part in staff training and I was chairman of our National Education committee for ten years, so it was natural that when I started breeding Highland cattle that I wanted as much tuition as possible. After attending a number of courses run by our local Agricultural Training Board and attending an agricultural management course at our technical college I realised that there was nothing specifically directed at Highlanders. We attended the Oban sale in October 1990 and I spoke to the President, Raymond Nelson, seeking permission, which was given, to invite Society members from the north of England to our farm for an education session on The Management of Highlanders and asked Bill Smith, the North of England fieldsman, to facilitate the session. I wrote to twenty-eight Society members and about twenty attended who with partners made a total of about thirty-five. Of the original attendees there are still eight of us in membership. Bill gave a superb talk on management and following what became the traditional meat and potato pie for events at our farm, we held a meeting, chaired by Bill and it was decided that a North of England Club be formed and permission was sought from the Society, which was readily given.
The inaugural meeting was held at Lotherton Hall to which all the north of England members were invited, I cannot remember how many came but there was a substantial number. Hamish Wilson, secretary of the Society, represented Raymond Nelson and chaired the meeting until Bill Smith was unanimously elected our first Chairman with Beena, his wife, as Secretary/Treasurer, both for a period of two years, and a subscription of £8 agreed. A Constitution, Rules and Regulations was adopted and item 2 set the tone for the Club. "Its purpose shall be to provide a convenient local forum for members of the Highland Cattle Society who wish to increase their knowledge of all matters pertaining to the breeding and keeping of pedigree Highland Cattle" Our rules were contained on a single sheet of A4 paper, somewhat different from most legislation these days! Two words that are missing and which have been the cornerstone of our success are sociable and friendly, because that is exactly what the Club is, a very sociable and friendly group of Highland cattle breeders who enjoy each others company. I feel privileged to have been associated with so many delightful people, particularly at a time of life when struggling to maintain friends to suddenly start making new ones was marvellous.
Over the years we have had superb events at many venues, visiting folds from Worcestershire to Scotland and all points between, what has been outstanding on all visits has been the generosity of hospitality and the enjoyment of sharing experiences. There have been numerous types of educational meetings; calving, butchery, show preparation, DEFRA and veterinary speakers , stock judging, foot trimming, feeding (cattle!), stock management, halter making, animal welfare, fold visits some to coincide with Oban,and others by kind permission of our own members, joint meeting with the Midland and Southern Club, support at sales, barbecues, Highland Fling and of course our AGM and lunch.
Three events that I would like to single out which have a special place in my memory. The first was the visit to the Weetwood Fold of Mr. & Mrs. Miller, with John and Andrea Wright hosting it. As well as touring the fold and having a superb lunch we had a demonstration of preparing an animal for showing by John and Bob Powel, a professional showman. It was the first time that I had seen a pressure washer used on an animal and along with all their other expertise it fired my enthusiasm for having a go at showing. The second was the Club’s visit to Auchnacraig on Mull on a warm, sunny day in October. The fold was outstanding with animals around us all looking like peas in a pod, the terrain was stunning with the pasture sweeping down to the sea, lunch in a summer house and then sitting on a chapel wall with Alf and Dora Green in short sleeved shirts waiting for the bus to collect us, magic! The third was very personal and that was when I was presented with life honorary membership of the Club at the AGM in 2004, very few things in my life have given me greater pleasure.
After Bill and Beena moved to Germany the job of Secretary/Treasurer was taken over by Dorothy Kitson who did a tremendous job by increasing the membership to about one hundred, but after a number of years stepped down and the two jobs were split with Mark and Joan Luscombe taking over as Treasurer, a job they did superbly for many years before handing over to Ian Homes. Sue Prout became Secretary followed by Margaret Falshaw, Joy Griffiths, Graham Allenby and Evelyn Shore and then in 2008 Claire Holmes. Ten Chairmen have led our Club and brought their own expertise to the position, and one, David Haighton, has done it twice! The newsletter was started by Margaret Falshaw, I took over as Editor when they moved to France and now Hugh Hoather is producing it. During my and Hugh’s time David Mitchell has done a fantastic job of co-ordinating and setting the editorial and printing what is surely the best news letter in the Society.
At the AGM in 1994 John Pool from Cheshire suggested that we should have a handbook on helpful advice and he and Wendy Horton offered to edit it, Ron Maris offered to design a cover, and various members agreed to write an article, A Highland Breeders Handbook was born in 1995. So successful has it been that the Society has asked for permission to re-print it and give it to new members.
We were the first regional club, with members ranging from Scotland to the South of England. Since our inception the Society has encouraged other regions to form their own clubs and now there are six, not bad from our humble beginnings at Far Moorside Farm.
Gordon Lawrence
Welcome to the North of England Highland Cattle Breeders’ Club web site. Scottish Highland cattle have a long and famous ancestry. They have been described as charismatic, beautiful and noble. Early descriptions of the breed indicate they were much smaller in size than at present but that aside, they have remained virtually unchanged making them unique among British breeds of cattle.
The first comprehensive description of the breed was given in 1811 by James MacDonald in his General view of the Agriculture of the Hebrides and this description hardly changed when the first Herd Book was published in 1885. The virtues of the early breed are that they best answer to the land and climate and are bred at the smallest expense.
A group of Highland cattle is called a ‘Fold’ not a herd as with other breeds. The name came from the days of the crofters when the cattle were gathered off the hill and collected in a fold yard. No other breed has a Highlander’s natural hardiness and vigour. This is not surprising since they find food in bogs and marshes, traverse ravines, rivers and ditches and generally scramble over rocky terrain in all climates.
Highland cattle are loved the world over and this is the reason so many different people keep and breed the cattle. Currently there are an estimated 30,000 Highland cattle in Britain of which 10,000 are breeding females. Modern Highland cattle are found in seven colours; black, brindle, red, yellow, dun, white and particoloured.
The North of England Highland Cattle Breeders’ Club is one of the regional clubs of the Highland Cattle Society and is open to all who breed Highlanders or those who simply want to enjoy them. The Highland Cattle Society was founded in 1884 by a group of farmers whose aim was to preserve the Highland breed.
Today there are over 1,000 members of the Society of which half are north of the border and half live south of the border. About 70% of the membership is not engaged in farming for a living but breed the cattle for the sheer love of the animals. They are not just keepers of the cattle they are active breeders. The other 30% are commercial beef farmers successfully producing the finest beef.