A NORTH Yorkshire hill farmer's plans to establish a closed herd based on breeding Beef Shorthorn cross sucklers has been temporarily thwarted by a run of bull calves - but his success in finding a premium market for those Beef Shorthorn cross steers through a local quality butcher has convinced him that his choice of breed is a winner.

Nuffield scholar Mr David Hugill farms 400 acres in the Cleveland hills, in partnership with his wife, Gillian. They run 400 ewes and 130 suckler cows on land rising to 1,200 feet.

"We were buying in Simmental X Friesian heifer calves from a local dairy farm to rear as replacements, which calved down at two years to an Aberdeen Angus bull," said Mr Hugill. "I started to use the Angus more extensively when BSE became a problem. At the time, we were selling the Angus crosses through the Waitrose producer group scheme.

"Everybody dropped their prices except for Waitrose, so we served a lot more cows with the Angus to maintain that premium. Angus bullocks with R4L conformation were fetching 225p a kilo dead weight last autumn.

"We were finding the Holstein influence in our dairy-bred sucklers was having a detrimental influence on our finished cattle. I wanted to breed a beefier cow that was a little smaller and thriftier to suit our type of terrain. I had retained some of the Angus crosses out of my dairy-type sucklers and decided to cross them with the Beef Shorthorn, then back cross them to the Angus to maintain hybrid vigour.

"One of the advantages of breeding my own replacements is that I can minimise disease. When you buy other people's breeding stock you are often buying trouble."

Mr Hugill was impressed by the mothering abilities of the Beef Shorthorn. "They have a wide pelvis which makes them very easy to calve and they are very motherly and milky," he said. "Their longevity means that there are lower replacement costs. Depreciation is an important factor in a suckler herd and the replacement rate of dairy bred sucklers is far too high nowadays."

As if to prove that the best-laid plans in farming can come unstuck, the batch of cows inseminated two years ago with Beef Shorthorn semen had a run of bull calves.

The herd calves in May after wintering on a diet of locally-bought straw and pot ale syrup with a supplement of maize gluten and sugar beet nuts which is introduced in early March. After weaning in November the calves are wormed, have their backs clipped and are in-wintered on a complete feed diet of straw, pot ale syrup, rape meal, sugar beet nuts and minerals, fed to appetite from a Keenan feeder.

"We try to keep them growing through the first winter, then graze them on 100 acres of lower land which I rent on a seasonal basis before bringing them in for a second winter to finish after the second BSPS claim," said Mr Hugill. "Now the rules for BSPS have changed, I should be able to slaughter those May-born calves in March."

Mr Hugill has built up a network of local butchers whom he supplies with turkeys, lambs and finished Angus cattle.

"I tried one of those butchers with a Shorthorn steer. He found his customers preferred it to other beef. He is one of those rare butchers who buys the meat his customers want rather than what makes the most margin.

"Although other native breeds have marbled beef, the marbling is not as pronounced as Shorthorns and his customers definitely preferred it."

Spurred on by that success, Mr Hugill hired a Beef Shorthorn bull last summer as well as inseminating another batch of cows and he intends to buy a young bull this year.

His experience of selling directly to butchers led to a Yorkshire Agricultural Society award through the Nuffield scholarship.

"I want to understand why we can sell light lambs into Southern Europe at a premium when they are discounted on the home market," he said, "There must be ways of using light lambs to advantage on the UK markets."

Mr Hugill used to run 700 ewes but has reduced the flock to 400 with the advent of the new hill farming allowance. "There isn't the same incentive to stock heavily and, to be honest, sheep don't perform well up here when they are farmed intensively."

The flock is base on Swaledale X Texel or home-bred Cheviot X Texel ewes and the aim is to phase out the Swaledale crosses in favour of better- shaped Texel crosses. "Ideally I want as much Texel in my ewes as possible," he said.

Mr Hugill has been involved in a North York Moors national park working group which looked at ways of improving the prices for Swaledale lambs. While the working group failed to come up with immediate solutions, it whetted his appetite and led to his Nuffield award.

"I intend to travel through Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece to study their methods of light lamb production," said Mr Hugill.

"Farmers have to make their marketing decisions based on as much information as possible. We need to understand our markets better."