Why does a flower farm need a bull?

Back in 2010 we got two Ruby Red cows to enable us to carry out conservation grazing for the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust (IoSWT). Slowly our herd has grown to around 10 and having the cows has changed the way we farm far more fundamentally than we thought it ever would. Integrating our beef herd into our farming rotation and our on going partnership with the IoSWT has made us question, and become more engaged with, the stewardship of not only our land but how land is managed across the whole of Scilly. On our farm having the cows has improved our soil health and how we use the land. Our herd is run as a beef herd and all the meat is sold at the farm gate. To maintain a herd it is pretty essential to produce calves! Artificial insemination is not a practical solution for an extensive beef herd in a very isolated location and so we have always used a bull. Up to now we have borrowed bulls from other island farms in exchange for board, loggings (and umm - entertainment ;)! ). Unfortunately Ding-Dong the bull we were due to borrow died. The best solution for us to retain a quality pedigree herd was to make a joint purchase of a new bull with Troytown Farm on St Agnes and hence we now have Yorkie, a pretty chilled, 2yr old bull.  You can find out more about our herd at scillycow.co.uk.