Study tour highlights – Day One

study-tour-july16-001 Thirty or so members joined the PFLA annual study tour in May, which this year travelled to inspirational farms in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.

Ian and Cathy Boyd – Cotswold Beef

Ian’s grandmother came to Whittington Lodge Farm, near Cheltenham in 1930 and Ian became involved in the farm after leaving university in the 1980s.

After his father retired, Ian ‘struggled’ with conventional, intensive agriculture, trying to grow wheat with increasing amounts of fertiliser on the thin Cotswold soils, and rearing calves on a barley beef system.

Everything changed in 2005, when he entered 120ha of species-rich calcareous grassland into the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme. Through this, Ian has now created wildflower meadows and produces high quality, slow grown, Pasture for Life beef.

The herd of pedigree Hereford suckler cows, organic since 2007 live outside all year, wintered on deferred grazing and late-cut meadow hay. They calve from April 1, and the cows, calves, yearlings and two-year olds are kept as one big family group.

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“My passion is wildlife photography, and this is what has driven us down the environmental stewardship route,” explained Ian. ‘Monoculture agriculture is not allowing wildlife to thrive or organic matter in the soil to accumulate.

“But what we are doing with our herb-rich leys is increasing organic matter by at least 0.1% a year, which could sequestrate 900 tonnes of Carbon Equivalent a year.

“I am told this is likely to be an underestimate, so I hope we can do more with our use of muck and compost, rotational grazing and introducing 15ha of herb-rich leys onto former arable fields each year.”

Mob Grazing

For the past two years, Ian has been sowing 15 different species including sainfoin, chicory and deep-rooting red clovers, and mob grazing them with the herd. Ian says his favourite is sainfoin, because the insects love it and it is also good for the cows’ guts.

Setting up seven hectare fields with fencing and water has been challenging he admits, but allows him to move the herd on to new pasture every other day.

The cattle eat a third, leave a third and trample the rest into the ground, where the worms can pull it down into the soil to replenish the organic matter. The herd does not return to the same field for at least two months, so that it is rested.

Selling Cotswold beef

Back in the farmyard buildings, where there are beautiful photos of the herd and meadows in full bloom on the walls, Ian’s wife gave a master class on how to sell beef.

Cathy started by saying that she is not a sales person. Whilst she has run a very successful Bed and Breakfast business for many years, she had never sold meat before. But as the butchers she asked were not interested in selling her meat, she decided to sell it herself.

“Pasture for Life meat is always better than any other meat,” said Cathy. “I am really proud of our beasts – and they certainly deserve a premium.

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“I am so chuffed about what we are doing here, and we have now reached a point where we cannot keep up with demand. So we are increasing the herd, having recently bought ten heifers from another certified member Simon Cutter.”

Cathy ran through the possible selling options that were open to them in the beginning. She said selling at shows and farmers markets was hard work – standing around for eight hours to sell one topside, was really not a goer. So selling boxed beef directly from the farm was the preferred choice.

Cathy spends hours on the phone, chatting to potential customers – telling the story of their herd and why the animals and the meat is so special. She says she is careful not to bombard people with information.

Being a member of the Pasture Fed Livestock Association has been extremely helpful, as she can alert consumers to the website to find out more about the benefits of 100% grass-fed beef.

When an animal is sent to the abattoir, Cathy knows she has the three weeks of hanging time to sell every last bit. In truth, half the meat has been sold before it steps onto the lorry.

Customers fill in order forms leaving their names and mobile numbers. When Cathy wants to let them know meat is ready she texts them – saying they are much more likely to respond to this than email.

The meat is sold mainly in three types of box – Mixed for £105, Winter Warmer for £85 and Taster for £65.

Individual cuts, including fillet, rib on/off the bone, LMC (a lean slow-roasted braising joint) or Top Rib (a slow roast joint similar to brisket) and feathered steak, can be bought to make up a customer’s own box – but the three main boxes are the best value.

“We make sure that every taster box has at least £68 worth of meat in it, and present it well and explain how to cook the meat.”

Meat selling days are pretty hectic. The meat cut into the required pieces is picked up from the butcher at 7.30am. Cathy and her team then make up the orders, vacuum packing each piece and adding the prices and weights and organic and Pasture for Life labels to the outside, before packing them into ‘size 4’ Woolcool boxes.

A 12-sectioned freezer pack is added to keep the meat at the right temperature for transportation, and the boxes are lined with blue plastic to prevent any melted water ruining the cardboard. Consumers pay £5 for the packaging, and many of those who pick their orders up bring their boxes back for re-filling.

Half of the meat is picked up by customers after 4pm the same day. Parcel carrier APC comes and collects the other half of the orders, which are delivered nationwide.

“We have developed a pricing strategy after talking to many butchers,” said Cathy. “We average a retail price around £16/kg, which gives us a good return for every animal we sell.”

Will Edwards – White House Farm

Our second visit was to meet dairy farmers Will and Debbie Edwards, who despite facing very challenging times with TB, are making the best use of grazing and grass. Although not certified Pasture for Life, Will was a founder member of the Pasture Fed Livestock Association.

The farm we visited used to be the support block for an organic 300-cow dairy unit 30 miles away. But two years ago a catastrophic TB outbreak led to the end of that herd and a need for a new direction.

Not allowed to move cows between the farms, Will employs staff to continue milking cows at the other farm. But at White House he has built a parlour and brought in a herd of young Irish crossbred heifers. They live outside all year, except for just prior to calving, and are managed in a New Zealand-style grazing system.

“I enjoy grass, it keeps my interest,” said Will. “Every year is different and I am making decisions on grazing every day. I measure the fields with a platemeter once a week, as it is really important to know there is enough grass or a looming surplus.”

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Will is a strong advocate of grassland discussion groups to accelerate learning. Twelve farmers in his group have met once a month on a member’s farm for the past 15 years. Everyone measures grass weekly during the growing season and analyses it through Internet programme AgriNet.

Now that Will is no longer organic, he makes use of herbicides to remove problematic docks and to destruct swards after eight years, to ensure a really clean entry for the grassland reseed.

“I try and reseed 15% of the farm each year with late heading perennial ryegrass and clover,” Will said. ‘The cost of reseeding is an investment and the new grass will pay for itself many times over in the years ahead.”

The herd is dried off in one block in the first week of December and out-wintered on herb-rich leys with cocksfoot, chicory and red clover. Silage bales are placed along the fence line and the animals are moved forward every day. A mobile water trough follows them. This arrangement costs just 60p/head per day, as opposed to £2/head per day for keeping the cattle inside.

“We happen to have buildings where the cows could stay in winter,” Will admitted. “But we can keep them outside for less, and this might make the difference between the whole farm making a profit or not. Their welfare is not compromised by being outside.”

The new heifers were brought indoors to calve and then put out onto the grazing fields, set up with water troughs, high tensile electric fencing and tracks for easy access.

In spring, the fields are grazed from early February on a 21-day rotation and achieve annual yields of 10 tonnes dry matter/ha. Silage is cut mainly from fields further from the parlour, although fields in the grazing rotation that grow too quickly to be grazed, can also be cut for silage. This ensures a pipeline of high quality grazing grass for the milking cows to eat.

Will expects the young herd to produce up to 4,500 litres of milk a year, being milked twice a day. Whilst running a grass-based system, at present Will is keen to support his new herd as much as possible, so currently feeds a low level of concentrates to the young cows in the parlour.

Suckling calves

The visit ended with a discussion on rearing calves – as Will had started to multiple suckle calves on a few of the heifers, for 12 weeks. This saves the cost and labour of feeding calves with powdered milk.

“The calves grew large and looked very well,” said Will. “But weaning was a nightmare. No-one was happy that week!”

At the end Will listed what he feels farmers need to do to run successful grass-based businesses:

  • Join a discussion group
  • Measure grass growth – don’t guess
  • Have the right type of animal
  • Put infrastructure in place to allow access to fields in December and February
  • Have the right staff

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