Tackling silage costs and reducing waste

Join us for a webinar looking at how Lean management can help you get the most from multi-cut silage, eliminate waste and make efficient use of machinery.

George Wade from Honeypot Farm is already generating 10ppl profit and getting 5,000 litres from forage but wants to consistently improve and put his business in the top 5%. Learn how he can improve his multi-cut silage system to increase both silage yield and quality.

Independent consultant, Dr George Fisher will highlight where savings can be made at Honeypot, areas of waste and how productivity can be improved.

AHDB’s machinery specialist Harry Henderson will show you what to look for when reviewing farm kit and how to maximise machinery spend across multiple farms.

In this webinar you’ll learn about:

• Making multi-cut systems work
• Using Lean management to identity waste
• Efficient machinery use
• Whether to buy, lease or hire tractors

For more information regarding the event please contact Shirley Macmillan, Knowledge Exchange Manager at shirley.macmillan@ahdb.org.uk or 07766 402393

About Honeypot Farm

Based in Leicestershire and run by George and Ben Wade, Honeypot is home to an autumn block calving herd of 380 Holstein Friesians cows using British, Irish and New Zealand genetics.

The farm consists of 190 ha of ring-fenced land, of which 98 ha is the grazing platform, supported by 249 ha for forage and youngstock grazing. Recent investments have included spending £1.2 million on the development of a second 350 cow unit, plus £60,000 adding 100 cubicles at Honeypot, £100,000 on upgrading their parlour, £40,000 revamping their silage pits, as well as upgrading their grazing infrastructure.

The herd averages 8,000 litres at 4.3% butterfat and 3.6% protein and generates 5,000 litres from forage. They graze from February through to October and are fed 1.6t of concentrates in the parlour, with silages fed via a forage box. They have a 6-week calved rate of 75% and their age at first calving averages 24 months. They have a replacement rate of 22% and rear all their own replacements.

Learn more about Honeypot

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.