Farmers Weekly Awards 2023: Dairy Farmer of the Year

William Baillie of Hillhead Farm, Lanarkshire, is Farmers Weekly‘s 2023 Dairy Farmer of the Year.

William Baillie’s ability to be clear and focused on what he wants to do, combined with strong technical performance, attention to cow welfare and profitable farming, makes him our Dairy Farmer of the Year.

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards: 2023 shortlist announced

With one eye on succession planning and the other on his customers, William has built a profitable 400-cow dairy farm that has diversified into retailing, baking and farm tours.

Starting with just 50 cows in 1997, he grew the herd and followed traditional winter housing and summer set-stocking management.

The long, thin shape of the farm (with 40ha of it on a floodplain) prompted William to focus on milk yield, rather than grazing.

This led to three-times-a-day milking and, eventually, full-time housing in a new shed.

“The old sheds weren’t good enough for all-year-round housing and I’m passionate about properly looking after cows,” he says, adding that with the benefit of hindsight, he would have expanded his farm quicker to profit sooner.

“Yield hasn’t changed a lot in the past few years as we’re concentrating on milk solids.

“I want a balance that’s economical and am trying to push for more milk from forage as that’s more profitable. If you push for yield, other things go out of balance,” he says.

Technical improvements

William introduced zero grazing four years ago to reduce ration costs by adding a forage to the diet that is higher in protein and energy, than clamped grass.

As an AHDB strategic dairy farm (2018-21) he learned about compact feeding and switched to this to cut ration sorting, and was rewarded with higher butterfats.

Another initiative during this period was genomic testing, which now helps shape a breeding policy focusing on the fertility index, while creating a smaller cow.

William also selects for profitable lifetime index, fat and protein, management traits, and feed efficiency.

Monthly visits from the foot-trimmer ensure that regular locomotion scoring is done by the farm team. Fresh cows are monitored and temperature-checked.

A recent investment in calf rearing involved £10,000 for three new buildings.

Future focus

Surplus freshly calved heifers are currently sold, yet William sees their future potential: “They are good additional income, or can be in the pipeline if we want to expand – especially if local land came up.”

He says he likes any dairy system when “it is done well”, but found it easier to start up a joint venture on a grazing system and would consider another.

For now, with six full-time staff and six part-time staff in the business, he and wife Jennifer are focusing on people, not least their three children Abbie, Eva and Finlay, who are all keen to join the family firm.

The Baillies have set up a five-day working week with a weekend rotation. They run an induction programme for newcomers, with competency sheets to track progress; there are staff protocols and annual reviews.

They offer a fully equipped staff room and run a weekly team meeting over lunch.