Mike Baxter is a suckled calf producer who is succeeding to achieve his major goal to maximize market returns from a least cost system. In January he sold a pen of Charolais cross steers through Wigton Market to top the day’s trade at more than £700 a piece. Earlier on, a pen of Charolais cross heifers averaged £540 through the same centre.

"I focus on producing a quality beast that I’m confident that will meet a ready demand, sell within the day’s top 10% of average prices and leave me a profit," says Mike who farms Kiln Hill, a 400 acre LFA unit at Gilsland, near Brampton. "For more than 30 years I’ve found that Charolais crosses with their superior weight for age accompanied by quality conformation have been snapped up readily by repeat buyers, and I’m confident that demand will continue to persist under the new CAP regime."

Yorkshire based beef finisher Tim Mason, of East Farm, Langton, near Malton purchased Mike’s leading entry in Wigton earlier this year, a pen of 11, 18 month old steers weighing 620kgs to 660kgs. "Our preference is always for Charolais because they leave more profit," he explains. "We have a volume throughput of cattle each year and we buy stores that have stopped growing frame to put flesh on and finish. We buy as many Charolais crosses as we can because they have a lot faster weight gain over other Continental crosses and better conformation, so we achieve a faster turn over and higher margin."

Mike is the second generation of Baxters to manage Kiln Hill carrying 56 spring calving suckler cows and a complementary flock of 410 ewes mainly for finished lamb production. "This is a rough hill unit with an average 70" rainfall and limited winter accommodation, and it’s one to which I’ve introduced efficient low input systems to enable me to farm single handed.

"For example, I find our Charolais crosses are no trouble to calve and they’re sufficiently hardy to out winter until at least mid January. In addition, they have a quiet temperament which means a lot to me. Hadrians Wall runs right through the farm, and the land is riddled with public footpaths, so we get our fair share of visitors and not having to worry about them having any potential close encounters with cattle is a real burden off my mind."

Charolais was introduced to Kiln Hill 35 years ago in a pioneering move. "At the time, various Continental breeds of terminal beef sire were being introduced to the UK, so I decided to do some trial work on our cows to see what sort of an impact they had over the native breeds we used. Buying a bull at the time was out of the question due to each breed being so scarce, so we used AI.

"We found that Charolais came out top in terms of leaving calves with the most efficient performance and commanded the highest price, so we invested in our first Charolais bull. Since, we’ve occasionally used another Continental breed over the herd, however we’ve always returned to Charolais because of its ability to adapt to this unit and achieve higher returns."

The current herd sire working among the Kiln Hill suckler herd was purchased locally from John Mew’s Huntershield herd at Whitfield, near Hexham. "I selected him for his frame, hind quarters, width of loin muscling and locomotion. He’s also very quiet, a characteristic which he consistently passes on to his calves."

As far as the suckler herd’s future is concerned post CAP Reform, Mike is maintaining a flexible approach, in fact the same attitude which he recently introduced to the sheep enterprise. "I used to focus on adding value by breeding Mules and selling the gimmers for breeding purposes. It was a time consuming job, so I introduced the Texel as a terminal sire and I’m now finishing the majority of my lambs, taking advantage of the buoyant market and overall finding this regime to be more cost effective.

"On the beef side, Charolais is here to stay at Kiln Hill. I’m convinced the demand for quality cattle will persist, and I firmly believe that our Charolais genetics will continue to deliver calves that finishers have confidence to buy. It’s a case of keeping an open mind, waiting to see how the market pans out and adapt our rearing system accordingly."