Five calves of the rare Vaynol cattle breed have been born at Temple Newsam's Home Farm near Leeds, joining a UK population of only about 100 animals of a breed that traces its origin to the 19th century.
The Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) lists the Vaynol as a priority breed and one of the rarest native cattle in the UK, with fewer than 100 registered breeding animals. It originated in 1872 at Vaynol Park near Bangor in North Wales and was kept with minimal human intervention, which preserved its primitive character. The cattle are small to medium-sized, most often white with black points or spotting.
"The team here works hard to protect these rare breeds that the farm is home to, and it's always wonderful when we can successfully grow the herd," said Richard Aldis, the farm manager. Temple Newsam has kept a Vaynol herd since the 1980s and now holds one bull, 14 breeding cows, five heifers and the new calves.
The breed is conserved through a collaborative breeding programme run by the Vaynol Cattle Breeders Association that uses semen stored in the RBST Gene Bank and newer tools such as embryo transfer; the first successful transfer was made in 2021, according to the trust. Vaynol cattle are now kept at five locations in the UK.
Temple Newsam is one of the largest rare-breed farms in Europe, with every breed native to the UK, including White Faced Woodland sheep, Middle White pigs and Bagot goats. The RBST describes native breeds as sustainable alternatives to intensively farmed breeds that can help restore degraded soil and improve biodiversity.
Photo: Claire.cojean.05 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Agriland
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