A CATTLE strain with the largest herd living on a South Lakeland farm has been recognised as a UK native rare breed

Albion cattle have made it onto the critical category of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) watch list - the highest category for cows with fewer than 150 breeding females in the UK.

The biggest breeding herd, with 24 breeding females, is living at the National Trust's High Lickbarrow Farm near Windermere.

A very popular and commercial breed in the 1920s and '30s, the combined effects of changing farming systems and a foot-and-mouth epidemic in the '60s almost wiped out the dual-purpose breed, farmed for its milk and beef.

The farm was gifted to the National Trust in October 2015 following the death of local donor Michael Bottomley. He wanted to ensure the biodiversity found on the farm was maintained and, with this, the herd of Albions.

The National Trust has welcomed 20 new Albion female calves in the last three years, selling some on to other farmers across England as well as keeping a select few to grow into future breeders.

Bulls are swapped between herds to stop the offspring from becoming too inbred. The trust has also played a part in working with the Albion Cattle Society to gain recognition for the breed.

John Pring, Farm and Countryside Manager for High Lickbarrow, and one of a handful of breeders that have kept the breed going, said: “It’s fantastic news that the Albion cow has been officially recognised as a breed and great to know that there will be added support from the RBST to safeguard their future.”

“Albion’s have become a much-loved feature on farms over the last 30 years. They’re known to have a gentle temperament which has made them ideal conservation grazers, managing the grass in a nature friendly way which allows the native wildflowers to flourish.

"We’ve seen many species return to the fields, such as Dyers Greenweed which was formerly abundant on the farm but not present when we took the spot on.”

Gail Sprake, chairman of RBST, said, “Here at RBST we proudly boast that no breed has become extinct since we formed in 1973, but we could so easily have been proven wrong by failing to recognise these cattle.

"The Albions have had dramatic reversal of fortune since their heyday in the 1920s, but we hope that this recognition will herald the start of a new chapter for the breed.”