available grass is poor quality, only about 10 per cent of lambs fatten off the ewes, and they go to Mel- ton Mowbray, Thrapston and New- ark livestock markets. The rest are weaned on to greening crops and are sold through Anglia Quality Meats, mostly to ABP Yetminster in Dorset. Grazing animals in multiple lo- cations requires a lot of planning. Most sites don’t have any pens or permanent fencing, so a mobile Prattley sheep handling system, with 40 lightweight aluminium gates and room for 800 sheep – that takes just 10 minutes to put up – and a three-deck Houghton livestock trailer, are used to gath- er and move them from one site to another. The system includes a weigher, which, along with elec- tronic ID, is used to calculate dai- ly liveweight gain. “We use an EID reader, which means we can have all the flock’s history on a hand-held system, and all the information we re- cord is fed back to our Farm IT software,” says Jim. “So we might flag up ewes that have foot issues twice, or that have single lambs three times – there are certain things you can’t see by eye. These ewes are culled at the soonest op- portunity.” “We’ve always been for-
is unsubsidised. “We’re trying to make our farm profitable without relying on subsidies, to increase our resilience. To do that we keep our cost of production as low as possible.”
ward-thinking,” adds Sue. “We don’t mind change and we’re big on professional development. Westpoint Farm Vets organise sheep meetings, and we attend a lot of open days. We try to get as much knowledge as possible and continually educate ourselves. “We like training apprentices
up, too, and hope to take on an- other apprentice in September through Easton and Otley Col- lege’s new livestock apprentice- ship scheme.” An application for funding for improving farm productivity in the new round of the Country- side Productivity Small Grants
Scheme should help with renew- ing equipment and further tech- nical improvements. And Jim and Sue are still waiting to hear if their mid-tier Countryside Stew- ardship application has been ac- cepted.
Looking ahead “Applying for Countryside Stew- ardship is another Brexit-related decision,” says Jim. “It’s a buffer, another income stream. All our land is rented, so we’re already at a disadvantage: we benefit from the BPS on our farm, but not on any of the other land our sheep graze.” This means half the business
The RSPB’s Andrew Holland helped with the application, which focuses on legume and herb-rich leys, whose anthelmintic prop- erties should reduce the need for worming, and provide a high protein food source for finishing lambs. Capital grants under the scheme will help with renewing gateways and fencing, concrete yard renewal to reduce run-off and rainwater harvesting. Jim and Sue have also joined the Ely Nature Friendly Farming Zone, a farmer-led group, all with Countryside Stewardship agree- ments, who meet regularly to dis- cuss management techniques. A recent farm walk took in G’s
Growers, along with a like-mind- ed group of Breckland farmers, to look at the establishment of bird seed mixes. “Farming must be environmentally sustainable as well as productive and profita- ble,” says Sue.
CONTACTS
E: fendalefarm@
talktalkbusiness.net
APRIL 2019 • ANGLIA FARMER 61
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