Farmer Focus: Grazing group course clarifies business goals

It is fair to say that we have all had enough of this awful weather. Thankfully, the days are gradually lengthening and spring is just about poking its head around the corner.

We would all welcome a much-needed dry period and some warm sunshine ready for all the work that lies ahead.

See also: How a shift in grazing grew more beef for less money

About the author

Dan and Catherine Mercer

Dan and Catherine Mercer farm more than 730ha on the edge of the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, including land rented from the Ministry of Defence. They run 130 native-breed, spring-calving suckler cows on low-input grassland, finish bought-in dairy-beef cattle and grow 263ha of arable and cover crops. 

Read more articles by Dan and Catherine Mercer

TB testing went well, which was a relief. With a clear test, you can focus on the next few months ahead, and we are always grateful to get it out of the way before calving and spring drilling.

Calving starts in early March and, despite the wet weather, we have been able to keep the sucklers out on the grass throughout the winter.

During testing, and while in the crush, we always find it is a good opportunity to check overall herd health and take some bloods.

It helps especially with monitoring mineral levels and gives us a better understanding of any issues that we might need to be aware of.

As the cows have just been on grass all winter without any supplementary forage, borderline magnesium and selenium levels were detected, so focusing on getting all important minerals back into the cows before they calve has been a priority.

Over the next week or so, we shall run them back into the farmyard so they are inside for calving, where we can more easily monitor them and deal with anything that might arise.

Belonging to FAI Farms’/McDonald’s adaptive multi-paddock grazing project, we are very fortunate to access some valuable industry training and insight.

A recent highlight was attending a course with James Daniels from Precision Grazing, alongside our other group members.

Comparing and analysing all our own data, we studied our KPIs, got to grips with understanding our farm business numbers and defined our goals, including our vision for the future.

Using James’s system, which he had adapted from his Precision Profit Programme, we were able to quantify the true value of farm labour to our business, and both the financial and family costs of it, including those non-farming family members who may also have interests in the farming business.

It was very worthwhile and important to spend some time off farm to take part in this, and we can’t recommend it highly enough to any business.