Ayrshire cattle perfect for mixed farming

This article showed how Ayrshire cows are ideal for dairy production in a mixed farming enterprise.

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A farmer who mixes dairy farming with maize and wheat production has little time to spare for many of the finer points of intensive dairy farming and therefore requires a breed of cattle with minimum attention.

Petrus Schabort, of Glen Alphen Farm in Frankfort, Free State, finds that Ayrshire cattle are hardy enough to thrive and to produce well under the extensive conditions of the northern Free State.

NEVER LOOKED BACK

Schabort’s father started the herd in about 1945. He had been working with various other dairy breeds, but was not completely satisfied with them. Then he met Alan Drysdale, who was something of a pioneer of the Ayrshire in South Africa. On his advice, Schabort bought 10 cows and a bull, and never looked back.

When Petrus joined the business in about 1958 there were about 60 milking cows in a herd of some 120 animals.

This has since increased to about 150 milking cows in a herd of about 300 head.