Hiring cows proves way forward for dairy farmers

"Basically, we're going to hire the cows off other farmers or family members," says Tom Rawson, of Dewsbury, who began milking at the start of April at Bleasby Grange, near Market Rasen, in partnership with Oliver Hall, whose family ran a dairy unit near Bradford until recently.

Mr Rawson's existing business is in organic milk but the Lincs venture is in mainstream supplies for Dairy Crest.

He sees leasing rather than buying as a new way forward. He and Mr Hall have contributed 180 cows from their own home farms and expect to pick up more from dairy farmers who want to give up milking without getting out of farming. He explains: "A prime example is farmers who were caught out by Dairy Farmers of Britain.

"They might have ended up on a contract where they're getting a poor price for their milk and can't make ends meet. Another example would be farmers who can't afford staff and maybe want some time off.

"What we're doing is putting a whole heap of dairy farms together on one unit. It gets the benefits of the economies of scale. We're solely going to be a milk production facility.

"There will be no heifers. None of of the cows will be actually owned by our company (Evolution Farming Ltd). We're just basically milking cows, producing milk. We can really concentrate on the job in hand.

"The cow owners keep the calves and the cull price. They also receive a percentage return on capital according to the value of the cow (an annual rent).

"If they want to keep their herd numbers constant, obviously they've got to replace any cows that fall out of the system. So that's why they get the value of the calf."

For the system to work, the cows must be hardy enough to survive several lactations.

"Basically, if you've got a pedigree Holstein that's doing 10,000 litres and she only lasts two lactations, you're not going to get your money back.

"But if you're hiring into a farming system where she'll last five, six or seven lactations, where there's not the push on yield, more a push on lifespan you're going to get your money back," Mr Rawson says. "We're using Jersey-x-Friesian and British Friesian-x-Holstein."

He says the arrangement allows dairy farmers with limited space to get an income from replacements they breed but can't accommodate.

"If you've done your job right and you're not losing 33 per cent of your herd every year, due to mastitis or lameness, if you're a good operator and you've got your replacement down to 20 per cent, you'll probably end up with a 30 per cent surplus every year which you can then hire out to somebody else."

For him and his partner, the advantage is making more of their capital available for buildings and equipment.

CW 12/6/10