Sheep breeder puts £85K into 7-step hill farm upgrade
© MAG/Michael Priestley A sheep-breeding company’s £85,000 investment in a 10-year tenancy on an upland farm gives the hill sector a potential blueprint for gearing up production.
Southfield Farm, near Hawick, in the Scottish Borders, has been the new home of Innovis since September 2020, when the nucleus flock moved north from Aberystwyth to the Buccleuch Estate Tenancy.
Innovis chief executive officer Dewi Jones said the move was to capitalise on a tenancy opportunity in an area of the UK that had “a lot of potential” for the company’s genetics.
See also: Versatile sheep breed shakes up hill sector
Dewi Jones, geneticist Janet Roden and Hamish Macdonald © MAG/Michael Priestley
Innovis had already become established in Wales and parts of central and southern England and was looking to grow its market in upland Scotland, with the launch of its Cheviot programme, he said.
The farm runs the nucleus flock and is where the company will undertake the recording of 40 individual traits feeding into estimated breeding values (EBVs). It will also work on developing new EBVs, such as teeth scoring, tail length and, shortly, methane measurements.
Farm Facts
- 254ha (628 acres) – 215ha (531 acres) farmed
- 69ha (172 acres) rough grazing
- 146ha (361 acres) lower lying ground
- 900 ewes tupped last year
- Tullyfergus herd of eight Angus cows plus followers
- 75 store cattle grazed in the summer
Day-to-day operations are managed by Mr Macdonald, his partner, Gemma Wark, and about £10,000 of casual labour a year to help with the low-input system.
Farmers Weekly had a tour of the farm and heard how Innovis had implemented a seven-step path to gearing up production on the holding.
Investment
- Granulated calcium lime – 880t in 2021 and 54t in February 2022 at £32/t = £29,888
- Mobile sheep-handling yard = £10,000
- Fencing (mainly subdivisional) = £10,000 (the Buccleuch Estate invested in boundary and external fencing)
- Fixed sheep gathering and sorting pens on hill = £7,000
- Water infrastructure = £26,000
Installing the water infrastructure © MAG/Michael Priestley
Southfield’s 7-step approach to gearing up production
1. Assessing land resource
- Soil testing using Rhiza Digital (£2/ha) for a farm nutrient plan for pH and minerals
- Rhiza satellite technology monitors grassland production using chlorophyll mapping
- Soil profile assessment of pH, mineral status and carbon content, and fresh grass analysis, used to create a bespoke mineral bucket
- Faecal egg count reduction testing
- 954t of digestate and farmyard manure applied in 2020, 320t in 2021 and 300t so far in 2022
2. Identify seasonal bottlenecks and feed gaps
- Weekly pasture measuring monitors dry matter covers
- Data entered on Farmax software to model feed supply, demand and run different scenarios to plan feed budgets
3. Improve infrastructure to give a return on investment
- 3.7ha (9.14-acre) paddocks set up across 146ha (361 acres) of in bye ground
- Innovis paid for just over 5km of permanent fencing and the estate paid for 2km of boundary fencing to be reinstated
- Shelterbelts to be planted on 15ha (37 acres) of open unimproved hill using £83,000 of grant money from river catchment partnership the Tweed Forum for 23,000 native trees (for example, aspen and rowan)
- To reduce reliance on watercourses and provide water troughs across the grassland area, two springs now feed into two 5,000-litre tanks near the steading. These are pumped back into a 20,000-litre tank at the top of the farm, which supplies all troughs through gravity
- Electric mains top wire and solar power units allowed further pasture subdivision
4. Improve forage and nutrient planning
- 22ha (56 acres) of productive ground has so far been reseeded with clover, plantain and grasses after wintering crops (kale/swedes), using targeted nutrient plans from the Rhiza report
- About three months’ winter grazing takes ewes into the new year on 70ha (172 acres) deferred grassland
5. Minimal and efficient use of machinery
- Aim to produce high dry matter (35% plus) silage
- Use very dry digestate from Bowhill Farming anaerobic digestion plant to avoid carting water
- Single-pass cultivation where possible on winter crops and grass leys
- Use contractors to minimise machinery use. The farm has a 90hp loader tractor, a buggy and trailer and a quad bike
6. Regular monitoring
- Grass is measured – Southfield is a GrassCheck GB farm
- Worm burdens are monitored through faecal egg counts
- Growth rates and body condition scoring are monitored through flock electronic identification (EID)
- The farm will be the first commercial methane monitoring site in the UK
7. Optimise the farm
- The company aims to have the £85,000 paid back inside the 10-year tenancy period
- Sheep and cattle numbers, forage type and management will be fine-tuned over the coming years to find the “sweet spot” for the farm
Southfield system
A rotational grazing, forage-based, outdoor lambing system is in place, which weans no later than 12 weeks and relies on 2% assistance at lambing.
Mr Macdonald has 15 reels of triple-geared electric fencing for grazing wintering crops and managing grassland through the summer.
A 1,000-ewe sheep shed is on the farm but only 150-200 triplet-bearing ewes and lean ewes are expected to be housed to lamb.
After scanning this year 450 ewes went on to swedes until coming down on to lambing paddocks.
Supplementary feeding is elevated in the short term while the farm’s pasture production improves.
The 650 ewes got 5t of 28% rapeseed-based protein cake in late gestation through a snacker but it was not fed on the lambing rotation.
Sheep do a three-week pre-lambing rotation and start lambing on 15 April.
A bespoke mineral/protein bucket will continue to be used to supplement unimproved pasture and ensure minerals supplies.
About £3,500 was spent last year on 4t of mineral blocks.
Ewes are tupped on a “Golden 20” style system, where ewes are offered fresh grass for 20 days before and after the ram goes in for 1.5 cycles.
Scanning results were: Cheviots, 172%; Highlanders, 206%; Aberfields, 185%; and the farm budgets on weaning 150% on average.
Production gains
Grass production has been lifted from a baseline of a maximum of 6t dry matter (DM)/ha to now average 8t DM/ha across the farm. New leys have yielded 10-12t DM/ha.
Soil pH levels have lifted from 5.5pH to more than 6pH. Just 7t of nitrogen has been bought for use this year, with 14% of the farm now in a clover, plantain and grass mix.
Improvements in progress
- Hard feed The aim is to remove hard feed completely and look to scale back feed block use. Hard feed will only be used to train hoggs for hard winters – it will not be part of the system’s planned nutrition. “We are growing more protein on the farm and improving the feed value of the grass we grow, so in time we hope to cut right back on any supplementation,” says Mr Macdonald.
- Breeding Genetically, the company aims to breed ewes with shorter tails to help with lambing and that will hold body condition score (BCS) better through the year. BCS is more heritable than prolificacy and as much, if not more, indicative of lambs weaned, he says.
- Net zero Carbon audits are being done, with a view for the farm to be “net zero” within the tenancy agreement.
- Forage Cattle numbers are likely to be increased slightly as the Angus herd grows, and summering cattle can be used to manage surplus as farm dry matter production increases.