Derbyshire: Establishing resilience within a pasture-focused business

Join us at Rough Grounds Farms as we discuss how optimising cow and pasture performance has contributed to the farm's profitability.

This meeting will cover

• The story of Rough Grounds Farm, including the share farming agreement
• A financial assessment of Rough Grounds Farm, highlighting what has contributed to profitability
• Optimising cow performance and pasture performance
• Evaluation of a paddock system that now contains a substantial herbal ley and the changes in approach to integrating herbs and legumes into an existing grazing system

About the event

The SAM3 SFI herbal ley payment of £382/Ha is an attractive incentive, but the practicalities of establishing and maintaining these leys is extremely farm specific.

Rough Grounds Farm is a high performing profitable business completely centred around growing and feeding high quality forage with plans to engage with SAM3 options.

We will be joined by Tony Evans from Andersons to demonstrate what has contributed to the profitability of the business, as well as exploring the new share farming agreement that has recently been established.

Liz Genever, grass scientist, will discuss the financial risks and opportunities of growing herbal leys in a well established grazing business, as well as looking at the practicalities of their establishment.

About Rough Grounds Farm

Farmers Graham and Justine Worsey run a herd of 260 cows on a split-block calving system with their daughter Jess and a recently established equity share agreement with Dan Jones.

The cows are crossbred with Jerseys and Friesians to help the cows benefit from better butterfat and protein while maintaining good overall health.

They yield approximately 6,500 L per cow, with 4,500 L from forage and 550 kg of milk solids from forage.

By joining the Strategic Dairy Farm programme, the Worseys want to look at:

• Environmental resilience – establishing a way to integrate an efficient pasture-based system with the new SFI initiatives from the Government
• Youngstock health – building on the standards to improve cost-effective growth for calves
• Cost of production – establishing how to maintain business resilience by realistic and effective cost control

This has been established by a steering group consisting of local farmers and consultants.