Farmers Weekly Awards 2022: Beef Farmer of the Year

Simon Cutter of Model Farm, Herefordshire is Farmers Weekly’s Beef Farmer of the Year.

Simon Cutter’s herd of pedigree Polled Herefords is an integral part of a diverse crop rotation that begins with a fertility boost using compost made from farmyard manure and woodchip and ends with cattle and sheep grazing clover-rich herbal leys.

He believes ruminants are vital to a healthy farming system. Making sure they turn a profit is also essential.

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards 2022: Beef Farmer of the Year finalists

By outwintering and bale-grazing his cows and feeding only forage to all his cattle, he has developed a system he describes as “cheap, cheap, cheap”.

Annual costings are £202 a cow, including 120 days of winter feeding on hay and deferred grazing with young calves at 40p/day

Success is also down to his expert stockmanship and careful use of estimated breeding values to produce cattle that will thrive in this system.

Using New Zealand genetics has accelerated progress hugely and taken the challenge of performing off grass from “seat of the pants” to “easy”, says Simon.

They are even helping achieve marbling off grass – arguably the hardest aspect of forage-only production.

The farm is mainly on heavy ground with “awkward” soils. Despite this, Simon says it would be hard to tell the cattle had been outwintered on them.

Rotation is key to achieving this: soils are protected from poaching by never outwintering on the same field for two successive seasons.

Deferred grazing acts as an “eiderdown”, encouraging earlier spring shoots, which the cows eat along with older vegetation.

This ensures the young growth does not go straight through them.

Innovation

Simon’s journey as a beef farmer is full of innovation, resourcefulness and learning from others.

It was developed by necessity – starting, as he did, from scratch.

A land agency course put him in good stead to negotiate his own rent agreements, and he learned a lot from Nuffield scholars, taking on many of their ideas, particularly about grass-fed systems.

He says he would be embarrassed to feed anything other than grass now.

In the early days, Simon got Leader grant funding to develop hubs of customers in Birmingham, to whom he offered a discount to pick up their orders from one point.

Today, the farm runs a local box delivery scheme, and sells beef online and at the farm shop. Animals are slaughtered locally at a target age of 24 months at 620kg before being butchered at the farm.

Most pasture-fed beef is ready in August/September, says Simon, so he runs a split-block calving system with year-round finishing to provide a consistent supply of beef.

Next steps

Simon has spent the past year mentoring local young farmers Kitty Stainsby and James Smith, passing on his skills and experience in beef and forage production.

They have now taken on some of the herd, while Simon’s focus shifts to breeding bulls from the rest.

Simon’s two sons, George and Jonty, will continue to look after marketing and delivery runs.

Sue Walker, Simon’s partner and a bank manager with Triodos, is developing a small dairy for a cow-with-calf-at-foot setup to help develop sales from the farm shop.

And Jonty’s partner, Werna Vijn, who already produces salads on the farm, plans to offer people the chance to grow vegetables together to help improve their mental health.

The other finalists were:

• James Stafford, Pickwick Lodge Farm, Wiltshire
• Edward Hulme, Merton Farm, Kent