Transition Farmers: Buildings upgrade and new dairy progress

Farmers Weekly’s Transition project is following a group of farmers on their journey to adapt and meet the challenges of farming.

Here, we look at the progress of two farms. Vicky and Kate Morgan experience a hitch after their purpose-built housing is completed and Richard and Rachel Risdon have some unexpected costs.

See also: What’s in Your Livestock Shed? visits a state-of-the-art pig unit

Kate and Vicky Morgan

Anna and Vicky (right) Morgan © Wayne Hutchinson

Purpose-built housing has given pig farmers Vicky and Kate Morgan greater control over their cost of production, but an outbreak of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) has been a setback.

Investing in two new sheds with capacity for 4,000 pigs has removed the need for reliance on third-party “bed-and-breakfast” providers for the Morgans’ business.

When the first occupants arrived in October 2024, there was an expectation of excellent pig health because new facilities meant no residual infection pressure and biosecurity protocols are good.

But after arrival, the pigs displayed symptoms of PRRS and that resulted in mortalities and poor growth rates. 

Tests revealed it to be the “wild” strain of the virus, which the sisters say could have blown in on the wind or been present on lorry tyres.

It was not a great start for the newly commissioned shed, but as the pigs have built up immunity from the disease, performance has recovered.

Each shed has 20 straw-bedded pens with 100 pigs in every enclosure, central scrape passages, gale breakers and fans.

Making the transition from renting facilities off-farm to building their own was a challenging process due to big delays in getting the work done.

We had allowed a two-week freeboard but it wasn’t enough, so we concentrated on getting one of the sheds finished.

The previous year, building work had concentrated on converting a former pumphouse into holiday accommodation.

As they near the end of the first full season of renting it out, Vicky and Kate report high occupancy rates in the pumphouse unit and also in the family’s six holiday lodges. 

They are, however, disappointed to have made no progress on their main objective of facilitating structural change in the supply chain.

They want direct contact with their end customer (retailer), instead of the processor acting as the intermediary.

“We hope the review of the pig supply chain will address this issue and others,” says Vicky.

Richard and Rachael Risdon

Rachel and Richard Rison © Emily Fleur

Unexpected costs can rack up when taking on a new farm as milk producers Richard and Rachel Risdon have discovered since becoming tenants of a second holding.

“You always expect hidden costs, so you build a 10% contingency into the budget but when a speaker at this year’s Positive Farmers Conference suggested that a figure of 20% was more realistic, he was probably right,” says Rachel.

The Risdons took on the 253ha farm in north Devon in April 2024, aiming to produce milk from a 350-cow milking herd of spring calving New Zealand Friesians and crossbreds.

A big percentage have already been sourced from Ireland and Leicestershire and although the last of these arrived just three days before mating in May 2024, a six-week in-calf rate of 75% was achieved.

The scale of investment in infrustructure has been much higher than anticipated – from correcting design faults with in-parlour feeding and cubicle housing, to overcoming costly engineering challenges establishing a silage clamp.

There has been an intensive programme of reseeding on the 132ha milking platform, with a full reseed on 70ha and overseeding with legumes on 52ha.

Reseeding and overseeding has also been carried out at their principal holding at Woodrow Barton, near Exeter, joining the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and using the SAM3 option. 

Further applications were planned for the new tenancy but these must now wait until the government’s revised plans for the SFI are announced.

Gaining a better understanding of Environmental Land Management is a goal, but the Risdons resorted to paying an agent to handle the application.

“Defra says it wants the new schemes to be straightforward enough so farmers don’t need an agent, but I don’t think that is the case,” says Rachel.

Reducing carbon footprint is another goal, and they have joined the Leaf-Co-op Net Zero project.

Their labour aspiration came to fruition last year, when two new employees were recruited.

Overall, the Risdons feel they have achieved two-thirds of their Transition goals.