About
G.A Livestock Assistance
Who are we?
Village Girl meets Cow Boy
We originally met when I, Zoe, decided to put in place a mad idea of owning sheep. I immediately ran into issues when one of the 3 Wiltshire Horn sheep me and my mum had purchased came off the trailer lame. Cue desperate phone calls to the farm shepherd. Some bloke called Gary that my brother, Adam, worked with.
He showed up and spent the entire time not so politely moaning that we had bought horned sheep, paid too much and he didn't like them.
Well, somehow, after a few years of awkward interactions, wrangling escaped cows and supplying me with hay, he asked me out for dinner and as they say, the rest is history.
Our Story
Building a Future
We both work full time, and our livestock passion grows along side.
Gary is head stockman on a mixed farm with a 60 head suckler herd and 120 store cattle and 300 acres of arable. His career started off at the age of 15 when he started rearing calves with his old friend Bob Blatch. From there he has gone from strength to strength and was head hunted into his current placement.
Whilst managing all of the farms cattle, we are also growing our own suckler herd, lead by Pedigree Simmental bull Sacombe Jaegerbomb, bred by Bridget Borlase. He has a mixture of cows to keep him occupied, including Simmentals, Limousins, Herefords and 4 Belgian Blue heifers added this year.
We also run some store cattle, some of which go into our own meat business, Mill Cottage Meats.
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My farming lifestyle really only started when I met Gary. I've always loved animals, but have never really found my click in life, until now. After leaving school I dabbled in grooming and stable work until I took on a job as a veterinary assistant/yard manager at my local mixed vet practice. I sort of fell into my rhythm there and very quickly discovered how much I love helping animals and seeing them thrive. Whilst it was a job I adored, it wasn't meant to be forever and I'm currently working in an office and farming as much as I can.
I set up a small flock of breeding sheep last year and absolutely loved my first real taste of lambing. Lots of ups and some terrible lows (including 2 caesareans in 24 hours!) but there is simply nothing better than bringing new life into the world. Ive also done my first calvings, driven tractors and achieved my Blue Seal in shearing!
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The last 2 years have truly been a whirlwind. After only a few short months together we embarked on our first season calving, followed very closely by buying some breeding sheep, then a few more, then just a couple extra! An all of this during a global pandemic. The icing on the cake was purchasing 6 Mule ewes scanned in lamb with quadruplets! Then before we knew it we were silage making, harvesting, lambing and back round to calving!
There truly is never a dull moment and were constantly getting one step closer to our ultimate goal - our own farm.
Who Else?
Other VIP's
We all know there's people behind the scenes who beaver away, but those people can have 4 legs right?
They keep us sane and drive us round the bend in equal measure, but they make it all worth while.
