Lincoln Reds – Past, Present & Future

PASTURE & PADDOCKS

We are proud to be accredited by the Pasture for Life Association and we wholeheartedly share their commitment to farming in sympathy with nature.  We’ve adopted a rotational paddock system, meaning that each of our one-hectare grass paddocks typically gets six months to re-grow after a visit from the Lincoln Reds.

Each of our paddocks will be visited between once and three times per year and our Reds relish the long, succulent grass they get every day. This contrasts with a more intensive farming model which can entail grazing one piece of land for a full year, giving wildlife little space to flourish. Our herbage grows up to one-metre tall and creates a haven for moths, butterflies, grasshoppers and all sorts of fly. Songbirds and mammals abound, and the presence of raptors like barn owls, tawny owls, kestrels, buzzards and red kites is a strong indicator of a healthy food chain.

Keeping all our young stock outdoors all-year round is good news for our flora and fauna, particularly in the lean winter months. Mob-grazing cattle leave behind plenty of natural fertiliser and their cropping encourages tillering, the process by which plants generate multiple new shoots. It’s all good news for dung beetles and an abundance of other insects, which attract bats, swifts and swallows.

We’ve counted seven bat species doing their own aerobatic grazing. Each bat species favours a different grass level because they’ve learned the preferences of the moth species they prey upon. Wildlife is also more abundant around living field edges than it is in dense forest, so our efforts to sow wild margins and plant hedgerows are paying dividends.

If you explore South Ormsby Estate via our walking trails, you might notice that many of our mature trees are surrounded by rough circular lines. Our Reds browse trees, nibbling leaves and twigs for extra vitamins and nutrients. They instinctively know what plants make good natural medicines, and biodiversity means they can generally find what they need. Oak leaf, for example, helps reduce burping while nettles and thistles relieve indigestion.

Ours is a low-carbon farming model. Standing hay means that we don’t mechanically cut and turn hay or wrap it in plastic. We get around on lightweight quad-bikes rather than tractors, and the herd moves itself from paddock to paddock. Not only are natural pastures effective carbon sinks, but grazing animals return nutrients to the soil in their dung. We don’t use petrol-based fertilisers or insecticides, reducing the energy used in chemical manufacturing and keeping the soil biome healthy. A sky full of insect-munching birds and bats is the best pest-control measure we know of.

Our herd eats only grass and conserved grass grown at South Ormsby Estate. We sow cover crops to maintain growth on the arable land for as much of the year as possible and avoid long periods of bare earth with no animal life. Between October and December, the herd will graze the cover crop and spread their manure which helps the next crop to thrive. In the meantime, the greenery passes nutrients to the microfauna and binds the soil to mitigate run-off in wet weather.

We’re currently in the first year of a two-year conversion to organic status for our beef, poultry and arable produce. By the end of 2022, our commitment to sustainable farming and the highest standards of animal welfare will have earned us fully organic status.

HERITAGE

Originating in Eastern England, the Lincoln Red is one of the UK’s oldest native breeds. These handsome cattle are widely known for their hardiness, docility and dark red coats which protect them from sunburn and melanoma.

It is believed that Norse settlers brought the hardy ancestors of our native cattle to Britain in the first millennium. The late 18^th and early 19^th centuries saw a number of Lincolnshire breeders cross local draught cows with medium-sized shorthorn bulls and heifers from Yorkshire and Durham. By 1896, the Lincoln Red Shorthorn had its own herd book.

Eric Pentecost of Cropwell Butler near Nottingham is generally credited with polling the Lincoln Red between the late 1930s and the mid-1950s. One of our social media followers, Phil Needham, very kindly shared some insights into this process, and the parts played by his father, John Needham, and his uncle, Roland Tinkler.

In Phil’s family, Eric Pentecost was seen as a rude and arrogant man who called everyone by their surname. Eric and John had a stormy relationship which came to a head when Eric wanted to introduce an Angus bull to a Red heifer. John insisted that the calf’s shoulders would be too broad for the heifer to safely manage and threatened to resign. Words were exchanged and Eric walked away. Ten minutes later he returned and said, “Needham, I admire you…not many people will stand up and argue with me.”

From then on, Eric Pentecost addressed John by his Christian name and often drew on his expertise. Between them, John, Roland and Eric spent 17 years crossing and back-crossing five generations of Aberdeen Angus and Lincoln Red Shorthorn cattle until they arrived at the polled Lincoln Red.

Original-population Lincoln Red cattle, defined as those whose bloodline is 100% native and without crossbreeding, are classed as ‘vulnerable’ by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. We are proud that our thriving herd is both pedigree and original population.

We wholeheartedly support the RBST’s work in preserving and speaking up for our native breeds. Grazing animals on land to which they’ve adapted over centuries is better for them, better for the environment and better for consumers. As well as being good news for biodiversity and genetic resilience, native breeds connect us to our rural heritage.

BEEF

Lincoln Reds weigh in at around 750kg live or 350kg on the hook. While the end-weight is similar across cattle breeds, our Reds are reared slowly, patiently and naturally compared to a typical commercial herd. Angus and Limousin herds might be ‘pushed’ and fattened with corn over 15-18 months – in contrast, our Reds are grass-fed outdoors for most of the year and mature in 22-28 months.

Lincoln Red beef is distinguished by its flavourful succulence. Unlike other breeds whose meat is surrounded by fat, Lincoln Red meat is infused with collagen marbling which dissolves when cooked and gives the meat its moreish, lip-smacking quality.

Grass-fed beef is known to be richer than grain-fed beef in vitamins A, E, B12 and B6, as well as omega-3, selenium, iron, zinc and magnesium. We use highly skilled artisan butchers to ensure consistent cuts, and we embrace the farm-to-fork guarantee by ensuring that all our beef is reared, butchered and packed within ten miles of South Ormsby Estate to minimise food miles. We also offer free delivery with all our beef boxes and insulate our meat in transit with biodegradable sheep’s wool.

With our family beef boxes, the contents may vary according to the unique yield of the animal. Where there is less of a particular type of cut, our skilled butchers will make up the difference with another cut to ensure consistent value between boxes.

In line with our commitment to sustainability, our range of beef boxes includes a 2.8kg offal box which has proved a big hit with meat-lovers and gastronauts. The nutrient-rich and intensely flavoursome ingredients include liver, heart, kidneys, oxtail and onglet.

Our meat is offered at a premium price point which we regard as highly competitive given the time and care involved in rearing our rare-breed, pedigree cattle, and the environmental benefits of our regenerative practices. Our herd is 100% grass-fed all-year round, accredited by the Pasture for Life Association and in conversion to be fully organic.

Our exacting standards result in high production costs compared to larger commercial herds, and a higher price for the consumer. What we offer in return is some of the best beef you’ll ever taste and much more besides. Keeping our Lincoln Red herd commercially sustainable is good news for this rare, native breed, good news for the wildlife-rich pastures in which they spend their lives, and good news for the rural economy of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

To read more about the history of the breed and for an interview with Herd Manager John Crutchley, click HERE.