It is little wonder that your mood brightens when you arrive at the gates to the Sharman farm. Turning into the driveway, the first thing to greet you is the timber cabin farm shop from where dairy produce from the farm and other locally sourced food is sold, with an honesty box as the cash register. The fields behind the shop are bright green, in contrast to the pale yellow of ripening corn in neighbouring fields. Three hundred purebred red and white Montbéliarde cows graze in the field next to the shop and they provide another splash of colour.

The Sharman farm is a real family farm with a couple of different enterprises on the go. There are 224ha being farmed. The farm is fully organic and the herd is milked once a day (OAD). Even though the 300 cows are calving all year round, the main ingredient in the diet is pasture. Other enterprises include the farm shop, a DIY livery yard for horses, energy generation and a few rental properties on the farm.

Ian and Tom with the cows out grazing in October 2017.

Three members of the family are employed full-time. Ian does the feeding but not the milking, so he takes care of most of the machinery work and grassland management. Steph looks after the farm shop and organises the livery and houses, while their son Tom is the cow man, doing most of the milkings and looking after the herd.

To get a sense for the farm, we need to look at its past. Ian explains that less than 10 years ago, he was on what he calls the dairy farming treadmill – milking 450 cows with the cows housed all year round, milking twice a day producing 11,000l/cow, having difficulty sourcing and retaining good employees and not making enough money.

Turning to France

The first decision to get off the treadmill was made in 2009 when they sold their own herd and went to France to purchase Montbéliarde cows. The decision to continue dairy farming was made by Tom, who loves working with cows and loves being a farmer. If it wasn’t for Tom’s interest, Ian says, half-jokingly, that he would have sold up the lot and moved to Cornwall with Steph.

The Montbéliardes had better health, fertility, body condition score, higher milk quality and were all-round hardier cows than the old herd of Holstein Friesians.

Following on from this, the decision was made in June 2015 to go organic. Full organic status was granted in June 2017. In 2016, the decision was made to milk the cows OAD. This is the farm’s second full season at OAD milking. When Ian said he wanted to get off the treadmill, he didn’t just walk off, he jumped off.

At any one time, there are about 280 cows being milked with about 20 cows dry. There are 110 youngstock between calves and in-calf replacement heifers. Only 20% of the cows are served to dairy sexed semen bulls, with the remainder served to Belgian Blue.

Fertility performance is excellent with 16% of the herd being replaced every year. Calving interval is heading towards 350 days, which Tom says is too low so they are extending the voluntary waiting period between calving and first service.

When I visited in mid-July, the cows were in fantastic body condition score. The average from my eye was probably around 3.5, so fat if anything. Montbéliarde cows are massive with huge big frames and the fact that they are carrying so much condition probably means they are weighing over 650kg on average.

Instead of pumping in meal, the farm tries to keep excellent quality grass in front of the cows.

The herd is predicted to produce 4,600l per cow in 2017. Last year, in its first year of OAD milking it produced 3,900l per cow. Fat and protein average 4% and 3.6%, respectively, but Ian said that when they feed roots (beet and swedes) they both rise by between 0.15% and 0.3%. So total milk solids per cow last year were 311kg and are predicted to be 367kg this year.

Meal feeding is low at 250kg/cow. Instead of pumping in meal, the farm tries to keep excellent quality grass in front of the cows. Of the 224ha in the farm, 90ha are around the yard and available for grazing. There are 6ha of arable land and the rest is grass and clover swards.

Despite not spreading any nitrogen or phosphorus, the grass swards look vibrant and green. Ian explained that it was a good summer for growth with sufficient rain when needed but that it is a good grass farm anyway.

Very little of the farm has been reseeded in recent years and Ian is slow to consider reseeding as he feels the current swards are performing well. The 6ha of barley are undersown with grass, so some reseeding is happening anyway.

The only nutrients being spread on the farm are lime and farmyard manure. The farmyard manure is sourced from the winter housing and turned over the summer to transform it into compost. Slurry and soiled water from the milking parlour and collecting yard is spread throughout the summer.

Grass is measured by Ian and Tom weekly with a plate meter and paddocks taken out for silage or put back in depending on growth rates and demand. The cows graze between 3.5ha and 4ha per day. When I visited in July, the farm was growing 76kg/ha/day.

Grass walks

Ian just uses an Excel programme to do the grass walk and doesn’t look at cumulative growth on the farm or on individual paddocks. However, he said he is going to join up with Agrinet to get more valuable information from his grass walks.

The further away parts of the farm are used for rearing youngstock and silage. Depending on the year, between three and four cuts of silage are taken. Red and white clover is sown in the silage leys but Ian says the white clover takes over after a few years.

The Sharmans have their own silage wagon but if only a small amount of silage is being made they will make bales. Ian says the Montbéliardes prefer longer-chop silage as opposed to precision-chop.

Ian is the machinery man and does most of the tractor work. The farm does nearly all of its own machinery work, with the exception of buck-raking silage, which is carried out by a neighbour.

Self-service farm shop

Along with Ian, Steph and Tom, there is one full-time employee and one part-time, who does one-and-a-half milkings a week. The self-service farm shop takes about an hour a day to run and Steph looks after this. The farm has its own dairy brand – The Real Milk Company, which sells fresh milk and ice cream, both of which are sold through the farm shop.

The main jobs are to bring fresh milk down from the farm daily. This is sold through a vending machine in the cabin. About 500 litres of milk is sold a week through the vending machine, at a price of £1/l (€1.13/l). The milk is pasteurised, but not homogenised so the cream rises to the top. Milk from the farm is brought to a local ice cream plant where it is made into different flavoured ice cream and packaged under The Real Milk Company-branded tubs.

Eggs from the free-range hens, locally produced bread and other confectionery are also sold in the shop, which Steph proudly says is open from 7am to 7pm every day of the week, including Christmas Day. Customers pay for their purchases by putting money into a sealed box and then take their change from an open box. The shop was only ever stolen from once.

Despite the farm being in a quiet, secluded area and a few miles from a main road, the farm shop does well and in the 20 minutes that I was in it, three customers called. This is probably one of the advantages of having a large population living locally. Steph says the shop earns enough income per year to pay one full-time salary.

Cows are bedded on straw, purchased from local tillage farmers. Ian says that when all the cows are housed, he uses 10 big square bales a day.

The horse livery and machinery sheds are in the old part of the yard – a quintessential English farmyard with old stone buildings. The dairy yard is behind the old buildings. A 28/28-unit milking parlour and covered collecting yard is next to a large cow shed. This shed used to house 300 cows in cubicles but as part of the organic transition, the cubicles have been taken up and it will now house 220 cows.

Cows are bedded on straw, purchased from local tillage farmers. As mentioned, the farmyard manure is a valuable source of nutrients on the farm. A large straw storage shed was built a few years ago.

Ian says that when all the cows are housed, he uses 10 big square bales a day. He spreads the straw with a straw chopper attached to the telehandler. The farm has its own Keenan diet feeder but because the cows aren’t being fed a total mixed ration any more, Ian says he is just going to place blocks of silage in front of them from now on.

“I hope to only have to do this every second day, which will then allow me to go off shooting on the other days,” Ian says.

The herd was turned out to grass on 12 January and was housed full-time on 12 November 2016. The 10 month grazing season is not normal in Nottingham. Most of the grass-based dairy farmers in the UK are based further west and in the southwest.

Stocking rate

Ian and Tom are clearly two good grassland managers. While the overall stocking rate is low at 1.8 livestock units/ha, the milking platform is highly stocked at over three cows/ha.

While a significant amount of other land is used for generating winter feed and supplement at the shoulders, the fact that milking cows only get 250kg of meal on average, despite calving all year round, is a fair achievement in an organic system.

The meal is purchased thorough Hi Peak Feeds. A standard 18% crude protein organic ration costs £380/t (€429/t). This is about £180/t (€203/t)more expensive than conventional feeds. The herd is fed around 4kg of meal per day for the first 30 days after calving. Peak milk yield is about 30l/cow/day. When I visited, the average daily yield was 16l/day at 4% fat and 3.6% protein (1.25kgMS/cow/day.

Milk is supplied to Arla which pays a premium for high fat, so increasing the fat percentage of the herd is an objective of the Sharmans. They have recently started crossbreeding the Montbéliardes with Red Holstein Friesians but Ian and Tom are considering other breeds also, including three-way crossbreeding but they are reluctant to use Jersey or Holstein Friesian.

Stock sales are a big part of the business. Calf and cull cow sales contribute 9p/l to the gross output alone. Beef-sired calves from the Montbéliarde cows averaged £350/head (€395/head) last year. They are sold at a few weeks old. Cull cows averaged £800/head (€903/head).

It’s not just that they get a high price for their stock that is contributing to sales, they also have a lot to sell as mortality rates are low. Ian says they no longer get displaced abomasums, or retained cleanings. Three cows got milk fever in 2016. There has been only one case of mastitis in the last three months and only the odd lame cow.

At any one time, there are about 280 cows being milked with about 20 cows dry.

Back in July, the Sharmans were getting 40p/l (45.2c/l) from Arla for their milk while conventional milk was making 27p/l (30.5c/l). Twelve months earlier, when global milk prices were on the floor, the price of organic milk was 36p/l (40.69c/l), while conventional milk was making 18p/l (20.34c/l). So when milk price was poor, organic prices were twice the conventional, but when milk prices are better, organic prices are 1.5 times better than conventional. While output from the farm has reduced, the value of the output has increased to help offset some of that reduction in quantity of milk sold. But costs have fallen also. No fertiliser is being spread, labour costs have reduced substantially since the herd went once a day. Veterinary costs have seen a massive reduction. Ian and Steph say the farm is now making money. But it’s not just about money, you get the sense the farm is a happy place and an enjoyable place to be, for everyone associated with it. The stress of confinement dairy farming and the volatility in prices was enough to make Ian and family jump clear of it. The alternative is delivering a profit for the farm and a great lifestyle for the Sharmans.

Tom and his partner Natalie have just had their first baby, Etta. Will Etta become the fifth generation of Sharmans to farm at Holbeck? So much for selling the lot and moving to Cornwall.

Comment

How much of the Sharman story is applicable to Irish farmers? The demand for organic dairy produce in the UK is buoyant – not so in Ireland with only a small and unreliable premium being paid for organic dairy produce. The demand for organic food is for the most part local. Buyers of organic produce tend to be more conscious consumers and air miles are a no no so it’s not as though Irish farmers will start exporting organic food into Britain any time soon.

Then there is once a day milking and breeding Montbeliarde cows. Neither of which are new technologies nor particularly ground breaking. For me, the lesson from the Sharmans is to occasionally take a step back and look at the bigger picture. What is all the stress and anxiety that many people experience in modern dairy farming for? The Sharmans were there and got away from there. By realigning their farm system towards their life goals they have literally changed their lives for the better. The sense of calm and happiness and enjoying life at Holbeck farm is palpable. The fact that they have achieved this, while still farming and at the same time make more profit is a credit to themselves. The focus switched from output at all costs, to reducing costs by letting cows do what they do best – graze grass. While the system might be different to the Irish way, the principles are the same: grow lots of grass and breed fertile cows.

  • This article appeared in the 2017 edition of the Irish Dairy Farmer magazine. The 2018 edition will be on shelves in November.