Farm of the Week: Model site dedicated to the next generation of farmers

Based in the wonderful Yorkshire Wolds it boasts a 362-hectare commercial mixed farm home to arable crops, dairy cows, sheep and pigs.

While existing to educate the students studying there it is far more than a model farm, operating on a highly commercial basis and serving agricultural industries across Yorkshire and beyond – turning over an impressive 1m a year.

Two of the people responsible for the farm, principal Jeanette Dawson and farm manager Dominic Naylor, are very keen to point this out.

"It is not just a learning tool," Ms Dawson said. "I do not think within the agricultural industry there is any credibility to us, when our courses are so popular, not operating a commercial farm."

Mr Naylor adds: "It is a proper working farm.

"We do not do anything that is not realistic commercially – we are very much operating in the real world."

As a mixed-use farm there is obviously a great deal of work to be done.

As well as growing wheat and the other crops one would associate with the East Riding of Yorkshire, there are hundreds of sheep, pigs and cattle which are all finished to high standards and sold to neighbouring markets.

The emphasis on quality is manifested every summer when one sees the college's entrants at the animal classes for Yorkshire's agricultural shows – often garnering rosettes and championships for the quality it produces.

Ms Dawson said: "We work really hard to keep a mixed farm. It is a big challenge and has its difficulties but it is really important to us to have it as such."

The farm also allows students specialising in one area of farming to experience the full gamut of agriculture – with livestock students given experience with crops and arable students working with animals and halter training to give them a thorough grounding.

The mixed-use nature of the farm has also helped it to operate more effectively. From using slurry from the animal areas of the farm on the wheat crops the farm has been able to make big savings on bagged fertilisers.

The college farm has also taken steps to operate in areas that the Wolds are not renowned for. For instance, it recently began growing maize, despite being in a highly marginal area for the crop. To overcome this, the farm is using plastic to grow the crop.

Already shoots of maize are bursting through the plastic sheets on the farm which create a charming patchwork on the fields and help keep the soil warm enough to establish the seeds. Eventually the thermo biodegradable plastic will disappear.

The farm is also entered into Entry Level Stewardship – with wildlife levels growing on the farm year-on-year. Hares, English partridges and skylarks are all making their home on the college farm, something Ms Dawson said is part of a conscious effort to make it true to character of the Yorkshire Wolds.

The site is home to 650 ewes and of the 1,100 lambs born on the farm this year only 10 were lost – a remarkable lambing rate for a farm of any size.

Mr Naylor said: "We have big support from the local markets at Hull, Thirsk, Beverley and Malton and the students enjoy entering the fat stock competitions. A lot of students' families use the local markets – for them to be in the ring when the animals are sold is a big buzz for them."

Milk yields are high on the farm, running at around 10,000 litres per head, per annum, all from a herd of 150 Holsteins.

Like many farmers in Yorkshire the collapse of Dairy Farmers of Britain left them looking for a new home for their milk. Now Chestnut Dairies of Seaton handles the processing of the milk which the college then buys back for use on campus.

Like any dairy unit, the farm is looking to cut costs. Bosses started growing lucerne in 2007 to provide forage for the herd.

Ms Dawson and Mr Naylor are both very proud of the new milking parlour, which they see as the culmination of the substantial investment in the dairy facilities.

Its new Westfalia 24-point herringbone milking parlour has dropped milking time by two hours and seen cell counts fall from 250 to 175.

An investment in rubber matting has also yielded results, with lameness curtailed by reducing falls. The cattle sheds all have very high ceilings and good ventilation to make their surroundings more natural and all of the farrowing for the farm's pigs takes place outdoors in specially created hutches.

The pair are also very proud of the pioneering high-welfare pig unit. Mr Naylor took the decision a few years ago to dramatically scale back the number of pigs the farm ran and focus on quality rather than quantity.

Pig numbers were reduced from 400 to 200 and the animals are taken outside prior to farrowing.

The new high welfare unit turns over an impressive 350,000 a year thanks to a set up that allows sows and gilts to farrow outdoors in arcs within the unit. Weaners are then reared indoors on straw.

Disease levels have been seriously curtailed and all of the pigs are relaxed, unstressed and content in their home.

Officials from McDon-alds, Tesco, Sainsburys, Co-op and Waitrose have all visited the farm to look at what is being done.

Even horticulture is attended to, with 20 acres of vining peas grown on site for Swaythorpe Growers, in Southburn near Driffield.

A new beef unit is the next step in the college farm's evolution, with work expected to begin soon on its construction.

As I leave I see two students, aged no more than 20, expertly washing out the milking parlour for the day.

The next day other students will be up at the crack of dawn to assist with the milking.

To see such professionalism in one so young gives hope and pleasure that the next generation of Yorkshire farmers will be well equipped to keep the region's proud agricultural heritage going.

As Ms Dawson said: "It is upsetting to hear people talk about the increasing age of farmers – we work alongside young farmers every day who are passionate about the industry and keen to do well."

CW 8/5/10