West Sussex: Cockhaise Farm final strategic dairy farm meeting

Join Dan Burdett of Cockhaise Farm as we review his time as a strategic farm and his progress combining lifestyle benefits with a profitable dairy farming business.

Bought-in organic feed is Dan’s biggest challenge is with a lorry load costing him £18,000. He also needs to be resilient in the dry south-east, producing quality organic forage for his simple self-feed system. However, with a young family and a tight autumn-block calving system, lifestyle is a prime driver of his business.

Dan will talk about his drivers, non-negotiables and what he needs to run a simple, profitable dairy farming system.

You’ll also hear from a OAD, lifestyle-orientated dairy farmer Mat Boley and a business-focused farm manager and shareholder Calvin Williams, both organic producers. 

If you’re interested in how to balance your farm business with your lifestyle then this meeting is for you.

Learn more about Cockhaise Farm and see their past meetings.

Mat Boley runs 350 cows on a spring-block calving system, organic principles and for the past 20 years, milked once a day for lifestyle reasons. Cows are 100% pasture fed and yield 3,000 litres. Mat has always had lifestyle as his number one goal, spending time with his young family and plenty of hobbies. Now he has employed sharemilkers so that he and his wife can take a sabbatical next year and plan their next 20 years.

Calvin Williams is a shareholder and manager of two units for a farming business in Shropshire and Yorkshire. One herd of 600 cows is spring block calving managed organically, the other has 470 cows calving in a split block. While he accepts the work/life balance of block calving, in a profitable business employing 25 staff, Calvin needs to balance people and cows, investment and return.