Cattle Feeding in the Midlands

Extract

I am going to speak on die farming area that lies between Banbury, Rugby, Northampton and runs on to Harborough and the Welland Valley. I don't know much about the northern part of this area so my remarks will be confined to an area or about 20 miles round Daventry.

This part of England has been a fattening area for hundreds of years; the soil varies from clay to a stiff loam; rainfall is about 25 in. The land is fairly well fenced with thorn hedges and much of it is in ridge and furrow. It has never been manured extravagantly but quite a bit of linseed and cotton cake was fed when they were about £6 a ton. The grassland has been maintained by careful stock management; the manure was regularly “beaten” (i.e. spread) and still is in some cases. On every farm there is the best field, and the farm usually goes into four grades. The first will finish a bullock, the next a heifer, and the third a cow, and the last is store land.