Morwenstow Salers - About The Breed

About The Herd - National Small Herd Competition Winner

We became interested in Salers over twenty years ago when we were looking for a sire to put on our dairy heifers. We had experienced calving difficulties using other breeds on heifers, which caused a huge loss of milk sold and damage to the heifer. It also cut down supervising. A dead calf and damaged heifer are no good to anyone! Using a Salers bull eliminated this problem. Owing to the large pelvic area and shorter gestation period, Salers calve on their own without problems. The calves are up and sucking in minutes.

We also started a single suckler herd when we gave up the dairy herd and moved to the North Cornwall coast, just north of Bude. The farm is very exposed and the land runs down to the Atlantic ocean. We tried several breeds and crosses and found the Salers alone, thrived in the harsh climate

The herd is full blood and the foundation stock imported from France. Only the best blood lines were selected, paying particular attention to: * Temperament * Conformation * Milk Yield We are seeing an increasing interest in our Salers bulls from dairy farmers in our area who appreciate the easy calving characteristic: A case of "Seeing is Believing". The Salers is also growing in popularity on the surrounding moors (Bodmin, Dartmoor, Exmoor) where they are used extensively on all native breeds, especially Galloways. Interest in the breed has also increased enormously in the past year or so for cross-bred breeding heifers and for steers, who often top the market.


MORWENSTOW SALERS HERD IS BSE FREE, FABBL REGISTERED, SIGNET RECORDED AND ELECTRONICALLY TAGGED. The cattle are recorded on "Beef Check", an extensive computer programme supplied by Nelson Education Services. This gives full traceability and keeps a record of the full history of the animal. This allows us to follow the results of the animals and hence we can cull cows whose maternal traits and conformity are not up to scratch.
WE HAVE PEDIGREE BULLS AND HEIFERS FOR SALE. ALSO CROSS-BRED HEIFERS. In the past few years we have won several major breed titles at the Royal Show, the Royal Highland Show, the Royal Welsh Show, Great Yorkshire Show and several local shows, including breed championships. Morwenstow Lancelot realised a breed record price at the Society's Premier sale at Castle Douglas 1999 and last heard of, is still going strong in a herd in Wales. We recognise the importance of milk and temperament in the Salers females and for this reason we imported Petrus from a dairy herd in France. One of our stock bulls, Morwenstow Saracen, is a son of Petrus. He is a strong, well built bull that has won many prizes and championships, including the Royal Highland Show medal for best Salers home bred bull, as well as male championship. At Great Yorkshire Show 2010 he was 3rd in the Interbreed as well as Breed Champion. He was nominated Bull of the Year 2010 by the Society. A bull that has thrown us exceptional calves is Cuil Sam whose sire was Cuil Madrid. A stock bull, in addition to Saracen, is Cumbrian Banker 2 from Farmstock Genetics. He is a direct descendant of Volute, one of the original cows imported from France whose bloodlines we already have. His sire is Cumbrian Banker.
Morwenstow Jasmin, 16 years old, by Cumbrian Gogo. A typical cow from our herd, long wearing, note the feet and neat udder.
A granddaughter of Jasmin, Jasmin 10 was a prolific show winner in 2010 and was sold to Northern Ireland at the Castle Douglas Premier Sale 2010 for a high price.