Welcome to the online home of the Wodehill herd of pedigree Red Poll cattle and flock of pedigree Shetland sheep. Based in North Bedfordshire we grow traditional breeds to produce beef, lamb and wool. Our animals spend a significant proportion of their time carrying out conservation grazing on Wildlife Trust sites in the area. We operate a non-intensive, grass based system to promote high welfare, slow growth and fantastic flavour in the final product.

To find out about our produce click on the page tabs; to see what we have been up to recently look at the blog entries below.

Fibre-East is being held in Bedfordshire to provide an opportunity for people from the Eastern, Midlands and Southern Regions to enjoy and participate in an event which is to encourage and promote the use of all natural fibres, with particular emphasis on spinning, knitting, crochet, weaving, dyeing and felting.

Fibre East will be held at Scald End Farm in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire on the weekend of the 23rd July and Wodehill will be there! More details for the event can be found here.

Wodehill Pongo with our first ever triplets!

A spotty addition to the Wodehill flock.

Lambs moving at high speed!

First Shetland Lamb of 2011.

Wodehill Suzie with a new calf at foot.

First heifer calf of 2011: Wodehill Claudia

A new bull calf pops out.

N.B. All our spring lamb boxes have now sold, more will be available later in the year.

Update: These steers have now been sold.

You ask why do I keep Red Polls?  Well, if you were starting a herd, what would you want?  To be commercial cows must give a good average yield, wear well and be cheap to feed; they must be docile to handle and yard well.  The steers, and old cows when finished as milkers, should make high-grade carcases.

Red Poll cattle will, in my view, meet all thee requirements .  My average yield for the herd has now been 900 gal. or more for several years, and the milk shows about 3.7% butter fat.  The cows do not give as high “peak” yields as some breeds, but they will keep milking for a long period.  Often it is difficult to dry them off.  They certainly wear well too.  At one time I had 10 cows in the herd all of which were over 12 years old.  When I started dairying I kept several different types and formed the opinion that the Red Polls consumed much less food than did cows of other breeds.  They are quiet to manage, and this means less space in the yards – I can carry 30 Red Polls in my yard, but it would only hold 20 cows of a horned breed.  Any butcher who has handled Red Polls will testify to the quality of their carcase.

Encouraging news for our cheesemaking plans! Slightly more up to date info on the performance of Red Polls as dairy cows can be found on the Red Poll cattle society website.

Our new cheese vat being used by its previous owner.

Our cheese making venture it gathering pace with the arrival a new (to us) cheese vat. The vat has previously been used by Mousetrap Cheese who are based at the Monkland Dairy in Monkland, Herefordshire. Subject to planning permission (and various other potential issues) we hope to be making cheese with milk from the Wodehill Red Poll Herd in approximately 12 months time!