I farm: “At home full-time with my family on 320ac of predominantly rented land.”

Cows: “We’re milking 230 Friesian-cross cows all year round. We supply liquid milk; we started milking cows in autumn 2017 and then just kept the autumn-calvers. The cows are back in litres at the moment because of the drought but are maintaining milk solids.”

Buffer feeding: “They are getting buffer fed silage and zero-grazed grass. They are also getting 3kg of a 14% nut in the parlour.”

Calving: “We calve 180 in spring and 50 in autumn. We are calving at the moment and have 15 calves born so far. It’s all beef calves in autumn and there’s always a good demand for them because of the lack of calves this time of year.”

Breeding: “We AI for six weeks and then run a Hereford and Angus stock bull after that. We used sexed semen on the best 10% of the herd this year too. We are scanning cows this week. Last year we had an 80% conception rate.”

Reseeding: “We reseeded 15ac of the milking platform which is 120ac in total. It was a dear year to reseed but it has to be done. We sow about 25ac of Redstart every year and out-winter the spring-born heifer calves on it.”

Silage: “We have two cuts of silage done. We went out with liquid nitrogen last week and let it up again either for bales or to zero-graze.”

Climate: “The 25% emissions target is going to affect us majorly because we are heavily stocked. We have invested heavily in measures to reduce emissions such as LESS, using protected urea and milk recording six times a year. We don’t carry any passengers and are improving the genetic makeup of the herd every year.”

Quotable quote: “We are already financially burdened by climate change due to drought and extreme weather events, without having to curtail our production even more.”