Two thousand years ago Hippocrates stated all disease begins in the gut… well you are what you eat what they eat. They being the animals that graze Treflach. The native Hereford maybe good at converting grass into marbled beef but the most numerous breed is the Friesian.
A dual purpose dairy beef cow, the Friesian supplanted native breeds at the beginning of the 19th century because of its superior production. Rich creamy milk full of conjugated linoleic acid and omega 3 for immune function and soluble Vitamin D is the result because grazing cows have the sun on their backs and twice a day every day of the year are harvested producing an anti-inflammatory/antioxidant packed product.
Without the grazing cow in Treflach there would be no need for hedges /walls /fences – no need for trees for shelter or flower meadows for grazing and harvesting for when the cows are housed in winter when the grass stops growing. The grazing cow creates a countryside more pleasing on the eye and more bio-diverse which is good for the mind and soul and the planet.
The Treflach Friesian is all the more rare as semen from 1960 bulls has been used to splice vigour into the herd. Sometimes less is more and going slower gets you there faster in the end with a more enjoyable journey.
A rich life has nothing to do with money but the choices you make!
I was told a story many years ago by dad (Bob Steele)…
Great Grandfather was a gardener for a shipping magnate in Liverpool. When the war was on some of his ships brought beef from Canada for war rations. Some of the cows that came over were in calf and ‘Pop’ Steele (my grandfather) bought them to supplement his herd. They being the ones that were brought to Shropshire from Oak Farm in Liverpool when they moved in the late 1930s. The breed was British Friesian rather than Holstein Friesian, an older variety, more suited to our climate they had been taken to Canada at the time of colonisation and into the 19th century and represent a more traditional breed. That bloodline continues in the Hall (and therefore our Farm’s) herds setting us apart.
While a great story and based in truth Treflach Hall had foot and mouth in 1967 so lost everything. Jim (Andrew & Jamie Steele’s father, brother to Bob Steele) bought 4 cows from Uncle Bob Jones (my great uncle, maternal uncle to Jim & Bob Steele, farming at Treflach Farm at that time) when restocking because Treflach farm never had it. Unfortunately all four blood lines died out as they had too many bull calves.