PROFILE Philip Langton & Son
Winning formula delivers top quality grass
Former junior show- jumping champion Philip Langton knows the importance of getting grass off to a good start – and delivering for customers. Simon Wragg reports
customers across the Midlands. Based at Holbrook, near Derby, the former show-jumping champion supplies small and big bale haylage, conventional bale hay and straw from a farmed area of about 400ha. And he knows how to kick-on in any season. “We’ve equipment normally suited to a con- tractor as we need to take crops quickly to pre- serve quality,” says Mr Langton. To put the business into perspective, over the past two seasons 150,000 convention-
W
ith two decades of experience and a discerning customer base, Philip Langton supplies high quality forage to equine
al sized bales have been handled by a small, elite team delivering to around 100 customers. Centre stage is dominated by a managea- ble 30kg 3ft bale of top quality wrapped hay- lage sold out at £8 apiece which has revolu- tionised the market, he adds. “The bales are uniform, easy to move individually with a sack truck, pull apart in thin wads and produce very little waste.”
Personal service Delivered by pick-up, trailer or tractor trail- er loads depending on the customer’s require- ments, each forage season is founded on having grass in good condition at the start. “I couldn’t run this business without the 1000 ewes which are our grass keepers rather than grass eat- ers,” he says. The flock – which includes pure-bred Texel and Beltex used to breed replacement shear- ling tups for sale to commercial flocks – is used to stagger harvesting dates for each area of grass. Having eaten off over winter, fresh re- growth ensures the first cut of grass in late spring produces a high energy/high protein for-
age. This is made into big bale haylage (around 6000 bales annually) and is typically suited to the sporting horse market.
This is then followed by a second cut eight weeks later in early summer providing con- ventional hay typically suited to the racehorse sector. A third cut is taken in September as a good general feed as small bale haylage. “It’s the beauty of ryegrass - it dries quickly even late in the season.
“But not every customer requires a high en- ergy/high protein forage; there’s still a place for what’s traditionally seen as meadow hay which is why we can supply a range of differ- ent baled forage,” he explains.
Grassland management
A reseeding policy sees 60-120ha (150-300ac) put down to new seed each year. The focus is on ryegrass and white clover using seed mix- es from supplier Cotswold.
Grass covers are brought on with regular applications of fertiliser - typically 20-10-10 - to compensate for the phosphate and potash removed from the soil with each cut of forage. The fleet of machinery used within the op- >>
JANUARY 2020 • MIDLAND FARMER 31
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