Honeypot Farm

Follow our journey if you are interested in:

• Improving fertility rates and improving soil health 
• Reducing instances of lameness
• Achieving 10ppl profit without lowering health and welfare standards
• Exploring genetics for grazing cows
• Improving business planning

Overview

Honeypot Farm has been operated as a farm partnership between Mr Garner and Martin Wade since 1982. Over time this successful joint venture has expanded, and in 2019 they converted an arable operation at Oak Tree Farm, into a second autumn block-calving dairy business. The day to day operations of the units are managed by Martin’s sons George and Ben, both of whom have returned home after a period away studying civil engineering. They are supported by two full-time and one part-time staff.

Our farm 

Honeypot Farm is based in Husbands Bosworth in Leicestershire and 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.

Our herd

This autumn block calving herd consists of 380 Holstein Friesians cows using British, Irish and New Zealand genetics. 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.

Our journey

During their time as a Strategic Dairy Farm, George, and Ben would like to like to improve fertility, and get into the detail of mobility scoring to tackle lameness. They also wish to work towards a more structured approach to business planning and team management, getting to the bottom of the real cost of their plant and machinery. They are keen to start to better utilise genetics to breed a more grazing focused herd, recognising that soil health, climate-resilient grazing platforms, and exploring the benefits of herbal leys will also be key.

Our key performance figures

Honeypot Farm openly share their KPIs so you can see how they perform against a number or technical and financial measures.

• Review our key performance indicators here 
  

Previous meetings and updates

• July 2020 - Honeypot Farm launch - an introduction to the farm, their switch to autumn block calving and set up of a new 350-cow autumn block herd on a neighbouring greenfield site.
• Increasing milk from forage to drive profitability - how Honeypot Farm increased their milk from forage from 2,000 to 5,000 litres

• Improving fertility to reduce the calving block podcast - we chat to George Wade and vet Dave Gilbert about the fertility programme at Honeypot Farm

• March 2021 - Tackling silage costs and reducing waste - how George Wade will make the most from multi-cut silage, eliminate waste and make efficient use of machiner
  
• July 2021 - Introducing a multi-cult silage system - how George Wade is aiming to take at least three cuts of silage to increase yield and quality from forage.