Fancy owning a herd?

A Welshpool couple are selling their entire pedigree herd of Brown Swiss dairy cattle after giving up the tenancy of their council smallholding.

Paul Pritchard and Kate Loake of Cefn Hilin, Belan, Welshpool are selling their Shoestring Herd of 108 cattle together with farm machinery, implements, fodder and a 16:15 Alfa Lavel herringbone parlour and associated dairy equipment.

Also included in the auction, which is being conducted by auctioneers Halls on September 7 and 11am, are a Massey Ferguson 390 four-wheel drive tractor, a JCB 526/56 loadall, a Tafe 25 DI tractor, a Sherborne Reynolds 1600HD muck spreader, Kuhn 19.1 fertiliser spreader, McConnel hedge cutter, Keenan Mech Fiber 320 feeder and a James Engineering eight foot open top stock trailer.

Mr Pritchard discovered Brown Swiss cattle, which he described as “eating machines” when he went to America in 1996 ironically to study “fashionable” black and white herd.

He raised his first Brown Swiss calf, Mo, in 1991 and she became his first cow when he started faming on his own two years later. He moved to Cefn Hilin in 1996.

The cows have been housed at night all year round and fed a TMR ration of 20 per cent Bibby’s cake, rolled wheat, wheat straw, brewer’s grains, arable wholecrop and grass silage. The herd is autumn calving and cubicle housed.

Auctioneer David Giles, a director of Halls, said: “This is an interesting auction not to be missed as we don’t see Brown Swiss cattle that often but this is a quality herd. They are very good natured and easy to manage cattle.”

For more information about the auction, contact Halls on Tel: 01743 450700 or view the catalogue online at https://hallsgb.com/auctions/machinery-auctions/.