Mike Allwood
Mike Allwood
Mike Allwood is owner-occupier of a 82ha (200-acre) farm near Nantwich, Cheshire. The 175-cow dairy herd block calves during May and June. Mike is also director of Farm Produce Marketing, based on the farm, which manufactures and sells Orchard Maid frozen yogurt, and puts packs of Cheshire milk onto airline breakfast trays.
THE recent price reductions have been very effective at concentrating the mind. What we have to do first and foremost is make a profit and keep the bank manager happy, so what would have seemed a good idea even 12 months ago – like experimenting with the cow track or installing a new computer system – suddenly becomes expendable.
Our theme for the year has been to try and improve our basic efficiency in grass use – both grazed and as silage. The target is to produce 7000 litres a cow from 185 cows, using 1.7t of concentrate and no more than a tonne of brewers grains during this quota year.
Using 22.5p/litre of milk income, this should give us a margin over purchased feed a cow of £1340, and a margin a hectare of £3350 – a far cry from what one might have expected 12 months ago, but enough to keep the wolf at bay if we can control our fixed costs effectively. Up to the end of August we were up on target, both in terms of production and prices.
The time when we hope to make big progress compared with last year is over the winter, since last year our silage was both insufficient and poor in quality, even though it analysed well. This meant we spent a lot of money buying-in fodder beet which had the added benefit of raising butterfats and pushing us over our quota threshold.
This is the first year when I will have to pay superlevy. It is my own fault as I guessed wrongly on the amount of threshold available, but am still hopping mad and of a mind to murder a few bureaucrats.
To help control costs, each of us on the farm is going to become more accountable for our area of expenditure. So Giles, the herd manager, will be responsible, for example, for dairy sundries, parlour repairs and vet costs, while I have to justify why car repairs and farmhouse heating bills always rise – and why we had to pay superlevy.n
A wrong guess on quota threshold available means an unhappy and annoyed Mike Allwood faces a super-levy bill for the first time.