Huntingdonshire Monitor Farm

Meet the team

Andrew and Richard Ramply run G.T.Ramply & Son. Joe Hicken has worked within the business for the past six years and introduced store lambs to graze winter cover crops.

The wider team includes agronomist Will Cobley and farm business consultant Will Tongue, who work closely with the business. The farm also hosts a Harper Adams University placement student each year and has done so for the past 15 years.

The business benefits greatly from a varied team, bringing fresh ideas and new perspectives to its operations.

Overview of the farm business

The business combines scale, logistical efficiency and low fixed costs across a highly varied land base.

Operations are centred around timely crop establishment, machinery efficiency and maintaining transparent costings from field to grain store.

Benchmarking against similar machinery syndicate businesses helps guide decisions and track performance.

Investment in practical technology has supported this approach. This includes:

• RTK guidance
• Inter-row hoeing
• Wider row spacing
• A Horsch Avatar drill
• Low disturbance cultivation systems

Together, these help improve establishment consistency, reduce cultivations and increase operational efficiency.

Managing variable soils

The farm’s soil profile changes significantly across short distances.

This creates challenges around rotations, nutrient management, cultivation choice and establishment, all of which are managed on a field-by-field basis.

Cropping and rotation

The rotation is designed to be flexible, resilient and logistically efficient across different soil types. Cropping includes:

• Winter wheat for milling and feed
• Winter and spring barley for malting
• Spring oats for the milling market
• Oilseed rape
• Winter cover crops ahead of spring cereals

Spring oats remain an important crop, although they’ve become increasingly challenging in recent seasons. This has led the business to review future break crop options.

Oilseed rape has recently been reintroduced to the rotation after a three-year absence.

Livestock and environmental management

Alongside the arable enterprise, the business also manages:

• 100 acres of ancient woodland
• Species-rich grassland
• Historic ridge and furrow

These areas provide environmental value and give flexibility to rotate livestock away from winter cover crops where required.

Trials and monitoring

From Autumn 2026, the farm will host a cover crop trial. This will compare a tried-and-tested three-way mix with a new six-way mix as part of an SFI26 agreement.

The trial will assess:

• Soil health
• Livestock performance
• Following cash crops

Brought-in store lambs graze winter cover crops, and the trial will collect data on lamb performance, soil health and crop performance following grazing.

Aims and ambitions

• Continue improving business efficiency through low fixed costs, technology investment and strong logistics
• Further integrate livestock and arable enterprises while understanding the financial performance of grazed cover crops
• Explore nutrient use efficiency (NUE), nutrient management and practical fertiliser strategies
• Improve understanding of soil variability and field-by-field management decisions
• Continue trialling reduced cultivation systems, wider row spacing and precision establishment methods
• Maintain competitive cost of production through benchmarking and collaboration
• Remain flexible and open-minded to system change, including rotational adjustments and future break crop opportunities
• Build peer-to-peer learning opportunities and encourage fresh thinking within the business