The Herd

We are proud to be able to say that in 2016 we celebrated 50 years since Alister McKerchar established the Merrylea herd’s foundations in 1966.

We winter 200 cows including heifers calving as 2 year olds. At Merrylea our aim is to finish all cattle, and our cull heifers are being fattened to supply Hereford Prime. Last winter our first line of heifers averaged 284kg carcass weight in June, with the second line averaging 279kg carcass weight in early July. We sell some yearling bulls in the spring to the dairy market and a line of our rising 2 year old bulls are also wintered for the dairy market.

This winter we are running 600 ewes and are mating 300 hoggets to maintain our ewe flock. Most of the lambs are finished and we also buy in extra lamba to fatten.