Heifer rearing launch pad gets new entrant dairying

Rhidian Glyn had done one milking in his life before he started dairy farming in his own right last spring.

However, he had 10 years’ experience of heifer rearing, silage production, and rotational grazing on tenanted farm Rhiwgriafol, Machynlleth.

See also: Equity partnership propels pig farmer’s son into dairying

Rhidian started farming at Rhiwgriafol in 2014, while still working as a full-time feed rep.

He contract-reared 30 dairy heifers and bought 880 ewes from the landlord. He borrowed £100,000 to fund this, which was paid off in nine years.

Rhidian Glyn © MAG/Michael Priestley

However, dairying was an attractive goal to Rhidian due to the potential for greater returns. Both his grandfathers milked cows, so he says it was in his blood.

His milk production system now requires three full-time labour units, and, thanks to understanding lenders and suppliers, survived losing three weeks’ milk cheque in May.

Farmers Weekly asked Rhidian what steps he took to start dairy farming.

1. Contacts and people

Rhidian says good relationships with other farmers has been essential.

His motto is “talk to good farmers – learn from their mistakes”. This is what he did:

• Has a network of people to learn from including Aberystwyth University, Young Farmers, 10 years as Bro Ddyfi Grassland Society secretary, and 11 years as a ForFarmers feed rep
• Farming Connect Agriacademy course in 2013 taught Rhidian farm office skills and he met fellow new entrant dairy farmer Elgan Davies who paid him to rear heifers
• Twitter connected Rhidian with dairy farmers further afield to grow his heifer rearing enterprise
• Local engineer and close friend GT Davies undertook infrastructure work
• Neighbouring farmers Eifion Pughe and Fflur Jones have been skilful and dependable employees
• Rhidian had a day’s “crash course” in milking, calving and colostrum management with spring calver Nick Davis, Newtown, in 2023.

2. Know your figures

Grass measuring, performance and financial figures have informed decisions.

Rhidian’s wife Elen is an accountant and Rhidian records all output, costs, prices and margins in excel.

Because he knew his costs, Rhidian always kept his shop window full, selling bulling and in-calf heifers, calves, breeding lambs, ewes and in-lamb ewes for cashflow.

Lambing outdoors, performance recording and using performance recorded Aberfields created a market and premium for buyers seeking breeding sheep with figures and kept costs down.

3. Build capital/assets

In 2015, Rhidian’s light hill lambs averaged £53, earning £318/ha (1.25 lambs a ewe).

He knew he needed a more lucrative enterprise to grow his balanced sheet and develop the business.

Rhidian contract-reared 30 heifers for Elgan Davies (who he met on the Agriacdemy course) and reared for other farms.

The risk was the farm failing a TB test in September and being locked down with in-calf heifers to house and feed. 

Heifers were delivered at three to four months and returned in-calf at 18-20 months. Owners paid haulage and medicine costs.

Within five years he had 380 R1s and 380 R2s when at peak summer stocking. Calves had one three- to four-month winter on straw.

Demand for his service was strong. Spring block entrants wanted to dilute new parlour fixed costs by outsourcing heifer rearing and maximising milker numbers.

A flat rate of £1/head/day was charged for heifers.

Elgan’s 30 heifers were strip grazed on 5.66ha and had 2.4ha of silage, bringing in £1,060/ha more than the sheep in 2014. This allowed Rhidian to bank more money.

4. Invest in key infrastructure

This cash was invested in a shed (for £50,000) and slurry store (£20,000) in 2020, doubling winter housing capacity to 280 cattle (a further 100 were housed on other farms).

This had two strategic benefits. Firstly, it increased the farm’s earning capacity as more heifers could be wintered.

Secondly, the shed’s scale could house a three-row 120-cubicle conversion for dairy cows, meaning half the shed building for a higher profit dairy business was complete.

5. Conversion to dairy

Once experienced at heifer rearing, Rhidian started buying and trading heifer calves privately.

Calves typically cost £100 and could be sold in-calf for £900 (earning £1.48 a day).

This gave him a launch pad for a dairy business. Owning heifers meant Rhidian’s livestock valuation was about £600,000, and he had the heifers to start a herd if the chance arose.

Fledgling cheese processor Mona Dairy was seeking block calvers and agreed a contract in November 2022.

Rhidian also sounded out Yew Tree Dairy to keep his options open.

© MAG/Michael Priestley

The dairying proposal was sent to the landlord, who agreed and extended the tenancy for 15 years (Rhidian was 38 at the time).

About £300,000 was raised by selling 200 surplus heifers, the year’s lamb crop, 400 ewes and £13,000-worth of rams to help fund groundworks and infrastructure.

A loan was needed to fund the rest of the project. Rhidian could now show the bank he had run a successful grazing business to pay a loan off and fund the building of a shed.

Oxbury bank lent Rhidian £250,000 over 15 years at 3.2% over base in an unsecured loan in January 2024.

The deal is interest-only for the first two years, and for the two months the herd is dry each year.

© MAG/Michael Priestley

Groundwork started in May 2023, costing £40,000. A parlour area was levelled and 1.6km of tracks laid with farm-quarried stone.

Paddocks were linked up to a water system, which included pipe connectors, tapping a spring and 25 2,250-litre water tanks for £40,000.

August 2023 saw the parlour building and collecting yard concreted, costing £255,000.

A 24:48 Waikato parlour was installed with automatic cluster removal for £135,000, with a £44,000 16,000-litre Fabdec milk tank.

Once handling facilities were installed for £10,000 the dairy was ready to go, taking the total spend to £525,000.

Shaky start

But Mona Dairy went bust, just two months into milk production. The farm lost £42,000 of income and £40,000 due to change of payments terms.

“Fortunately, fertiliser had already been bought,” says Rhidian. “But we had to very carefully cashflow the business. We went from spending £2,000 a month to just buying dog food.

“Luckily Yew Tree Dairy – now owned by Muller – offered us a contract we signed. No milk was discarded, and the bank was kept up to speed with everything.”

Future

By the winter of 2025-26 the cows will be housed in cubicles, rather than loose housed on straw, which cost £27,000 this winter at £120/t delivered.

A new 120-cubicle shed will be erected and the shed Rhidian built will have 120 cubicles installed.

Rhidian hopes to retain heifers to hit 300 cows by 2026. As the herd matures, he aims to reduce cake rates (4kg peak in 2024) from 1t a cow.

A final project is to finish tracks to the grazing platform as 40% are not linked yet.