Lanarkshire: Hillhead then and now - final strategic farm meeting

Join us on farm for William Baillie’s final meeting as a strategic dairy farm where we will look back at his three years of involvement as a host farm with a final on farm meeting at Hillhead.

We will be joined by Peter Storr, Graeme Surtees Associates Ltd., who has worked with William to challenge and develop the current system at Hillhead, identifying strengths and weaknesses in the business and how the team can continue to develop in the future.

On the day we will cover:

• The current performance of the system at Hillhead, examining key figures including cash flow, cost of production and what drives profitability at Hillhead
• How you can identify the strengths and weaknesses in your own set up and how this can help you continue to move your business forwards
• Round up of changes William has made while part of the strategic dairy farm programme and the impact this has had on his business
• How William is looking to diversify the farm following recent changes

Places are limited as the session will be on farm, active discussion will be encouraged so do come along ready to share your own experiences and opinions.

If you want to gain access to how William is using data and an understanding of his strengths and weaknesses to drive the business forward and increase future resilience then this on farm meeting is for you.

To assist with biosecurity and conform to government guidelines please ensure outer clothing and vehicles are clean and that clean boots that can be disinfected are worn. Please note children under the age of 16 and dogs are not allowed at the event, even if they are staying in the car.

Health and Safety guidelines for AHDB Events

About Hillhead

Hillhead is based in the county of Lanarkshire in the central Lowlands of Scotland. It is 6 miles from Biggar and just 12 miles from the main M74 motorway. The farm consists of 159 hectares – of which is 118 hectares is grassland and 33 ha arable land. 

The herd is currently made up of 310 pedigree Holstein cows, calved all year round and achieving 11,591 litres of milk per cow per year at 3.82% butterfat and 3.11% protein. The herd is milked three times per day and are housed all year round. They rear all their own replacements with an age at first calving of 24.5 months. Cows are fed a diet of mainly grass silage, whole crop and draff. 

About Strategic Dairy Farms

Strategic dairy farms aim to 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 reduce costs and increase efficiency by focusing on either a tight block or all-year-round calving system.

The growing network of strategic dairy farms have calculated 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 to help identify areas for improvement. 

Follow the programme and find other local SDFs at www.dairy.ahdb.org.uk/ strategic-dairy-farm