Farming

The year of 2020 started like any normal year for us, preparing ourselves for the start of calving. In February we were privileged to win the Grass Manager of the year at the cream awards. Calving was ticking along with no real problems and then a big opportunity came calling.

We had the opportunity to look at a farm to expand our dairy operation, Shaw Wood Farm is a 257 acre farm on the Harrowby Estate at Sandon (only 4miles from home), the farm was offered on a long term tenancy to make it possible to invest with a long term view. Our goal with taking the farm on in April was to be milking cows here in September/October and create an Autumn calving herd to work alongside our all ready established spring block herd.

Shaw Wood Farm April 2020

We had to start from not the ideal start point, the previous tenant had not left the farm in a “Good state” which was an understatement, also the construction that had taken place was to a poor standard. We had to start from scratch, to start with we had to identify if the shed was built on the correct foundations. After digging test holes to investigate we found the site had not been prepped properly and concrete around the rsj’s had been laid onto the grass. After a few sleepless nights we decided that the only thing we could do was to strip back the site and dismantle half the building to start with the correct foundations to build on. Looking back a blank canvas would have been an awesome start point, but you have to deal with cards that you have been dealt.

After a month of sorting the site out, we commenced construction.

We not only had to build the farm but also we had to cultivate and reseed a lot of the fields, we aimed to reseed 150 acres of the fallow and very poorly managed grassland. We also had to reinstate field boundaries that had been allowed to become overgrown, also some major ditching work and drainage work to allow water logged fields to drain properly to become productive once finished.

We also had to do up the farm house to move into.

Taking on the project in the spring was advantageous to be able to undertake the work in the right conditions. We also had to carry on with our core business of New Buildings farm.

From the moment we started the whole project we fell in love with Shaw Wood, we started to make progress every week. We had hell of a task set out ahead us as a family and the team of people who work for us. Of course every corner we turned there would be unforeseen challenges, but opportunities to learn and develop ourselves came and went and felt victorious when we overcame them.

Some days we had numerous contractors on farm, the days felt they were never ending. Through planning and communication we were able to achieve many things.

As grass based dairy farmers we knew the importance of getting the fields back to a productive state. We plotted out what we wanted to reseed asap and worked on those fields to clear brash and sort out drainage. The whole farm was soil sampled and 2t lime was spread per acre. Some days it felt like we never achieved much, but after a while things started to slot together.

This is just a brief start to the story so far, I will continue to update this blog with the journey….. TO BE CONTINUED

I am sure it was just August!

So August just vanished for most of us and as we think wasn’t it just May like last week.

August has been a busy month, we have managed to weigh the whole herd of cows which is hard work but the benefits are worth it. We will work out kgs of milk-solids of completed lactations over body weight and aim for the 1kgs body weight/ 1kgs of milk-solids and poor performing cows will be marked to be served to beef in 2020.

At the beginning of the month we have completed our grass budgets and Autumn grass planner, this is so important to be able to track and monitor where you are on a weekly basis with growth rates vs demand and predictions of growth rates. Without doing this you could not setup your farm up properly to have enough grass in the spring.

We set the target farm cover at the end of September at 2500 and the closing farm cover at 2200 for us on the 25th November. You have to build cover during August / September to achieve the 2500 then you will graze 70% of your farm in October then finally 30% in November and close the farm up at 2200 and house all the cows. The Autumn rotation planner is very simple to use on Agrinet, you just input in your farm area / start date / interim date/ %grazed / housing date and it will work out what ha you can graze on a daily basis / weekly basis then you track this via %grazed and on a graph.

We have seen the benefits of a wet July with some great grass growth.

Mid August we cut 150 acres for silage and filled the 3rd clamp at home. With the contractors chopper breaking down after 1 load and a dash to Leeds to get parts, we did get finished at 2300. We followed silaging with getting out all our muck from storage onto the silaged ground via contractors using umbillical and a dribble bar.

Late August we purchased our straw that we need for the winter months for feeding and bedding, what a difference a year makes with prices back to the same as 2017 and some very good yields of bales of the acreage we purchased in the swath.

We have ploughed and drilled 2ha on our youngstock block taking 2019 reseeding to 15% across the whole farm.

We have seen one of our employees leave and we have successfully recruited a new member of staff to join the team in September. I could write a whole post on this!

We have pd’d the cows which has been positive for all the team as we Ai’d ourselves this year rather than using an ai technician and we have achieved some great results. We have achieved 10% empty rate over a 12 week block which has been the best we have done in a good few years. We can’t put it down to one thing, rather than a combination of things from improved communication / more relaxed approach as we ai’d as cows were drafted whilst milking took place and cow weren’t waiting around for unneseccary periods and of course we had some cracking weather and great grass to help us through the serving period.

As suddenly we start to think in 11 weeks time we will be drying cows off, we think of all the preperation we will need to do before winter, getting all those jobs done that need doing.

Only a few people can kick back and relax on the farm at this time of the year! (For a few years only).

Category: Farming

How time can vanish when you’re busy building!

Well that went quickly……