Benefits of embracing NZ grazing techniques – 30 years on

An influx of New Zealand consultants – led by the late Jerry Ryder, Wiltshire dairy farmer and the-then president of the British Grassland Society – set off a rotational grazing revolution in the 1990s.

Today, some 20% of the UK dairy industry operates a block-calving, grazing-based milk production system.

The aim is for simplicity, low costs and a good work-life balance.

See also: Why focus on grazing basics is key to maintaining profits

One such dairy farmer is Steve Brandon, who says his family’s 400-cow, profitable business would not have happened if he had not followed his interest in making more use of grazed grass.

A British Grassland Society conference 30 years ago on extended grazing prompted this Staffordshire dairy farmer to try rotational paddock grazing in a bid to cut costs.

“We were making money, but not as much as we thought. It was hard work calving over six months spread out across the year,” says Steve, of New Buildings Farm, near Stafford.

“The conference was the first time I heard [Irish dairy farmer] Mike Murphy speak, and I realised he was making very good money.

“What I picked up from Mike was that we are all producing a commodity, and the only control we have is over our production costs; then we can influence our profit.

“We can’t dictate the price we sell at,” he recalls.

How many paddocks?

Steve went home thinking that he could do rotational grazing, but he would not need the suggested 25 paddocks for his 180-cow Holstein herd; he would manage with 10 or 11.

“We divided ours up and did it that way for a couple of years, then about five years down the line we said, why didn’t we do it the way they said straight away?”

Today, the farm has 52 paddocks across a 170ha (420-acre) grazing platform.

As Steve saw the benefits of rotational grazing through reduced housing and feed costs, he made more changes.

Steve Brandon © Steve Brandon

After a couple of years, when he had to house cows in early October, he realised the value of having tracks to access grass in wet periods.

“We experimented with track types over the years and now our main tracks are concrete, or concrete railway sleepers. Access is the key to everything,” he says.

As “things were coming together”, his next big step was to stop serving cows, letting some of them slip round, so that in spring 2000, he calved all 200 cows in one go: “That was us as a block-calving herd,” he confirms.

At about the same time, New Zealand consultant Paul Bird asked Steve to join a new discussion group he was setting up, where members would share their farm financial information and visit other farms in various stages of transition.

“Paul introduced me to plate meters [for measuring grass], then invited a group of us to meet up on-farm in Devon, to bring our CFP [comparable farm profit] and be prepared to disclose our figures.

“I guess there were 10-12 of us in the group, meeting four to five times a year, and very spread out: south Wales, Cornwall and Sussex – I was the most northerly and would drive for three to four hours to get to a host farm.”

Sharing information

Talking about private financial information was radical at the time in a dairy industry that spoke only about margin over concentrates and milk yield. Steve, however, was happy to share.

“My late parents would have been horrified, but I thought if I’m going to get anywhere, I need to be open and honest,” he says.

Good support from his consultant, Ian Browne, saw him through the ups and downs, Steve points out.

Ian helped to monitor the financial figures to see how things were working, track progress and provide the motivation to keep going.

When his uncle (who farmed next door) retired, Steve took over the farm, doubling his acreage in the process to 500, while cow numbers climbed to stabilise at 400.

But it was a business course in 2001 – where he met fellow dairy farmer Robert Craig – followed by a business trip to New Zealand in 2003, that propelled Steve into a different league.

His experiences gave him the confidence to set up a joint venture with Robert on a tenancy in Cumbria.

Starting from scratch, in a 50:50 partnership, they established a spring block-calving herd (now milking 500 crossbred cows) based on grazed grass.

“It was eye opening to go to New Zealand. I’d got a lot of experience under my belt having started a changeover, and everything fitted in place; it consolidated what I’d done previously,” says Steve.

Without his change in direction, he believes he would not have had the experience of running the joint venture for 12 years.

Encouraging succession

He is also clear that his daughter Lucy, who worked as a land agent, probably would not have returned home to farm had he not done these things.

“She saw a successful business that her parents were enjoying and wanted to bring up her family – three boys – on a dairy farm,” he says, adding that Lucy and her husband, James, maintain a good work-life balance.

In the past five or six years, Steve has handed the reins over to the next generation.

“I lost both parents by the age of 32 and I didn’t want to be hanging onto the chequebook till the day I die.

“Lucy and James started by buying machinery and employing labour, then gradually buying the cows,” he explains.

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, Steve can see he was swimming against the tide of advice back in the late 1990s.

He says this highlights how important it is for farmers to spend time visiting other farms, listening to people and having an open mind.

“I visit indoor, high-yielding herds, given the opportunity.

“Our accountant, for instance, organised a meeting with six grass-based farms and six high-yielding ones to compare costs savings,” he says.

“Grazing herds talk about cost control and not investing too much capital in the farm, but I went to one high-yielding herd that had no bulk tank.

“It cooled, then pumped milk direct into a milk tanker – there was a cost saving because of volume. So, there are different ideas to be learned from everyone.”

How grazing discussion group inspired change

© Wastenage Farms

The only way to improve is to challenge yourself and keep on learning, according to dairy farmer Pete Wastenage, of Wastenage Farms, based in Budleigh Salterton, Devon.

Joining one of the grazing discussion groups facilitated by New Zealander Paul Bird in the mid-1990s allowed him to do just that.

Without its influence, Pete doubts he would have made enough profit to expand the business.

“We certainly wouldn’t have created the profit to buy our other units – we might just have stayed a small family farm,” he says.

“I was desperate to come back into the business with my parents, but we weren’t making enough profit to pay a second salary out of the farm.

“There were about 15 farmers in the discussion group. We all had similar goals and aspirations and were sceptical of the thinking at the time and were looking for something different.

“We learned from each other. The other group members were open and frank about their true costs, it wasn’t like pub talk bragging about [milk] yield after a few beers.”

Support group

The discussion group’s remit was not solely to improve farm profitability – it also acted as a bit of a support group.

Changing management practice was not always received positively by other farmers in the area.

Pete says his father had grief from neighbours when he said that they would be crossbreeding to get the right cow type, as they considered this would “devalue” their dairy herd.

Today, crossbreeding is the norm, with many robust, grazing-based sires on the market, as well as the option to buy crossbred in-calf heifers to start a block-calving system from scratch.

Then, however, it was not possible to source the right sort of genetics for a grazing-based system to reap the efficiencies.

Pete credits his late parents with getting through this “difficult time” of transition.

Once the family could see some results coming through, with better cow health and profit picking up, it made the change worthwhile, he says.

“My parents were supportive all the way through, and I also had support in the discussion group.

“My father relinquished responsibility to me, which was a huge thing when I came back from college.”

Business of farming

Pete says he learned how to treat the farm as a business and how to grow it, looking at return on capital instead of being driven by output.

“Paul targeted areas of high return so that farmers could see some rapid improvements in farm profit from the onset, which fuelled our expansion.

“Cost saving from grazed forage was a quick payback, which led to capital for improving farm infrastructure.

“We actively lowered output per cow but reduced our costs more significantly by becoming very focused on our cost of production a litre.”

Paul also taught him how to do a full cost of production, whereas previously Pete would have relied on a margin over concentrates or purchased feed.

“We used to monitor variable costs tightly, but not so the fixed costs.

“Once we did a CFP [comparable farm profit], we focused on total business costs, not just margins,” he adds.

Next generation

His two sons are now in their early 20s and working in the business, and Pete hopes they will learn through travelling and completing a Nuffield scholarship.

“Succession for us is huge; we want our sons to be drivers for the future.

“I’ve driven what I’ve wanted and been fortunate to have had the opportunity. Profit gives you choices and I’m happy with what we have done.