Contracts and grazing lets grow family livestock business
© MAG/Michael Priestley A can-do attitude has seen a husband-and-wife team capitalise on grazing lets, putting them on track to run 1,000 ewes and 30 suckler cows of their own.
Sussex graziers David and Kirsty Tester have grazed a wide range of ground over the past 30 years, including wetland, weed-infested maize and fields of solar panels.
Becoming proficient with electric fencing has enabled them to seize varied grazing opportunities.
In turn, this has led to low-risk contract farming agreements that have diversified income beyond running their own livestock.
See also: 20 tips for lambing from award-winning sheep farmers
Farm facts: Lee Farm, Sussex
- 850 commercial ewes plus ewe lambs
- 21 Sussex-cross and Angus-cross suckler cows
- All land rented on grazing licences
- 18ha on farm business tenancy
- Most ground on Duke of Norfolk Estate
- 700-1,000 lambs produced organically for Waitrose
- 220 dairy beef weanlings
David and Kirsty Tester © MAG/Michael Priestley
Getting started
Neither David nor Kirsty were born into farming. Both studied agriculture at college, after which Kirsty worked on dairy farms.
They built up a shearing round of 10,000 ewes together after David sheared his first ewe aged 17.
In 1994, David was hired as a general stockworker for a livestock dealer, who finished 10,000 store lambs each winter on cover crops and ran an ever-changing inventory of breeding stock.
During the next 20 years, he and Kirsty built their own 400-ewe flock on a range of grazing agreements in a 15-mile radius, from Pulborough to Chichester, while benefiting from the security and experience of full-time employment.
“We once put 700 ewes on 3ha [7.5 acres] of salad kale on some sandy ground,” David recalls.
“We had to physically pick a strip of kale to allow room for the fence. We’ve even grazed vineyards.”
Ewes being fed before lambing on Lee Farm © MAG/Michael Priestley
First contract agreement
In 2014, they struck out on their own, took on more contract shearing and dipping work, and lime spreading.
Two years later, they signed up to manage the 1,100 North of England Mules on Angmering Park Farms, near Arundel, after the estate shepherd retired.
Already living in a cottage on the estate, the Testers were ideally suited for the job.
By 2020, the estate, now owned by the Duke of Norfolk, had discontinued its sheep flock, but still wanted to keep livestock.
The Testers bought half the estate’s flock and started their own suckler herd, farming at Lee Farm.
Today, they manage the grazing of 485ha (1,198 acres) of grassland, across estate grassland, wetlands, and dairy tack.
Still earning off farm income, they dipped 6,000 ewes last year and sheared a similar number.
Contract farming agreements
Organic lambs
Waitrose pays a weekly rate for every lamb to contract finish 700-1,000 store lambs each winter on dairy keep.
Waitrose delivers the lambs in October, covering veterinary and medicine costs, and specifies forage-only finishing by 1 March. David and Kirsty Tester provide labour.
Weanling grazing
About 220 dairy-beef weanlings are delivered each spring to a 200ha (494-acre) part of an 809ha (1,999-acre) site of special scientific interest.
The site is owned by the Sussex Wildlife Trust, half an hour away on Amberley Wild Brooks.
The cattle are owned by a local beef finisher (who also buys suckled calves).
The finisher covers veterinary and medicine costs and pays them a daily rate for checking and summer management.
In October, the cattle come off the brooks, having grown frame.
Livestock system
The Testers also rent 220ha (544 acres) of grassland on monthly pay-as-you-go grazing licences, of which 20ha (49 acres) are on farm business tenancies.
In addition, the estate’s arable unit offers them about 80ha (198 acres) of mixed forage crops and stubble turnips for winter grazing.
David and Kirsty own 850 ewes and followers, 21 cows and followers, a skidsteer loader, a shearing trailer, a tractor, a mobile handling system and two quadbikes.
They buy 100-120 North of England Mule lambs annually from Keskadale, Cumbria, and home-bred replacements are produced by tupping older, proven ewes with a Suffolk.
The best of the continental cross gimmers are also kept.
The system averages 1.7 lambs reared a ewe. Mules scan at about 190%, with Suffolks scanning at about 170-180%.
The bulk of lambs are sold to ABP, hitting an R3L specification, with 10 thicker-carcassed lambs drawn weekly for 50 weeks of the year to supply a local butcher.
These hit a 22kg carcass maximum at 3H and 4H grades. Ewes lamb in three periods to ensure consistent supply.
Beltex rams are used on shearlings for ease of lambing. Mature ewes are tupped by crossbred continental terminal sires from Paul Slater’s Whitely Hey flock.
Lambing system outline
Suffolk mules with twin lambs at Lee Farm © MAG/Michael Priestley
First lambing
250 Suffolk Mule and continental-cross lambs lamb in a compact period in December or January. This season, sponges were used to achieve a five-day lambing.
Teasers will be used next year along with a high ram-to-ewe ratio for lambing over 10-12 days.
Second lambing
Roughly 350 Suffolk Mules and continental-cross ewes are tupped to lamb in February over three weeks. About 260 are expected to get in-lamb.
Third lambing
Up to 600 Mules lamb for four or five weeks in March. About 90% of the ewes lamb in 16 days.
Raddle colours
Three raddle marks (green, red, blue) are used at tupping for February and March lambers.
The colour is changed every seven days to allow for batched housing, to manage limited lambing shed space.
Supplementation
About 25kg of ewe rolls are fed to each ewe on average (£7-£8 a ewe), plus 45t of fodder beet (fed at pasture and in ring feeders indoors) and 3t of energy blocks.
Straw is bought from the estate in the swath and hay is bought from local farms. A budget of 25kg of lamb creep (only fed to January lambs from three weeks old) is used (£8 a lamb).
Turnout
Ewes with singles are turned out within a few hours of lambing. Twins are given 24 hours and triplets about 36 hours before turnout.
Last year, 65 orphan lambs were sold (not included in rearing rate). Early lambers are turned onto cover crops. Later lambers head out to permanent pasture.
Suckler herd
The couple’s suckler cow herd is based on Hereford and Angus dairy-beef calves bred terminally to Limousin, with Sussex bulls used to sire replacements.
These calve outside and outwinter on grass, supplemented with one round bale of hay around calving.
“We are fortunate to have been given chances, and are grateful to those that helped us,” says David. “Those trying to get started must take the opportunities that come along and be prepared to work.
“Shearing and dipping work has given me contacts and got me known in the area, which was helpful as it’s connections with people that help you find grazing.”
The Testers aim to increase flock size by 150 ewes and add nine more cows to the herd in a couple of years.
“The ground can take two ewes an acre, and a few more cows will be about right,” says David.
Sussex-cross cows at Lee Farm © MAG/Michael Priestley