As part of a series of visits organised by AHDB aimed at improving farm business resilience by providing tangible examples, benchmarking and delivering the latest research for farmers to adopt, Evolution Farming, joint owned by Tom Rawson, Oliver Hall and Charlie Crotty, hosted their 3rd AHDB Strategic Farm event at Houghton Lodge Farm, Leicestershire. The event provided insight into a unique business model and shared key performance data and experiences learnt.
Having taken on the management of the redundant dairy unit in spring 2016, Evolution Farming are now working to build up a 700 strong, low input, spring calving herd. Due to a purchasing strategy which saw cows of all ages and in different states of gestation brought in at an average cost of £750 per head, the herd is currently transitioning from all-year-round, to a two block calving system before the eventual transition to spring calving. The farm’s philosophy is to optimise their system through simplification and low production costs.
Evolution Farming currently manages six farms through a mixture of tenancy, contract farming and consultancy work. Stakeholders invest in the business and landowners provide the equity for business improvements at a fixed rate of return.
Andre Van Barneveld of Graise Consultancy spoke on the effect of good herd management on fertility and the importance of Body Condition Scoring (BCS) throughout the calving process. Andre advised an ideal BCS of 3.5 - 3.25.The farm walk allowed us to put Andre’s methods of scoring into practice by assessing the new herd, noting variations and discussing methods to improve and align the herds overall BCS.
The afternoon session focused on the farm’s finances, looking at how the projected budget matched up to actual business costs. Under Evolution Farming’s business model the capital for onsite improvements came from the landowners with Evolution Farming committing to a 10% yearly return on their investment. The cows are bought through stakeholders who are promised a flexible rate of return of between 2.5 – 10% depending on business profits. Reducing costs through the prioritisation of grazing, efficient milking – two 24/48 swingover herringbone parlours have recently been installed side by side – time management and the long term financial plans for the business were also discussed. The ultimate goal for this farm is to reduce the cost of production to 22ppl.
The event was insightful with lively conversation and debate throughout the day. AHDB are looking for other strategic dairy farmers who are top performers with a good geographical spread and willingness to learn and share best practice ideas to help build a stronger dairy industry.
To register interest or make an application, please contact S0VEYWlyeUFkbWluQGFoZGIub3JnLnVr or 02476 478684 by 27 October 2017
For more information visit the AHDB webpage