Wareham’s Galloways At Tottingworth Farm

Deep in the middle of the East Sussex countryside, Little Tottingworth Farm sits in a hollow overlooking the beautiful High Weald. With the farm originally purchased in 1957 by Dennis and Ruby Browning, some fifty years later is it still in the same family today run by their grandchildren Sarah and Michael together with Sarah’s husband Jason.

Sarah has been running the farm with the family over the last twenty years. The 400 acres of grassland together with a further rented 70 acres is farmed with herds of Limousin, British Blue and Galloway cattle, together with a flock of sheep. What also makes Tottingworth special in this farming age is the successful small abattoir that is central to the farm, serving the farming community throughout the south east. With the recent expansion of a larger farm shop and café this year, this farm is keeping modern and changing with the times.

Jason moved up from the West Country in 2004 bringing his own haulage business together with his own show cattle. What started as a few cross bred show cattle and some British Blues has grown into a successful showing partnership over the last decade. Jason and Sarah bought their first Galloway in 2008 and their passion for the breed has now extended into a herd of twenty, fifteen Galloways with five belted. They join a herd of one hundred commercial cows at Tottingworth.

In 2012 they introduced a Galloway bull, Ballavair Black Jack after discovering how well the Galloway eats through the home produced beef they sell through their own farm shop. Running the bull with commercial cows as well as using him for their pedigree cows, has proved a hit with their customers buying top quality beef direct from the farm.

Success with the Galloways has not only be proved with their home produced beef but in the showing sector as well. At the Christmas shows, the Galloway crosses won the native cross calf and overall calf champion at the East of England Smithfield Festival last year. Double-O-Seven which is a steer calf that Sarah and Jason’s young son Ali has bred from his Blue Cross Cow with their Ballavair Black Jack bull. In 2014 they won the Best Cross Bred Native at the Highland Show with Cheeky Vimto and again in 2016 with Double-O-Seven. Their homebred Galloway heifer Warehams Grace 2nd was this year’s female champion at Heathfield Show, second in the Highland Show and champion AOB at Edenbridge Show.

So what is the future for the Galloways at Tottingworth Farm? “Our major aim is to expand the Galloways and to have this breed as the main herd at Tottingworth by putting a Galloway cross with pure Galloways. With the recent expansion of our farm shop, we want to keep offering high quality homebred produced beef to our customers. By using a Galloway also with continental commercial cows, this produces a very tasty beef product. Together with our home produced lamb and locally sourced pork, this have proved to be popular bringing customers to the shop and dining in the café. We feel strongly in producing locally produced meat and are very proud that the Galloways are expanding here in Sussex”.

Sarah added “We also find the hardy Galloways an effortless breed to calve and they tend to give us an easy time in the spring. We also dedicated a Belted Galloway in our new logo for the farm, as we feel very strongly in supporting this breed. We will continue to show them across the country highlighting what a super native herd of cattle they are.”

The Wareham’s Galloway herd at Tottingworth Farm certainly look at home on the hillside grazing over the Sussex High Weald. It is very pleasing to know that they are here to stay.