I have often written about the fact that I have three sons who all want to be farmers, but that if I divide my farm in three it is no good to any of them.

Everyone knows how hard it is to buy more land, and if you do manage to buy a land block the cost will be a millstone around your neck for a long time.

I have been pushing this farm to its limits and beyond for years now, and it’s still only able to generate enough income for one and a half sons.

With this in mind, we have been trying to come up with other solutions.

We could switch to dairying, but our housing would all have to be changed at substantial cost.

It would also still be doubtful if this farm could carry enough dairy cows to sustain two sons at home.

We have also looked at pigs and poultry, but my sons believe that they are cattle farmers and it’s cattle they want to keep.

Blade

A few years ago we went to look at a Blade farm enterprise and my sons were impressed.

So much so that they decided to investigate it a bit more, with the intentions of going down this route.

We had discussions with a meat factory and gathered up as much advice as we possibly could.

During the process there were various obstacles put in our path, and at times we felt like giving up.

But about a year ago we started to build the calf house, and almost a year later we now have calves in the new accommodation.

The Blade enterprise involves contract-rearing dairy-bred calves for the meat factory.

The new calf house on the Egerton farm.

We are essentially paid a management fee, plus bonuses.

The calves come into our house at about three weeks of age and go straight onto an automatic milk machine.

They are EID tagged and the machine reads the tag and decides if they need to be fed and how much.

The calves are kept on a straw bed and have straw and meal to eat.

After six weeks the milk is removed, and they are fed solely straw and meal.

They stay on this diet for another six weeks, before moving on to finishing farms.

During their time with us they are vaccinated, de-horned and, any that need it, are castrated.

They are never out of the house, and it is an all-in all-out system.

Then the house is cleaned out, washed and disinfected before a new batch of calves arrives.

We don’t have to source calves or find buyers to take the calves when we’re finished.

The meat factory buys all the calves directly from dairy farms and moves the calves on to finishers.

We only have to worry about looking after the calves while they are here.

Return

The system provides a guaranteed return, and even if it isn’t massive at least you can make plans and it helps take the gamble out of farming.

And, unlike buying land, the payback on the investment is within sight.

There is also an option sometime in the future to become finishers and take the calves right through.

It’s very early days yet, but it looks like this has the potential to turn my farm into a viable farm for at least two of my sons.

But we will have to get our thinking cap on if I am to have all three sons in the business.

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