Underley

Ian’s family moved to Underley more than 20 years ago, separating the beef finishing and dairy businesses. The farm is managed by Ian and his parents, alongside two full-time staff.

The dairy is based in Oxfordshire and feeds Aberdeen Angus-sired dairy-beef calves into Ian’s system at Underley.

Underley is run much like a dairy unit from a grazing point of view – rotationally grazing and maximising returns from forage.

The farm finishes 600 cattle a year, with calves coming in between two weeks and two months old and remaining on site throughout their lives, before finishing at 16–21 months when they are sold deadweight to Dovecote Park and Grassroots Farming.

Around 80% of the calves are from the family dairy, with the remainder coming from Meadow Quality.

Ian is in a Mid-Tier Countryside Stewardship agreement and the Sustainable Farming Incentive.  

Ian’s farming ethos focuses on sustainability, with profitable beef production, healthy soils and reducing fertiliser use and imported feed being key.

During his time in the Monitor Farm programme, Ian wanted to focus on:

• Having a sustainable – in an environmental and financial sense – business to pass to his children if they wish to farm
• Establishing multi-species herbal leys
• Getting more from his farmyard manure (FYM), including a composting trial
• Getting expert help for the farm, including a critical eye on what they’re doing
• Delving deeper into the farm business structure and accounts to overcome the loss of a grazing Approved Finishing Unit (AFU) licence in 2022

Ian was also looking forward to inviting neighbouring farmers to Underley to discuss and share ideas on how he can take the business forward and benchmark himself with others.

In 2023, Ian was Farmers Weekly Beef Farmer of the Year.

Achievements include:

• Almost eliminating anthelmintics due to regular worm counts with FECPAK and good grazing practices
• Trialling home-grown lucerne in 2024
• Companion cropping peas and barley
• Switching from British Blue to Aberdeen Angus-sired dairy beef, which are better suited to his forage-based system
• Reducing fertiliser and imported feed – 90% of feed and forage is now homegrown
• Trialling novel ways of getting more from his FYM, including composting/turning and Bokashi
• Growing the profitability and sustainability of his system
• Embracing multispecies leys
• Switching rations from imported feed to a homegrown total mixed ration (TMR), with huge financial savings
• Reducing the carbon footprint of the business
• Developing a great work-life balance for his young family and staff