Even if you are a professional beef farmer it is quite likely that you have never heard of the Shetland cow.  You may also find it unusual that we are recommending consideration of a breed at risk as the foundation for a commercial suckler herd.

One family enterprise has, however, done just this, and has built up a very successful business as a result.  Their business model is based on the formula that high output from low input equals maximum profit.  They achieve this by utilising the Shetland cow’s ability to convert poor quality forage efficiently into milk with which to produce a large quick growing calf.  They capitalise on this ability by crossing the majority of the herd to Simmental bulls, and then selecting those with the highest 200 day weight gains and muscle figures.  The resulting hybrid calves are sold to finishers in the Autumn and command a premium price.  The pure bred animals are either kept as replacements, or sold as pedigree stock to smallholders, conservation graziers or niche market suckler beef farmers.

Taking each element of this model in turn:

•  Large, quick growing calves.  On this Scottish severely disadvantaged farm, impressive daily liveweight gains are being recorded.  Simmental X calves out of Shetland cows achieved average gains of 1.42 kg/day for males and 1.3 kg/day for females.  200 day weights were 324 kg for males and 290 kg for females, all from grazing rough pasture with no creep feeding.
  
  This demonstrates the Shetland’s outstanding foraging ability and conversion efficiency.  A typical cow, weighing only 450 kg, and therefore with a food consumption far lower than most suckler breeds, is producing a calf that is 65-70% of its own weight at 200 days from sub-optimal forage.

(Photo © John & Linda McCaig)

Simmental X calf weighing 40 kg at birth, born to a 350 kg dam.
Photo taken at 5 months old.  Weight at 7 months – 300 kg.

(Click to enlarge)

• Easy calving – Shetland cattle are famed for their ease of calving when bred pure, helped by their pelvis width which is second only to the Jersey.  They maintain a comparative advantage when crossed to large continental bulls.  For example, the Scottish Dept. of Agriculture & Fisheries’ Knocknagael Farm has noted their ease of calving when putting even maiden heifers to a continental bull, compared to the more usual suckler breeds.

• Milkiness – The Shetland evolved as a crofter’s cow, being required to provide a plentiful milk supply for both its calf and the family.  It therefore has plenty of milk available for a continental cross calf.  This is the explanation for the impressive liveweight gains.

• Fertility – Maintaining a tight calving pattern is a key element in profitability.  Research conducted by the Animal Breeding Research Organisation has shown that pure Shetlands have the ability to calve every eleven months.  Commercial trials confirm that this ability is maintained when crossed with a continental bull.

• Hardiness – The Shetland has evolved in one of the UK’s harshest and most impoverished environments.  As the 1912 Herd Book stated, “They are extraordinarily hardy, the weaklings having died out long ago”.  To have overcome the privations of the Shetland Islands it is undoubtedly one of the toughest and most disease resistant of breeds.

• Longevity – Their hardiness and disease resistance means that Shetlands commonly continue to produce calves into their late teens, significantly reducing the cost of replacements.

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The Smallholder’s Cow

The Shetland Cow in Conservation Grazing