In fact these Charolais crossbred calves were commended earlier in the season for their excellent conformation and overall consistency by George Stoddart, of Ireby when he nominated the Smiths as runners up in this year’s Border Charolais/Pfizer suckler herd of the year award.

The Smith brothers farm Roachburn, one of those high hill units running at an average 900 feet and all within the SDA at Tindale Fell, near Brampton. "Prior to BSE we were managing 676 acres of fenced land and making a decent living, since it’s been a case of diversify or expand and become more efficient," explains Len. "We’re dedicated livestock farmers, we take great pride in trying to produce top quality stock, and we want to stay in this business. So we’ve recently taken on another unit with 215 acres – it’s been a necessity, and it will enable us to carry more stock and improve total income."

Roachburn is currently running a late summer calving herd of 53 Continental cross suckler cows and 900 breeding Swaledale ewes of which two thirds are put to the Bluefaced Leicester to produce Mules.

"We used to put all our sucklers to the Galloway or Whitebred Shorthorn, however the market forced us to change almost 20 year ago, and we’ve never looked back. We decided to introduce Charolais as our terminal sire because of its flexibility to cross on the majority of dam lines, and its ability to leave fast maturing calves with that unbeatable weight for age even on a poor drained hill unit like this with two months of summer," says Len. And their decision has paid off on countless occasions.

"Charolais has left us with a big strong crossbred calf that really does thrive up here. What’s more they’ve a good temperament which means a lot when we’re busy and often working on our own. We also find our Charolais crossbreds grow faster and achieve heavier weights than calves by any other Continental sire we have used."

The Smiths calve their herd on the fell from early September. "We look at the cows twice a day during the main calving period, however they tend to look after themselves and we can’t say we’ve had any real problems. The calves are extremely lively and they’re soon up and away."

Both cows and calves are winter housed on a very low input diet from late October through to May. On housing the Charolais crossbred calves are given a routine treatment of Dectomax™ Pour On to keep the calves lice free all winter and also clear out Gastro-intestinal and Lungworms – helping to maximise condition and productivity.

Charolais crossbred calves are grazed throughout the summer months and weaned in August ready for the back end sales when steers are averaging 600kgs liveweight at 12 months and heifers just over the 500kgs mark.

Credit goes to the Smith’s current herd sire, Hallbankgate Marvellous, a Brampton Imperial son and bred by one of our neighbours, Tom Bell. "He’s got size, length, good hindquarters and he’s clean through the belly, and what’s more he’s passing on those traits and leaving us with some unbeatable calves."

Len adds: "At the end of the day we get total satisfaction from the fact our Charolais crossbreds are leaving us a consistent batch of calves which consistently go on to be among the highest average sale prices. If finishers are prepared to pay more for their Charolais calves, then it strongly indicates there must be a premium for them too."

Left, Len and Vivian Smith and their yearling Charolais cross heifers