Grassland Development Farm Project

A 520 hectare mixed farm just South of Cupar, farmed by Ian, John and Margaret Whiteford.  Stocking is 100 autumn calving cows producing finished cattle and 50 spring calving cows producing store cattle. A sheep flock of 550 Mules lamb in March with lambs finished and replacements purchased.

 

Land

Hilltarvit Mains is 254 Ha (635 acres), mostly owned but some rented from the National Trust. Struthers, some 2 miles South is a rented unit of 245 ha (614 acres) whilst Findas, also 2 miles away is 33 ha (83 acres) which is share farmed.

There are 368 ha (920 acres of arable) and 164 ha (410 acres) of grass. Of the grassland 80 Ha (200 acres) are short term leys on arable land, 54.4 ha (136 acres) is permanent pasture and a further 29.6 Ha (74 acres) are long term grassland that can be cropped.

Despite the dry soil type farm the cattle and sheep are inwintered as the elevation at 550 – 750 feet above sea level and North facing aspect means it is an exposed farm in winter.

Stock

Cattle

The cow breed is mainly Simmental x and some Aberdeen Angus x Holstein heifers calving at 2 year old. Replacement cattle are bought in. Bulls used are Charolais and Simmental.

• 100 autumn calving cows (October/November), progeny sold in February as 14 month old stores or finished out of the house after their second winter
• 50 spring calving cows (April/May), progeny all sold at one year old as stores

Sheep

500 North of England Mules are put to Suffolk and Texel rams. Ewes lamb in mid March after in wintering on silage based diets and are turned out to clean grass. Lambs are sold throughout the autumn/winter through a live market. Replacements are bought in as gimmers.

Grass, Forage and winter feeding

Around 80 Ha (200 acres) are on a two year silage break within the arable farm, this is then autumn ploughed and put into winter wheat. One option considered is to take this for a third year as grazing, another option to consider for the arable area may be red clover.

Kale

Around 8Ha (20 acres)  of Maris Kestrel kale is grown for lamb finishing and ewe tupping. This is the first time that kale has been grown for a number of years and questions arise as to its utilisation. 

Stubble Turnips

One arable field could be sown out to stubble turnips after winter barley. The stubble turnips are usually ready by Christmas and the kale is seen as bridging the gap in high quality forage between the end of the grass growing season in October and the availability of stubble turnips.

Clean Grazing

The farm alternates sheep and cattle on a yearly basis. In the spring however ewes with lambs will be spread out over the whole farm to maximise the utilisation of early grass. As finishing cattle are not turned out it a useful additional use of grass.

Silage

40 Ha (100 acres) of first cut silage is made after early grazing by sheep but shut off on 25th April. The first cut is usually completed in the first week of June. A second cut of up to 32 ha (80 acres) is also put in the pit whilst a further 6.5 Ha are baled for hay or silage. No additives are used for silage making.

The farm has its own forager and local farmers with trailers are brought in to help with the silage harvest. There is a large earth walled silage pit at the Hilltarvit steading.

Silage is fed to sheep and cattle using a self unloading forage wagon and diets based on home produced peas, barley and silage are made up.

Towards the end of July around 5 acres of forage peas are made into baled silage to provide a higher protein feed. This is taken from headlands and awkward corners about a month before the normal pea harvest. More may be done in future to provide more home grown protein.

Concentrate use

• 120 tonnes of home grown barley is bruised and prop-corned at harvest
• 6 tonnes of Soya
• 10 tonnes of sugar beet pulp is purchased for sheep rations

The only purchased compound feeds is around 8 tonnes of hi magnesium rolls for suckler cows, around 4 tonnes of calf coarse creep mix (which is used to introduce them to concentrates then mixed with home grown grain) and 2 tonnes of lamb creep pellets for feeding to pet lambs and to lambs being reared as triplets.

Fertiliser use

In early March all grassland is dressed with 65 Kg N/ha and 32.5kgP/ha in the form of a 26:13:0 compound or similar.

After the sheep are removed the silage fields also receive a further 62.5kgN/ha and 32.5kgK/ha.

After the first cut silage fields also receive a dressing of 130kgN/ha.

Grazing fields generally receive straight Nitrogen fertiliser as required.

Resources

Buildings

Accommodation is available for all the autumn and spring calving cows, a new shed has been erected for 80 autumn calving cows with a creep area for calves and straw storage. 

Sheep are housed in two sheds, allowing all 500 to be kept inside in the winter. They are a little bit short on space at the start of the lambing but as sheep are moved out space becomes available. This shed is also used for grain storage after harvest.

All cattle and sheep are kept on straw bedded courts using home produced straw.