Knowing your numbers: Devon

Join us on January 15^th for our next meeting near Ditchett's Farm where we be exploring the benefits of closely monitoring your businesses financial performance and the importance of planning your next big investment.

Lead farmer Richard Tucker will be joined by farm business consultant John Morgan, Director of Creedy Associates, and Kate Bell, accountant, business planning specialist and Director of Evolution ABS.

John Morgan will cover:

• Current business performance at Ditchett farm
• Identifying areas of good performance and strengths of the business
• Identifying areas for further improvement

Kate Bell will cover:

• Planning for a large investment, eg. a second unit, diversification, property
• Making sure your business structure meets your requirements

We’ll also share the farm’s current performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) for block calving herds.

  To book your place contact the AHDB KE Events Hub on 01904 771216 or email ke.events@ahdb.org.uk

For further information contact Sarah Hurford on 079204 23469 or email sarah.hurford@ahdb.org.uk

The cost of attending this event is covered through your levy but please ensure you register your attendance for catering purposes.

If you have any special dietary requirements, please contact us as soon as possible   

Please bring a clean pair of wellington boots

If you no longer wish to receive this information, please email comms@ahdb.org.uk

About Ditchetts Farm

Richard Tucker, together with his parents Nigel and Brenda, run a spring-block herd of 240 New Zealand Friesians and Friesian Jersey X’s on 182 rented hectares at Ditchetts Farm near Tiverton in Devon.

The cows have an average mature weight of around 500 kg. Annual yield per cow is 4,900 litres, with average solids of 4.61% BF and 3.62% Protein supplying Arla.

The grazing platform extends to 61 hectares plus 20 hectares silage ground. A new 20/40 swing-over parlour was installed in 2006 with subsequent investment in cow/youngstock housing and tracks.

Youngstock are reared on a second rented farm where 6.5 hectares of kale is grown for outwintering. The Tuckers also produce 360 geese for the Christmas market and have 140 breeding ewes.        

The family have been long-time members of the ‘Grassmasters’ discussion group and Richard is currently Vice Chairman of Devon NFU. 

About Strategic Dairy Farms

Strategic dairy farms help farmers learn from each other through regular on-farm meetings where we will share key performance data and showcase what the best farmers are doing.

They form part of the Optimal Dairy Systems programme which aims to help dairy farmers lower costs and increase efficiency by focusing on either a block or all-year-round calving system.

The growing network of strategic dairy farms have calculated key performance indicators (KPIs) for their enterprises which are shared at meetings and published online. These are physical and financial performance measures that are critical to success. Farmers can benchmark their businesses against these KPIs and identify areas for improvement.

* If you no longer wish to receive this information, please email us on comms@ahdb.org.uk