Farm Of The Week: Evolution in farming pays off with herd

The dairy enterprise run by him and his wife Nicola is based at Fourth Milestone Farm, the one with the big red doors that you see from the A64 just after The Highwayman café when you’re travelling in the Scarborough direction from York.

This year everything has changed at the farm, but not for the first time. The farming couple, with two young daughters, have left no stone unturned in the past decade in their quest for the winning formula for profit from dairy.

Ten years ago Jim took charge of what his father had run. He and Nicola proceeded to buy the farm outright during the following years. This led to even greater investment, including increased cow numbers, the installation of an updated parlour and slurry lagoon in 2009.

But after nearly 10 years the couple were of the opinion that their business still required something more to turn their hard graft into an appropriate return.

It was a meeting with their local feed representative, Dan Heath of Thompson Feeds that proved the catalyst. He introduced them to a new company Evolution Farming run by two Yorkshire dairy farmers Tom Rawson and Oliver Hall whose dairy farm blueprint for success has seen them lauded by others in the sector in recent times.

“We weren’t pointing in the right direction. We were just struggling on, but we’re looking in better shape already. The seeds were sown last year but it has all happened since February when we bit the bullet. We’ve gone from 90 to 230 milking cows since then. We doubled the herd overnight on March 21, have added to it further in the intervening months and we still have more to come at Christmas. It’s a totally different mindset to the way we were working.

“The Evolution Farming policy is less reliant on buying-in feed and makes greater use of grass and silage from the farm. In order to do this we have also embraced their paddock grazing system. That means that cows are allowed just 12 hours grazing at a time before being moved to another grazing area. That area is then left without cattle for 20-plus days and that allows the grass to replenish, which is called a grazing rotation. This also helps thicken it at its base. It means that we benefit from the energy levels of grass that peak in the spring.”

If all of this sounds as though their feed man shot himself in the foot, by subsequently receiving a smaller order from Fourth Milestone, Jim is not so sure.

“In the long-term Dan has probably done himself and Thompson’s a favour because if we’d continued as we were there may not have been a dairy farm here in four or five years. We’re now using greater quantity, but at less cost per cow.”

The new working relationship with Evolution Farming is best described as a joint venture. This doesn’t mean that Jim and Nicola have relinquished any of their 254-acre farm to Tom and Oliver’s company. The additional roles that Evolution has added have been in the form of advice, investment and finding them Mark Cash who has moved in to the cottage next door with his wife Gemma.

“Mark has considerable experience in the dairy industry, particularly in the systems we are now putting into place such as paddock grazing, block calving and AI. He spent time in New Zealand and much of what we are now implementing is based on their principles. We are now very much a team. We couldn’t just go from running a herd of 90 and going towards 300 without some help. His contribution has already been massive. He’s added his knowledge of systems and herd management, plus he also has an investment in the cows. That means he has a real stake in what we do.

“Of the 230 cows here at present 200 are owned by Nicola and me. The other 30 are rented from investors and the next 30 will also be rented. We rent in order to keep down the capital outlay and pay the investors on a pence per day basis. We now run a separate account for the dairy operation and this pays salaries to myself, Nicola and Mark as well as paying a return on capital to the investors.”

One element that James insisted on when discussing the future progress of Fourth Milestone was that their renowned pedigree herd of Ayrshire cows would remain. He is a regular competitor at the Great Yorkshire Show and is also a member of the Ayrshire Cattle Society council.

“The cows that arrived in March, which we had seen in Birmingham, were all Jersey and Friesian New Zealand style X. They were exactly the cows that Evolution Farming knew would suit the system we had talked about as they are particularly adept at making milk from grass in all weathers. But we were adamant that we did not want to lose the years of breeding that we had put into the Ayrshire herd. Showing the cows is something we have always enjoyed and our daughters Mia and Anna are already young veterans in the show ring at eight and five years old.”

Mark has quickly become part of the Waterhouse show team too and selected one of the herd that was successful at this year’s Great Yorkshire Show.

A mix of pedigree and crossbred cows means that the herd average is around 6000 litres. With lower input costs the new team is happy.

Mark’s knowledge and experience will be tested in spring when their block calving system will take place for the first time since James and Nicola took the decision to go down the Evolution Farming route.

“Everything now has to come in line and calve once a year during the period of February 1 to April 1. Then we need to get them back into calf through AI as soon as we can between 30-60 days from calving. After the AI period we then have three stock bulls running with the herd to act as sweepers.”

The paddock grazing system has seen Jim and Mark set up six-acre paddocks right across the farm with mains electric fences and water troughs.

The cows are now housed on sand bed cubicles rather than straw. This has provided cost savings and less mastitis.

Milk is sold to ARLA and is collected daily. Their next step is to install a new Waikato 30/60 parlour.

Jim says: “The opportunity to transform our farm into a profitable, exciting enterprise has got to be something that makes you happy. It’s a challenge, but with our team of Nicola, Mark and me, plus the input from Evolution Farming I think we are well placed to move forward.”