Shropshire: Creating simple processes for an efficient robust business

Join us at The Farm with Tim Downes and independent consultant George Fisher to find out how you can assess your tasks and processes to identify where there could be time and therefore money savings.

As a family farm with a dairy and beef system and a young team of staff, communication is key on The Farm to ensure correct processes are followed and time is used effectively.

One of the risks to the current business is that the system can be too complicated. Tim and George have identified that the winter housed period where cows need to be fed, scraped and bedded up is an area of work that could be improved and made more efficient. By looking to make tasks and processes simpler it will eliminate wasted time and resources.

The event will include a farm walk and discussion on topics such as: 

• Introducing the concept of lean management
• How you can replicate this assessment on your own farm
• Options to manage workload across the team and effective communication methods to ensure The Farm remains a nice place to work and retains staff
• Implementing the changes and give feedback to Tim and the team

Who should attend?

Any Dairy farmers who are looking to run a more efficient grass based system and meet with like minded farmers.

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

Our speaker - Dr George Fisher

Dr George Fisher is an Independant Grassland consultant with both an academic and commercial background. A former British Grassland Sociecty President, he has published many papers and is currently working with ADAS as part of the Grass YEN project which focuses on increasing grassland yields.

About The Farm

The herd at The Farm is currently made up of 260 Irish and New Zealand based Friesian cows crossed with Norwegian Reds. Average yield is 6500L with 4% Fat and 3.4% protein. The Farm is made of up 365 acres for the milking platform and heifers, with silage and beef rearing ground across multiple other sites. The grazing platform mainly consists of Red and White Clover with Aber grasses that also include Chicory and Plantain where possible.

The Farm runs a spring block calving system with planned calving starting in mid February, with 72% calving within the first 6 weeks. Breeding decisions are data driven using somatic cell counts and milk quality as the current main drivers. They use sexed semen and beef straws and sell excess heifers once weaned. Bull calves are all raised for beef and sold to Waitrose.

Find out more about The Farm

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.

Explore our other strategic dairy farms