One of latest herds to join AHDB’s Strategic Dairy Farm programme is reviewing its grassland management in a bid to further improve milk yield from forage and reduce feed costs.
TEST EVA FEATHERSTON
Reducing costs and maintaining production while, at the same time, offering the next generation a chance to get a foothold on the dairying ladder is what drives one Derbyshire-based business.
In a bid to achieve their goals, producers Justine and Graham Worsey have put the entire grazing platform on their 160 hectare unit, which is home to a 300-cow crossbred herd plus 150 followers, into the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) SAM3 herbal leys scheme.
While some of the preparations for the changes were already underway, the Worseys’ details were finalised when they joined AHDB’s Strategic Dairy Farm programme in December 2023.
The couple’s management of their spring and autumn block-calved herd, at Rough Grounds Farm near Ashbourne, focuses on optimising grazing and maximising milk production from forage.
The first-generation producers founded their herd and business with a small number of cows, renting several parcels of land, until they were offered a 25-hectare starter farm in Cubley, Derbyshire. After six years, they were offered their current unit on a 30-year tenancy agreement.
Joint venture
“This has allowed us to bring our daughter Jess into the business, on a more formal basis, and to invest in the farm’s infrastructure,” says Justine. Jess’s brother Tom had secured a tenancy opportunity outside the family farm, taking some depreciating capital, leaving some space at the farm for a joint venture with the right individual.
And this added long-term security, coupled with grantfunding opportunities, have allowed the business to invest in the future with renewed confidence. “We’ve built a covered feeding area, which has allowed us to extend the milking parlour and increase winterhousing capacity, as well as providing a better working environment for the staff,” adds Graham. Further opportunities were identified by analysing the business’ comparable farm profit (CFP), with support from their consultant.
“This revealed that we had the potential to increase farm profits by 14%, potentially saving between 6ppl and 7ppl from various areas of the business,” says Justine. The Worseys also wanted to offer opportunities to their staff, particularly as they understood the challenges facing people from non-farming backgrounds who wanted to ‘break through’.
Dan Jones had worked on the farm previously and the family were confident in his abilities and keenness to learn, and this led to them offering him the chance to rejoin and invest in the operation.
“This opportunity gives Dan an incentive to support us in running the herd as efficiently as possible, and to share in our successes and difficulties,” says Graham, adding that it is important to him and Justine to retain an invaluable member of staff who also has shared interest in the business performing well.
Profit focus
“Agreements that just reward output are not always in line with profitability, so we knew this arrangement with Dan had to focus on profit while allowing us to run the herd and business our way.”
Dan has invested in the equivalent of 32 cows and replacements, and both he and the family retained the ability to facilitate a ‘buy out’ of his equity at any point. The aim is for the business to provide a return on investment of at least 10%.
“It’s exciting to have ownership of some of the cows in this herd and to start investing in farming in my own right,” says Dan. “I am working towards developing my own balance sheet to secure a farm of my own.”
He completed the RABDF Entrepreneurs in Dairying course in 2023, and says this also reinforced his ambitions. “The Worseys run a profitable enterprise with the values that I also hold. Working with them is a fantastic opportunity.”
Another key focus for Graham is forage management, and in particular, grazed forage. The herd average yield is 6,300 litres, at 4.64% butterfat and 3.54% protein, and 4,600 litres are produced from forage, or 550kg of milk solids. Approximately 73% of milk is produced from forage and this helped to keep feed costs down at 4.82ppl in 2023.
Graham already makes use of clover in his grazing platform, alongside ryegrass, and was keen to trial herbal leys on his heavy, high-magnesium soils. So, in 2023, he drilled several paddocks with a plantain, chicory, white clover and ryegrass mix. “After some initial establishment challenges, and increasing the chicory content, we found that there was an acceptable dry matter feed value for the cows ,” says Graham.
“We decided to try herbal leys to see how they could impact milk from forage, to learn how to manage grazing them effectively, and to look more closely at if, and how, they could work for our herd and unit.” Two fields were direct drilled and a third paddock was ploughed and then reseeded to see which was the best method to use.
“I think the full reseed worked better because it allowed the seed to germinate without any competition from weeds or other grasses, but we have recently started to see some success from the direct-drilled area, so I will reserve final judgement for now.”
The Worseys also believe that herbal leys will help to reduce bought-in nitrogen application rates. “This year we applied just 110kg per hectare, plus slurry, but we may be able to further reduce this in the future.”
As part of AHDB’s Strategic Dairy Farm programme, independent consultant and grass scientist Liz Genever helped the couple of analyse their soils, as well as the plant-root and soil structure across the unit. She offered advice on the best practices to address compaction issues, reduce the pest species populations, and provide the best chance of establishment success.
Herbal leys: plaintain and chicory form part of the mix
Herbal leys
“Working with Liz has also helped us to evaluate the risks and opportunities of putting our entire milking platform into herbal leys. These offer greater root depth, which can help to reduce soil compaction and the amount of nitrogen fertiliser used.
Other pointers were offered on how to tackle docks in existing leys, and how to manage dry matter growth during the early and late season when the herb and legume species in the mixtures are slower to grow. Another practical issue that needed consideration was grazing-round length. “Increasing round length may be necessary, particularly early in the season, because the grass covers will be higher than the herbal leys. This is because the herbal leys don’t grow until later in the season, when the weather gets warmer,” explains Graham.
“Using a plate meter can also be less accurate on herbal leys, so producers may need to respond more quickly when altering grazing allocations while they acclimatise to a slightly different system.”
Producers may also need to factor in additional seed and establishment costs because there are challenges with persistence with some species. Some herbal-ley species, such as clover, become fully established later in the grazing season, which means it will take slightly longer for the full ley to grow.
Sward inspection: Jess Worsey inspects the mixed ley
Government funding
That said, funding through the Government’s SFI Scheme, with herbal ley payments currently at £382 per hectare, has made it feasible for the Worseys to trial different options. The fertiliser savings are a further bonus and applying less artificial fertiliser can also be favourably rewarded through some milk contracts. The dairy business has been working closely with its Strategic Farm steering group to establish other areas of management that will be focused on during the next three years.
“The next steps in our 1,000-day journey will see us focus on climate resilience, youngstock health, genetics and soil and pasture management,” says Justine. “We will also keep a close eye on our unit’s comparable farm profit to ensure that any actions taken translate into increased efficiency, productivity and profitability, and continue to take our herd and business forward.”
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