West Sherford Farm (2017 - 2021)

When John joined the Strategic Farm programme his objectives were grassland focused and included:

• Implementing rotational grazing on both ryegrass and mixed species pastures
• Implementing outwintering to reduce costs
• Improve soil quality by adopting regenerative agriculture principles

Maximising grass and forage is key to Johnny’s business and increasing the amount of beef produced per ha was one of the key reasons why he moved from sucklers to dairy beef.

To achieve this John first implemented rotational grazing, which resulted in an increase in the quality and quantity of grass produced. This increased growth rates, from an average of 0.63kg/day to 0.72kg/day.

Johns second objective was to reduce his costs and increase his margins and was one of the reasons why he dispersed the suckler herd. He commented “I didn’t love my suckler cows enough to keep them when they wernt making any money”. John now outwinters his dairy cross cattle on deferred grazing and silage bales, which has reduced costs substantially. He is now able to finish cattle at 24-27 months on a purely forage system.

Johns farming system is set up to promote soil biology and organic matter, as Johnny says “soil is where the farm starts”. At the start of the programme a nutrient management plan was conducted which showed that 10 out of the 14 fields were acidic, Johnny has since rectified this by applying lime to the fields. To increase soil biology and organic matter Johnny has reverted most of the arable land back to permanent pasture or herbal leys.

Further information on improving soil can be found here https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/improving-soils-for-better-returns

Johnny recorded a podcast discussing his outwintering system, listen to it again here https://audioboom.com/posts/7970099-outwintering-dairy-and-beef-cattle-can-it-work-for-you

Johnny discusses more about the his decision to disperse the suckler herd during this webinar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrfSG1E4P9M&list=PLtImzmj0GoB4fDRZptWLA6ivxshymQqVb