Little Morton Farm (2017 - 2021)
About Little Morton Farm (2017 - 2021)
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Beef & Lamb Strategic Farmer from 2017 until 2021
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Mixed farm in Nottinghamshire
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Farms core enterprise is vegetable production and conventional arable cropping with grass in the rotation
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At the start of the programme the herd consisted on 330 Aberdeen Angus suckler cows. During the programme these were dispersed and replaced by a dairy beef finishing enterprise.
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Youngstock sold deadweight
When Joe joined the Strategic Farm programme his aims were to:
- Reduce average age at slaughter
- Improve grassland management
At the start of the project Joes priority was to reduce age at slaughter which in 2017 was 34 months. Joe wanted to finish cattle purely off grass which was proving tricky and leading to an extended finishing period. By introducing a short, sharp finishing period indoors, Joe was able to reduce finishing age to 27 months.
During the programme, Joe made the decision to disperse his herd of suckler cows and instead focus on finishing dairy beef. This decision came after a difficult calving season and struggles making a profit from the suckler cow enterprise. Joe is able to source dairy cross angus cattle from another part of the business. Cattle are reared at grass and outwintered on fodder beet and Lucerne. They are then finished inside using a predominantly forage based diet. It is Joes aim to increase this enterprise so that he is finishing 1200 cattle each year.
Further information on growing and finishing cattle can be found here https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/feeding-growing-and-finishing-cattle-for-better-returns
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Joe Howard
Joe runs a mixed farm in Retford, Nottinghamshire. Whilst his core enterprise is vegetable production and conventional arable cropping, Joe also has a dairy beef finishing enterprise.