Sussex are a traditional and local English breed. It is believed that the Sussex breed of today is descended directly from the red cattle that inhabited the dense forests of the Weald at the time of the Norman Conquest.
Sussex are characterised by the marbling of fat through the otherwise lean meat, producing succulent beef with a rich taste. They are a small and quiet breed with the ability to thrive on less intensive grazing such as our Countryside Stewardship wildflower meadows.
The breed is fast gaining in popularity because of consumer demand for old-fashioned tasting meat again.

We retain the heifers, or female calves, for breeding. They are put to the bull and have their first calves at two and a half to three years old. The gestation period for a cow is 9 months. Bull calves are castrated at birth, from which time they are referred to as steers, and reared until around 20 to 24 months old when they become mature beef. The calves are weaned at around 10 months old so that the cows can be prepared for the bull.
The herd is split and our cows are naturally served by a pure-bred Sussex bull, so we calve twice a year, in spring and autumn.

The cows and young stock graze the pastures from the end of March until November/December. During the winter they are brought into the buildings and fed silage made during the summer. This minimises damage to the pastures and allows the grasses to regenerate through the winter.
Fattening and maturing young stock are kept outdoors unless the weather turns very cold and wet, and are fed GM-free cereals to supplement them through the winter.

Products from cattle

The cattle assist in the ongoing restoration of the natural chalk downland in the Shabden valley. Cattle are an excellent grazing animal for conservation, especially in combination with sheep, as they graze the clumpy, coarse grasses which the sheep do not eat. The sheep then graze the plants at a length which encourages fresh growth and tillering. This allows wildflowers to grow up unhindered as can be seen by the species-rich sward in the valley.
Cow hides, or skins, are processed and tanned to make leather for clothing and furniture.