the compartments of the lorry into which they will be discharged. Feed is made, stored in finished product bins then transported via a travelling weigher to copy bins which sit above the lorry and discharge directly into a corresponding compartment. The weigher is Weights & Measures compliant, which means there is no need for the filled lorry to pass over a weighbridge. It is all about the efficiency of turnaround, which is reduced from perhaps an hour and a half to two hours down to just 10 minutes, including completion of all necessary paperwork. Not only does this greatly enhance cost efficiency, it also improves sustainability which is, of course, one of the core values of the company. The copy bin/travelling weigher concept also reduces product degradation due to gentler handling of the finished feed. The closure of the Blandford mill was announced earlier this year,


with the bulk of the production moving to Exeter. However, a further significant sum has been invested at Portbury to increase the number of raw material bins allowing organic feed to be made there instead of in North Dorset. Overall, the idea is to optimise the environmental footprint of the company in the UK and reduce energy usage. “Of course, we are compared all the time to the situation in the Netherlands, but that is a much smaller country with a very high density of livestock. It is much easier to be efficient when all your customers are within a hundred kilometres of the factory,” says Steven. “There has to be a balance between the size of the mill and the density of farmers relative to the distance from the mill.” That is why, he believes, a mill the size of their facility at Lochem in the Netherlands, which produces 700,000 tonnes per annum, is unlikely to be efficient in Great Britain. “All we can do is to learn the bits from our colleagues on the continent which are applicable to us here.” But the investment at Exeter has led to a 10% improvement in efficiency, which is a huge step change for a process which, at its core, has not changed in decades. Capacity at Exeter is now up to 300,000 tonnes per annum,


approximately double what it was previously. It sounds a lot for a three line mill, although the new total does include blends, which have been brought on to the site from a traditional shed previously located on the other side of the M5. Serving farmer customers from Exeter across to Dorset and down to the tip of Cornwall, having blends and compounds produced on a single site certainly makes combined deliveries much more easy to organise. All raw materials for blends production goes through a separate line in what is essentially the same process as compounds production, except for the pelleting press. The blends line has its own bins, its own mixer, its own weigher and its own loading system. It is more controlled and accurate than having to rely on a dumper shovel to pick up raw materials from bays on the floor and weigh them. ForFarmers claims to be the first UK compounder to bring back


bulk tankers which (I hadn’t known this) used to be popular 40 and more years ago. Although they are not right for every application, they do offer a number of advantages. Firstly, they can be discharged


Right (l - r): Steven Read, COO UK and Simon Short, Operations Manager Exeter


FEED COMPOUNDER JULY/AUGUST 2019 PAGE 31


in any order – there is no need to empty from the compartment at the back first – which increases flexibility. Secondly, they are more product-friendly because the tank is under pressure, which means the discharge pipe is full of feed as it is pushed through, unlike a traditional system which blows pellets around and therefore causes more degradation. From a health and safety point of view, they don’t tip so there are no concerns about overhead wires or lorries tipping over. Because they are safer to use (and the company spends a lot of time undertaking on-farm assessment to make sure it is not sending people into unsafe situations) they allow for more twilight and night- time deliveries, which again contributes towards efficient utilisation of assets and resources. “We’ve been using them for seven or eight years now,” says Steven, “and getting more and more into the fleet.” They constitute about 30% of delivery vehicles nationwide, but it will never be 100%. For one thing, they are articulated, and although they can get up a much higher proportion of farm drives and roads than might be imagined, this is one limiting factor. Another is that, although they are very easy to load with the right equipment, this is not often available and so back loading is not usually an option. Nevertheless, the tankers are a good example of the group’s ability to leverage their knowledge and expertise from other European countries and bring more efficiency on to farm. The company’s second major theme is investment in people.


There was a period, immediately post the introduction of milk quotas in 1984 and lasting into the early 2000s, where a major industry focus was cost removal, and of course the first thing which is done in such circumstances is to stop investing in staff, hence the sector was not seen as being attractive to young people. The industry in general is keen to reverse the trend, and ForFarmers in particular is taking steps to make sure this happens. The company has a graduate placement programme which has seen them take students from Harper, Aberystwyth and Nottingham. In 2016 they also introduced the ForFarmers Academy initiative, which is an internal education process involving everybody across the company studying different modules depending on their location, existing knowledge and experience. Academy courses last two or three days and typically involve a day in the classroom for 10 to 12 people at a time, followed by a day on-farm, and then often a follow-up back in the classroom. There is a small assessment at the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76