Meet the farmers in our new Profit from Grass feature

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

Last year, Rich Charmley fed 800kg of concentrates per cow. This year he aims it feed 600kg.

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.

2. Chris Falconer and Richard Sentance, Abbotsham, Bideford, Devon

Share farmer Chris Falconer has two organic units in North Devon, one with 300 autumn-calving cows (the Gilscott herd) and the other with 400 spring calvers (the Babbacomb herd).

Richard Sentance is in charge of day-to-day management on both units, which total 507ha (1,250 acres). Both herds are moving towards cross-breeding, using a Jersey base with Ayrshire and Swedish Red semen.

The milk contract has penalties for production in March to May, so the aim is to get as much milk from grass as cheaply as possible at this time - pushing spring calvers in early lactation and getting a ‘boost’ from autumn calvers before they dry off.

Mr Sentance says the Gilscott and half the Babbacomb cows are out by day, with grass offering 6kgDM/head/day.

Gilscott cows get silage and cake in the parlour, while Babbacomb cows get silage and specially-made rolls through a feeder wagon.

Grass covers are regularly measured and analysed as it is ‘very important’ to know the cows’ DM, ME and protein intake.

3. Phil Feeney, Old Hall Farm, Grafton, Tilston, Malpas, Cheshire

Sending off fresh grass for analysis gives some ‘reassurance’ about what the cows eating, says Phil Feeney.

He has a contract farming agreement with Robert Bostock, milking 360 cows on 285ha (700 acres) of organic land. The herd has some British Friesian, Ayrshire and Holsteins cows, but since 2002/03 everything has been served with New Zealand black and white semen.

The herd block calves in spring and is averaging 5,800 litres, with milk sold to OMSCo on a liquid contract.

The first calves were born on February 6. Cows have been outside day and night since March 5, getting 2kg concentrates in the parlour and buffer feed from the trough.

4. John Owen, Gelli Aur College Farm, Gelli Aur, Carmarthen

With ‘non-existent’ grass growth at the moment, farm manager John Owen has his fingers crossed for ‘a shower of rain and the temperature to rise’.

Cows in his spring-calving herd which have already calved (200 of 250) are outside during the day, getting 5kg concentrates plus silage at night. But grass already grazed in the rotation has not started growing again.

Mr Owen’s rotation will last until the first week in April, when grass growth is usually at its peak. He hopes for some growth by then and expects the second rotation to be very quick.

“The quality is there now, but there’s just not enough of it,” he says. “But conditions are good and, while there’s not much for them to eat, the cows are very contented.”

The spring-calving herd is based on a three-way breeding programme - Friesians put to a Jersey, then a Norwegian or Swedish Red, before going back to black and white.

The autumn-calving herd (also 250 cows) is pedigree British Friesian. In-calf cows from this herd are outside during the day. The whole herd is usually turned out later than the spring-calvers.

5. David Lee, Winnington Green Farm, Middletown, Welshpool, Powys

For David Lee, grazing is far more of a priority than silage. He has no target for how much silage to make this year, just intends to cut when grass gets in front of the cows and he needs to take an area out of rotation.

Clamping what grass he cuts, he relies more on maize silage, grown on rented land away from the main grazing block. Of the 140ha (350 acre) farmed area, 80ha (190 acres) is rented, and most is 10 to 15-year-old permanent pasture, with some new leys in the arable rotation.

This supports a herd of 300 cross-bred cows, which includes a number of breeds, but mostly New Zealand genetics. Everything calves in spring, with 70 per cent having calved since February 5.

The cows went out three weeks ago, but were forced back in by the snow. They are out again now, but grass growth is ‘zero’. This first rotation will last until April 10 and Mr Lee is hoping things have picked up by then.

“There’s no guarantee, but hopefully we’ll see some growth by then - we’ll have to wait and see,” he says. “Some warm rain is what we need. It’s nice at the moment, but it’s not a lot of good because it’s so cold.

6. Michael Kyle, Linns Farm, Collin, Dumfries

With all cows outside for the whole of the year, Michael Kyle ‘absolutely believes’ in grass.

He grazes his 700 cows for up to 10 months, with a combination of kale, fodder beet and woodchip corals used for outwintering. He is in the process of developing the farm, having reseeded 265ha (650 acres) and plans to do another 60ha (150 acres) as cow numbers grow to 900.

The Jersey crosses spring block calve from February 25 and would usually thrive on grass alone. Given the very hard winter, Mr Kyle is currently offering palm kernel and maize silage.

In a more usual years, cows would only get 100-150kg DM of supplements in 12 months. This plus grass supports an average production of 3,800-4,000 litres at 5 per cent butterfat and just under 3 per cent protein. Milk is sold to Caledonian Cheese.

Mr Kyle says the grass is a bit behind at the moment, but will not need ‘much of a move to get us back off concentrates again’.

7. Mat Senior, Eastfield Farm, Perrot, Crewkerne, Somerset.

Running a spring-calving herd, Mat Senior turns cows out as they calf (from February 14) to coincide with the beginning of the grass growing season.

He is currently milking 150 freshly-calved cows, with the rest of the 260-cow herd set hard on their heels. Most of those cows are Jerseys, with Guernseys making up one-fifth of the herd.

Milk is sold to Longman Cheese, so butterfat and protein are the priority, with the herd averaging 5.4 per cent butterfat, 3.6-3.7 per cent protein and 4,500 litres per cow.

Mr Senior says he runs a ‘simple system’, offering cows rolls in the field in the morning, with a little bit of maize silage.

The grass is not growing much at the moment, so cows come in for afternoon milking to access a buffer, offering the rest of their concentrate allocation plus maize and grass silage, and do not return to grass until the next day. No feed is offered in the parlour and all cows are fed on a flat rate.

This is not the first year Mr Senior will be analysing fresh grass. “I find it interesting and it’s a valuable tool to help monitor grass and bridge the gap with buffer feeding,” he says.

8. Tony Renwick, Arches Farm, Framfield, Uckfield, East Sussex

He may be in the far south of the country, but Tony Renwick says it’s still too cold for much grass growth in East Sussex.

His herd consists of 250 Jersey, Ayrshire and New Zealand Friesian crosses and, unlike many of our other Profit from Grass farmers, he block calves in autumn.

The entire herd has been out in the daytime since January 25, but only for four or five hours a day, as the grass is ‘definitely’ behind compared to other years.

Mr Renwick said he lost a lot of grass in the winter because of the frost and snow, but what has survived has ‘jumped back to life’, although covers are still low. His land is heavy clay, but he says things have dried up ‘surprisingly quickly’ and he does not mind a bit of frost, given the mess the cows can make in very wet conditions.

The 80ha (200-acre) farm is split into 42 paddocks, which supports a 21-day rotation at the peak of the season. His first rotation has been set at 90 days. Half the grass was sown more than seven years ago, but rejuvenation work done on the other half is paying off.

“We will continue doing that because we have noticed the amount of grass grown on the new leys has over-shot the old leys quite considerably,” he says.

9&10. Tom Rawson, Dewsbury and Sheffield

Using his own experience of extensive grazing at the home farm in Dewsbury, Tom Rawson is keen to spread his ideas through consultancy work.

As a result, grass sampling will be done at his own farm and at a farm in Sheffield, where Mr Rawson and business partner, Oliver Hall, recently started giving consultancy advice.

Working with owner, Steve Walker, and herd manager, Phil Wilson, they aim to significantly increase milk from grass.

The farm is home to 300 Holstein Friesian cows calving all year round and averaging 8,000 litres. A paddock system has been installed and he says the focus for the next year is ‘to get a massive increase in milk from forage, especially grazed grass’.

At the home farm, the 300-strong herd of predominantly cross-bred spring-calving organic cows produce an average yield of 5,500 litres.

Grazing of the 31 permanent paddocks started on February 27. Cows will stay out until the end of November on a grazing platform of 69ha (170 acres).

Mr Rawson says it is equally important to measure what happens when cows are turned out as it is to analyse silage and winter feed.

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