1. Rich Charmley, Kennels Farm, Ightfield, Whitchurch, Shropshire

He offers cake in the parlour at the ‘shoulders’ of the grass growing season, but nothing the rest of the time, confident his cows do well on grass alone.

The 200 New Zealand Jersey crosses started calving on February 14 and were outside, night and day, from March 1, with 5kg concentrate offered in the parlour. Covers are low at present, with the most recent measurement showing 19.6kgDM per hectare (7.9kgDM/acre).”I’m quite confident really - we’ve just got to wait a bit,” he says.

The herd remains at grass until the end of November, when it moves on to fodder beet. Those near calving are housed from the first week of January, but later calvers go straight from fodder beet to grass at calving.

Having done little reseeding in recent years, Mr Charmley aims for 12ha (30 acres) ‘depending on how spring goes’. The total milking platform is 80ha (200 acres). Milk is sold to Mullers.

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