Essex

Yesterday I visited a farm in Essex. Stuart and Neil Pulford run a successful cattle and cropping enterprise. After selling their dairy herd four years ago they now finish around 300 calves per year on maize and pasture silage and crimped wheat. All feeds are home grown. They have 160 cows and buy in the remaining calves, usually at 12 weeks old. Their herd includes 30 pedigree Simmentals and the balance are Hereford Simmental cross. They spring calve outside and the cattle are finished around 24mths at 3ookg+ DW. Each week 4-6 bodies are sold locally. Unfortunately they only had three calves left and wined down the cattle job during harvest. In the future they plan to be finishing 12months of the year and possibly go down the path of their own branded product or maybe a farm shop.

These are some of the pedigree Simmentals. Having just taken on the stud, they need to do some fine tuning and tighten up the calving pattern.

These are two young surplus bulls that are going to be sold. The one on the left had quite a good shape about him.

Royalty

I found this sign when driving around the country side yesterday. They didn't roll out the red carpet for me though, just a few dogs that were happy for a scratch.

Norfolk

Yesterday I spent the day in Norfolk looking at sheep, crops, cattle and turkeys. All integrated systems yet all very different business structures.

These cattle are owned by LF Papworth Ltd. Cousins Tim and Kit Papworth have continued to grow their family business since taking over the reins. They now farm sheep, cattle, potatoes, vining and dried peas, dwarf beans, cereals, sugar beet and canola. The majority of the livestock are sold through the families butchery business in 4 locations.
After leaving this farm I was looking forward to christmas. Turkey production is all geared around the christmas market with the largest birds dressing at over 20kg. That is a hell of a big oven needed. I got me thinking as to what is a typical aussie christmas dinner - BBQ, roast lamb, ham, turkey, chicken or seafood. James Grayham grows and mixes his own feed ration consisting of wheat, barley oats and beans. He buys in soy meal and uses straw for bedding.
Have come across a few linseed growers in the last few days. It seems as herbicide resistance is becoming a problem, growers are looking for alternative crops. Black grass is the biggest problem followed by good old ryegrass. I think that there is definitely a need for some more diversity in some of the enterprises. Hay/silage and livestock could all have a fit. Everyone says that there is no market for hay, yet most of the people I have spoken to with stock are saying they will have to buy in fodder for the winter. In this part of the country there is not a huge amount of stock. If producers did operate mixed enterprises, then they would have the option of cutting weedy crops for hay. There is also a lot of horses around that demand high quality fodder. Oaten hay could have a fit to help blackgrass control and keep the horses happy as well.

David and Christine Hill were mixed farmers from Shippden. They grew wheat, barley, grass seed, sugar beet and maize silage. A lot of their crops were grown to bulk up new varieties for seed companies. This is a new barley variety that David claimed as "the most valuable field in the country".

Something Different

Yesterday I went to Suffolk to have a look at some previous Nuffield scholars businesses. First stop was David Black and Son. James is a 1998 scholar who is managing director of the company. They have a 5000 sow piggery with some indoors and some outdoors. They also grow wheat, canola, barley and sugar beet. The piggery provides a great nutrient source for the cropped area while the crops provide not only grain but also straw for bedding for the pigs. I would also think that in a business like this that there is potential for bioenergy production in the future.

This canola was over my head with pods right down the plant. Most of the crops looked thick and healthy with the 5yr av been over 10t/ha for wheat and 4.5t/ha for canola. Goes to show the

benefits that manure can provide.

My second visit was to Paul Baker, 2006 scholar. Paul is successfully integrating a dairy and cropping business together. Crops grown include wheat, barley, canola, maize and sugar beet. Paul milks 190 cows and supplies liquid milk to a local co-op. All the cereals are harvested for grain, maize for silage, pasture for silage and hay, canola and sugar beet for rotation. Straw is also used for bedding in the barns.

I get the feeling that sugar beet is a risky crop. If it is harvested early before the paddocks get to wet, then it fits the rotation well. However if the harvest is late then a lot of damage can be done to the soil and you are not able to get the next crop in for a while, usually a spring barley.

These collars are something Paul picked up on his Nuffield. They are heat detectors and sense the movement when a cow is restless and throwing her head around. This is then graphed on a computer in the dairy and acted on as required. Since using the collars the herds figures have dramatically improved allowing for much heavier selection. A nice limo bull in the background too.

PX Farms

Spent the weekend with James Peck - a 2010 UK scholar. James contract farms over 1600ha near Cambridge. PX farms also has a large grain storage facility and runs a haulage company as well. The structure of the business means all the enterprises complement each other very well. James is always looking for new ideas and is not afraid to have a go. One thing about Nuffield is that it exposes you to a network of positive, passionate and innovative people all over the world.

This is the main storage shed at PX farms. Works are underway to build another one next to it.

See the chaser bin in the background. Most people here use trailers to move their grain around. James did a harvest in Australia a few years ago and could see the benefits of using a chaser bin. He brought some designs back from Australia and got a local engineering company to build him one. Now the company still continues to build them.

1 week down - Lessons learnt so far

Have spent the last couple of days looking at farms in the Hertford/Cambridge region. Not a lot of stock around here, mostly 'arable farms' as they call it. Had an interesting visit this morning with Robert Law. Not from a farming background, he started as a apprentice, then manager, then sharefarmer and now owner of a very impressive business. Just goes to show that hard work and dedication can pay off. He now runs 2500 ewes and 1200 ha of cropping growing wheat, peas, sugar beet, oats and barley.

He also grows forage rape seed. Just like growing canola, he windrows and harvests it, then the crop grows back and he has a lush green paddock of forage rape to put his ewes onto for joining. This provides them with a protein flush resulting in more twins and triplets. Rob has a few different markets, including supplying a few of the local butchers with a number of carcasses each week. This is some of his ewes and lambs.

Robs farm was very environmentally friendly. He has planted lots of hedges and birdcover over the years, and fenced of the steep, lighter soils on the hillsides. These areas have been planted to native grasses instead of continuously cropping as they normally were. This is some sugar beet growing with some bird-cover and native wildflowers on the side of the field.

This is a crop I know nothing about. Hemp - not wacky tabacky. Used for clothing and pharmaceuticals I think.

There are a lot of similarities to our production systems at home in oz but some things that have stood out are;

• Imagine lambing 2500 ewes, scanned at over 200%, indoors, 24hrs a day for a couple of months.
• They get the same amount of rainfall we do yet get twice the yields.
• You have to put up with people walking through your paddocks on public walkways whenever they want.

• Every possible bit of land is used. I dont think will will ever be growing wheat right in the middle of towns. Literally the middle - a school on one side of the hedge and houses across the road.
• If you own a shed, it is worth lots of money. With such a big population in such a small area, lots of farms are able to rent out sheds to other businesses or do them up into office complexes. Very profitable although the rates here are extremely high.

World Shearing Championships

Spent yesterday at the Welsh Royal Show. Forget the World Cup, they had the world shearing championships on which was a great to see. I was surprised at the number of countries represented. The finals were on today and hopefully the Aussies will bring home the goods.

Who wants a hair cut? Or maybe just a comb? They really do love their sheep over here.

This was something else that was new to me - Painted sheep. Yellow, orange or brown seemed to be the most popular colours. Didn't see any merinos in amongst all the hundreds of other breeds on display.

This is Tony Davis, a UK scholar. He is studying mutton production and marketing.

I love the country side over here. Driving around, everything looks so picture perfect. By the look of Tony's promotional banner, Elan Valley must be an exceptional place.

Back into it

I am back in the UK for the start of the second part of my Nuffield adventure. Harvest is just about to start in the next couple of days. Crops seem to be hanging on and everyone seems bit anxious. For me things look pretty good but most people feel yeilds will be a bit below average, something we are certainly used to the last few years. I had an interesting experience at Heathrow with the Customs official. I felt like I was on Border Security as he spent an hour going right through everything I had. It was very nerve racking at the time but as they say - All part of the experince.

This wheat is still about 3 weeks from harvest. Will probably yeild 8-9t/ha.

Lukes family run sheep and cattle as well. Not a lot of livestock in this part of Norfolk but these animals looked magnificent.