FW Awards: Meet the 2025 Mixed Farmer of the Year finalists

All three finalists are passionate about enterprise integration, with a focus on home-grown feed.

See also: FW Awards: Meet the 2025 Contractor of the Year finalists

The finalists

• Ollie Blackburn, Dillington Farms, Somerset
• Ashley Jones, Smeaton Farm, Cornwall
• Charlie Whitehouse, Bradley Farm, Gloucestershire

The judges

• Andrew Robinson, senior agricultural partner for agricultural accountant Armstrong Watson, based in Northumberland.
• Lucy and Nick Tyler, Farmers Weekly’s 2024 Mixed Farmers of the Year, who run a 500-cow dairy and  have 300 head of Wagyu beef cattle.
• Emma Gillbard, FW’s deputy arable editor, specialising in soil health and crop nutrition. In her spare time she works on the family dairy farm.

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Ollie Blackburn, Dillington Farms, Somerset

Dillington Farms run an integrated dairy, beef and arable farm, which has been radically restructured in recent years to prioritise soil health.

At the helm of the enterprise is farm manager Ollie Blackburn, who began his career as an assistant manager and rose through the ranks at the farm.

Ollie’s passion and leadership have been instrumental in navigating Dillington through a number of changes, including the farm exiting potato production in 2021 in favour of a more environment-friendly farming strategy.

A Mid Tier Stewardship agreement has seen 15m-wide, GS4 herbal ley headlands established around every arable field.

This not only reduces compaction on headlands, which has helped raise arable yields, but provides feed for livestock and habitat corridors.

When developing the agreement, the farm essentially started with a blank map, allowing the team to rethink their approach and build an integrated farming system.

The arable rotation includes short-term grass leys, to reduce grassweed pressure and compaction.

Winter bird food plots (AB9) are strategically placed in fields with low performance, low soil organic matter or insensitive ground to support wildlife and water quality.

Ollie notes these areas have gone down well with residents in the nearby town of Ilminster, who enjoy fields of sunflowers and hearing the buzz of pollinators.

In a clever twist, when scheme rules allow from mid-February onwards, the AB9 plots are grazed by sheep and beef cattle.

Working with the farm agronomist, Ollie tailors the AB9 seed blend to the farm’s exact needs, mixing their own seeds with a concrete mixer, which brings significant cost savings.

The dairy

The dairy operation has six robotic milkers; cows calve year-round and milk is sold on a Tesco-Muller contract. Milk yields are 12,100 litres a cow a year.

In a push for home-grown protein, Dillington Farms has rapidly scaled up bi-cropping, with crops combined for concentrates.

Peas and beans, wheat and peas, and barley and peas now feature in the rotation. A trial of forage maize and beans is also being grown this year.

The farm is actively working to reduce dependency on imported feed.

Blend use has reduced from 3.8kg to 2.9kg a head over the past 12 months in the dairy herd.

Furthermore, concentrate barley and peas have displaced 2kg a head a day in the youngstock system, with improved growth rates to show for it, now at 1kg/day.

Slurry and digestate are applied back to the arable and grassland, reducing purchased N from 12 loads a year down to five, without compromising crop output.

The farm also has a micro-anaerobic digester that takes waste slurry and converts this into electricity.

About 250 Holstein-Friesian steers and dairy cross Aberdeen Angus graze the farm’s permanent pastures during the summer months, and eat herbal silage and the barley and pea mix during the winter months, with a cost of production of £930/carcass.

Community engagement

Dillington prioritises people and community. The staff rota is strategically designed to try to support work-life balance, ensuring everyone gets the time off they need.

In the past year, the farm has welcomed more than 100 primary schoolchildren for farm visits, handing out goody bags, colouring kits and AB9 seed samples to spark early connections to agriculture.

Local environmental groups also make use of the regular farm walks hosted by the farm.

The numbers

• 1.5-1.8t/ha uplift in arable yields 
• 15m herbal ley headlands around all arable fields
• 1kg/day growth rate in youngstock 
• 100 primary schoolchildren visited the farm in the past year
• 4.2m litres of milk produced each year

Farm facts

• 800ha farm with 350 milking cows and 250 beef cattle
• Growing home-grown concentrate, with range of bicrops
• Annual milk yield of 12,100 litres a cow
• On-farm anaerobic digester converting slurry into electricity

The judges liked

• Impressive drive to produce home-grown feed from various bicrops
• High-yielding dairy herd on Tesco-Muller contract
• Laser focus on costs and productivity
• Excellent farm team which prioritises staff and community

What the judges say

There is a clear target to drive profitability and efficiency via carefully selected environmental schemes and extensive trialling of bi-crops.

The whole team are passionate about the farm and its ethos.

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Ashley Jones, Smeaton Farm, Cornwall

Second-generation tenant farmer Ashley Jones runs a mixed farm in south-east Cornwall, encompassing beef, sheep and arable alongside a contracting business and a host of diversifications.

The beef and sheep systems are grass-based, with livestock finished on 100% home-grown feed and forage.

About 130 cattle are finished a year, from a herd of 40 Aberdeen Angus suckler cows plus 100 bought-in Angus calves sold on contract to a major supermarket.

Ashley is on track to cut soya completely from the diet.

He is relying instead on home-grown forage maize and spring beans in the total mixed ration, and grazing nutrient-rich herbal leys during the spring and summer.

The farm’s flock of 140 North Country Mules play an important part in the arable rotation, grazing cover crops and cycling nutrients.

Lambs are finished on forage rapeseed, which acts as an effective break crop for combinable cereal crops.

Input efficiency

Perhaps most striking is Ashley’s approach to input costs and efficiency. Over the past three years, nitrogen fertiliser use has been slashed by a huge 75% on grassland and 20% on arable fields. 

His farm boasts soil organic matter levels of 7-9% – a testament to his integrated approach.

He buys in no P or K fertilisers, relying instead on closed-loop nutrient cycling.

More than 60% of the farm is dedicated to combinable cereals, with a diverse rotation of spring and winter crops.

This year’s harvest has been impressive, with winter wheats averaging 10.4t/ha, winter barley 8.6t/ha, winter oats 8.2t/ha and spring barley 6.5t/ha.

Ashley is Basis and Facts qualified and carries out all of the farm’s agronomy in-house, saving £79-£89/ha.

Being a machinery enthusiast, he keeps up to date with the latest technology and applies variable-rate inputs based on satellite imagery.

Strategic use of cover crops, rotational grazing, and herbal leys, which are all part of his Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreement, further enrich biodiversity and feed soil biology.

A flexible cultivation strategy supports this system, with three different drill options deployed depending on soil condition and crop type.

Land parcels have been strategically planted with SFI bird food plots, to support the wider farm ecosystem.

The farm is also home to 30 beehives, in partnership with Cornwall Honey, to support thriving pollinator populations.

Recently, 0.8ha of trees have been planted on farm.

Community engagement

Ashley is the current NFU county chairman and a former AHDB Monitor Farm host. He also teaches Basis and Facts courses.

As a tenant of the Duchy Estate, he frequently hosts students from Duchy College on farm.

Ashley also runs a contracting business, offering cultivating, drilling, spraying and combining services, as well as an equine hay business.

If that wasn’t enough, the farm also runs a farm park, with an exhilarating slip-and-slide attraction, flower fields, a pumpkin patch and a maize maze, and it has an award-winning bed and breakfast.

The importance of integration between each enterprise follows through to the diversifications, with grain from the maize maze combined (at yields just shy of 10t/ha) and fed to the beef cattle.

Pumpkins are donated to schools and nurseries, and flowers are donated to the local church for harvest festivals and weddings. 

The numbers

• 100% of livestock finished on home-grown forage
• 2 Yield Enhancement Network awards won in the past
  five years
• 75% reduction in N fertiliser use on grassland
• 7-9% soil organic matter levels
• 30 beehives on farm

Farm facts

• 400ha beef, sheep and arable farm
• Grass-based livestock system with 40 cattle finished a year and lambs grazing cover crops
• Home to the Cornish maize maze, farm park and slip-and-slide
• All agronomy carried out in-house

The judges liked

• Running a truly mixed farm with the environment at its core
• Livestock finished on 100% home-grown feed and forage
• Strong diversification portfolio
• Inspiring commitment to British agriculture

What the judges say

Attention to detail was clear across livestock, arable and diversification enterprises. It was great to see a mixed farm with all the family involved. Ashley is helping drive the agricultural sector forward with his various roles.

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Charlie Whitehouse, Bradley Farm, Gloucestershire

Charlie Whitehouse runs a beef, sheep, arable and goat-milking enterprise across 800ha of owned, tenanted and contract farms.

With a total of 24 landlords, it is no simple task, but Charlie is running a thriving operation, where mixed farming is fully embraced.

The farm’s arable crops are grown for seed or feed, targeting premium arable markets or home-grown feed.

Cropping includes three years of herbage seed production, which is the highest-margin crop on the farm, as well as winter wheat, oilseed rape, winter beans, spring oats, stubble turnips for seed, maize, and niche crops such as poppies.

Each enterprise seamlessly integrates, with spring oats grown for seed planted with a herbal ley understorey.

This strategically gets the next crop in the rotation established ahead of harvest of the previous one, as well as providing soil cover, weed suppression and vital sheep grazing.

The goat dairy

The family set up the goat dairy in 2006, which brought diversification and succession opportunities.

The Whitehouse family now milk 700 goats twice daily in a fully housed system with immaculate animal welfare.

The goats produce an average of 3.8 litres/day, with each goat averaging 460 days in-milk.

Kidding takes place four times a year.  Maidens are brought into milk at just 12 months, with a 75% success rate.

Goat diets are carefully tailored. High-yielding goats receive a 16% protein diet, while lower-yielders get 13%.

The family is actively replacing soya with home-grown protein sources such as beans. Even leftover goat feed is fed to the beef herd, reducing waste.

Charlie’s wife, Katie, makes Oh My Goat Gelato on farm and sells a range of flavours and sizes via an honesty box on farm, local farm shops and agricultural shows.

The family’s holiday let is another outlet, where guests can enjoy the full “farm to freezer” experience.

Beef and sheep

Beef production centres on 100 Stabiliser suckler cows, calving inside in March before going out to grass.

Males are finished on farm as bulls and sold to ABP at 360-380kg deadweight.

Heifers are outwintered on arable cover crops and deferred bales of haylage.

Sheep are equally productive, managed by Charlie’s 89-year-old father, Phillip, with lambing percentages between 175% and180% and lambs hitting 20kg deadweight.

However, this year’s unpredictable weather saw just 60.4mm of rain fall from March to mid-August, which dramatically limited grass growth.

Variable-rate technology is used across the farm, including precision muckspreading, which saw applications in one field range between 3.7t/ha and 40t/ha.

In a simple yet smart use of infrastructure, grain stores double-up as winter cattle housing, maximising return on every building.

Charlie also takes part in cutting-edge initiatives such as the Bofin Slimers (slug control) Project, BASF chemical trials, and nitrogen-use efficiency trials.

Community engagement

Charlie is a steadfast figure in UK agriculture and has served on the board of Hartpury College for 17 years, finishing as vice-chairman of the university.

He works closely with the university and veterinary schools, offering placements and practical learning opportunities.

Charlie has taken on several leadership roles, demonstrating his commitment to the industry, including being previous chairman of various agricultural societies.

He is currently chairman of the Herefordshire Ag Club. The farm also regularly hosts farm walks and school visits every year. 

The numbers

• 10% uplift in milk yield over the past 18 months 
• 6 staff employed
• 50% of home-grown protein in the goat ration
• 17 years as a governor at Hartpury College
• 24 landlords
• 4,300 litres of gelato produced last year

Farm facts

• 800ha farm with 600ha of arable, 700 ewes, 100 suckler cows and 700 milking goats
• Daily average milk yield of 3.8 litres a goat
• Goat milk diversification Oh My Goat Gelato established
• Uneaten total mixed ration from the goats fed to the sucklers

The judges liked

• Excellent goat dairy setup with immaculate animal welfare
• Thriving mixed farm, with clear integration between each enterprise
• Strong gelato diversification
• Steadfast figure supporting UK agriculture

What the judges say

Animal welfare and performance were exemplary. There are three generations involved in the business with a strong focus on marketing. Charlie is to be commended for his dedication to supporting the industry.