Huggate Monitor Farm

Name:

Gary Shipley

Location:

Huggate, East Riding of Yorkshire

Farm sectors:

Cereals & Oilseeds

Twitter:

@farmhuggate

View on Google Maps

About Huggate Monitor Farm

Huggate Wold Farms became a Monitor Farm in May 2019
Total farm area: 657ha
Rotation: Winter wheat, winter malting barley, oilseed rape/spring barley, vining peas and potatoes
The farm also has 150 gimmer lambs on rough grazing in the dales and a relatively young suckler herd
Soil types: calcareous silty loam soils stretching to heavier clay loam

At his 657 ha, high-altitude family farm on the top of the Yorkshire Wolds, Gary Shipley grows winter wheat for feed, winter malting barley and oilseed rape/spring barley. He also grows vining peas for Birds Eye and potatoes using a plough-based system. His soils range from calcareous silty loam soils to heavier clay loam. In addition to arable cropping, the farm also has 150 gimmer lambs rough grazing in the dales and a relatively young suckler herd.

When Gary joined the Monitor Farm Programme, he was just starting to investigate using cover crops in the rotation for soil benefits and sustainable farming. Gary wants to grow and improve the business while reducing his impact on the environment. Personally, his aims are to improve his skills, learn from others and increase his knowledge of modern farming practices.

Past meetings & updates

Steps towards an on-farm diversification - 2 March 2023

At Gary's final Monitor Farm meeting, Elliot Taylor (George F White) gave guidance on delivering a diversification project from initial concept through to project completion. Steve Dunkley (HSBC) then shared insight into the banks decision-making process.

After lunch Adam Palmer, director at Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil, talked about the successed and pitfalls of his diversification journey.

Managing muck and compaction - 19 December 2022

Gary welcomed two guest speakers on farm for the second meeting of the 22/23 winter season.

John willams (ADAS) spoke about maximising the fertiliser value of organic amendments, comparing both food-based digestates and livestock slurries. And Harry Henderson (AHDB) delivered an outdoor workshop on tyres and compaction.

Nutrition & margins - 17 November 2022

Gary opened the meeting by giving an update on 2022's harvest and detailing some things he's been trialling on the farm, providing cost breakdowns of the implementation of 20ha of cover crops as well as a reduced nitrogen try-out involving Edward's Seaweed and BioN. Gary also talked about his experience strip-tilling with a Horsch Focus drill.

Following that, Rob Beaumont (Hereford monitor farmer and agronomist with EDAPHOS) spoke about managing plant health in order to maximise margins and Mark Topliff (AHDB Farm economics) reported on past, present and future Farmbench results.

If you would like to be included in the email invite list for future meetings, contact Isobel.eames@ahdb.org.uk, or alternatively call on 07741892283.

Summer farm walk - 30 June 2022

The 30^th of June marked Gary Shipley’s final summer meeting as a monitor farmer at Huggate Wold. Firstly, Gary updated attendees on what had been going on the farm since the last meeting.

On the day Gary was also joined by independent soil and cultivation specialist Philip Wright, Dave Edwards from Edwards Agricultural Supplies, and Bob McTurk from Claas Eastern, who all helped contribute to stimulating and relevant conversation surrounding Gary's on-farm trials.

The big carbon chat - 2 March 2022

In autumn 2021, Huggate monitor farm had a footprinting exercise conducted using Farm Carbon Toolkit. Becky Wilson from FCT then walked through the results and lead discussions on how carbon calculations can assist arable farmers in managing their zero carbon targets.

Attention to detail: What to measure and manage? - 18 January 2022

Gary welcomed Sarah Kendall (Principal Research Scientist at ADAS) and David Hoyles onto farm back in January 2022. Sarah highlighted how recording and analysis can help to provide a comprehensive understanding of crop performance, as well as give examples of variables to measure. David then went on to advise how best to extract meaning from the data collected.

Rules & regulations: How to balance for the future - 14 December 2021

Iain Mcdonell (Environment Agency) walked through local water quality data with the group, discussing whether nitrate or phosphate are an issue in the catchment. AHDB scientists James Holmes and Georgina Key then advised how to optimise the use of nutrients. Finally, Andrew Smithson (CSF) gave guidance on incentives and available advice for improving air and water quality.

You can find AHDB's Nutrient Management Guide (RB209), here.

Getting the most out of biostimulants - 9 November 2021

Dr Kate Storer (Crop Physiologist at ADAS High Mowthorpe) gave a review of the function, efficacy and value of biostimulant products available for UK cereals and oilseeds. Gary was also joined by Angus Gowthorpe (The Green Farm Collective) who talked to the group about a 'regenerative' approach to farming.

NE Monitor Farm regional update – 3 February 2021

Key points from Gary’s most recent update included:

Purchasing a combine – getting crops into storage when it’s right to do so proved valuable.
Wheat yield was around the 5-year average, variety Graham struggled in the dry conditions and was discontinued.
Gary began finishing pigs as well as housing them, increasing numbers to 2000.
Pig operations are kept antibiotic-free, so far with a low mortality rate.

You can hear Gary’s, as well as other farmers for the north-east, give their full seasonal updates in the North East Monitor Farms Regional Update recording.

North East Monitor Farm regional update – 2 July 2020

Updates from the year previous included:

OSR variety Extrovert, a consistent performer for Gary, was on-form once again. Unfortunately, this variety is set for discontinuation.
Soil Health Scorecard assessment revealed surprisingly high SOM but also high levels of compaction on the cover-cropped fields.
Had issues with Blackgrass and Brome and saw a lot of secondary regrowth in wheat fields.
Troubles with pea performance led to inclusion of potatoes in rotation – currently assessing whether they are worth the detrimental effect they have on the soil.
Established a pig shed and is seeing a steady income from it along with organic matter for the soil.
Signed onto the ‘Humber Landscape Pilot’ – a Yorkshire Water Scheme that is trying to tackle nitrate levels in local drinking water.

A full account of Gary’s update can be seen here: North East Monitor Farm Summer Meeting 2020 | AHDB

Personal resilience – 13 February 2020

A whole host of questions that need to be addressed when planning how to best manage staffing on-farm were outlined.

The full list can be found in the meeting report: Huggate Personal Resilience Meeting Report | AHDB

Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) – 15 January 2020

Analysis of harvest results from previous years led to the identification of the following trends:

Seed number is critical for a high yield.
High yielders tended to have greater soil and seed Mg and P.
High yielding crops had 11 extra days from flowering to desiccation.
High yield seasons associated with dry December and dry/sunny April.

Key points were also outlined that would go towards a farm-specific strategy to optimise the application of Nitrogen, for full details follow this link: Huggate Monitor Farm YEN Meeting Report | AHDB

Labour and machinery review – 12 December 2019

A full labour & machinery review and cost analysis were conducted. Time was also spent looking into labour options for the upcoming pig bed & breakfast enterprise, see the full breakdown here: Huggate Monitor Farm Labour & Machinery Review | AHDB

Soil and cover crops – 13 November 2019

In the first winter meeting in Huggate, the group discussed the importance of soil health, examples of key soil-health indicators as well has how to make a comprehensive assessment using the Soil Health Scorecard.

Strategic Cereal Farm North host David Blacker spoke about the positive results he’s experienced from experimenting with no-till and cover-crop strategies as well as the use of compost.

For full meeting details and links to more information regarding soil assessment, visit: Huggate Monitor Farm Soils & Cover Crops Meeting Report | AHDB

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