Winners of this year’s competition Tom & Karen Halton
The Cheshire County Farms Competition is probably the oldes t es tabl i shed farms competition on a county scale held anywhere in the UK. The objective is to encourage pride and healthy competitiveness in all aspects of farming and thereby uphold the tradition of best practice farming in Cheshire.
Over the last month, judges have been assessing farms who have entered in 23 different categories. On 1st July we enjoyed an open evening at the winning Farm Garden thanks to Tanya and Alan Winstanley Highfield Farm, Audlem.
On 15th July several hundred farmers attended a farm walk held at the supreme champion farm: Halton Farms Ltd, Chance Hall Farm, Moreton-Cum-Alcumlow, nr Congleton.
The judge of the championship was Hugh McClymont from SRUC where he is the farms manager. Hugh was also awarded The Farmers Weekly Dairy Farmer of the Year Award in 2013. He commented that the enthusiasm of the Halton Farms team was evident upon first impression. Staff retention was excellent and communication channels open which allowed all to be involved in decision making. There really was a true team environment. The stock, especially the young stock, looked tremendous and were a credit to all involved. Hugh thought the public engagement through the milk vending machine was impressive. He noted that the animals showed high levels of welfare standards. “An extremely enjoyable judging day was had, where we saw several credible farms which were all extremely worthy of being in the category.”
Tom & Karen Halton and their team currently milk 530 cows at Chance Hall Farm and have 300 heifers residing at Towensend Farm, all waiting to enter the herd. All heifers born at Halton Farms will stay at Halton Farms and milk alongside their Dams, Ganddams and Great Granddams.
Beef Calves are sold to Meadow Quality and go on to be reared on specialist well monitored rearing units for British major retailers. Raw milk, cheese, eggs and Appleby's Raw Whey Butter are sold from vending machines at the farm gate.
The farm has been an AHDB strategic farm since February 2018. Since then yields have increased from 9,500 litres per cow per annum to 11,300 litres. New twice a day feeding and 3 times a day milking schedules have been introduced, along with other cow signals initiatives.
Please do come to the Cheshire Farms Competition Awards Dinner on Friday 8th November at Nantwich Civic Centre, where Hugh will entertain us all with his detailed comments about all the farms in the final.
Tickets for the Cheshire Farms Competition Awards Dinner can be ordered via email at:
cheshirefarmscompetition@hotmail.com
Or call the secretary, Catherine Cross on: T: 07736 296 328
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To Advertise 01625 529 900
email@thefarmart.co.uk www.thefarmart.co.uk
August 2019
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