The Farmers Mart Apr-May 2020 - Issue 68 | Page 46

46 OAK HOUSE FARM
APR/MAY 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk
RED IS THE WAY FORWARD
WHETHER CLOVER OR NORWEGIAN
Chris Berry talks with
Mike & Tom Powley at
Green Hammerton
IF you can’t measure it, you can’t manage
it. That’s the maxim of Mike Powley of Oak
House Farm on the edge of the village of
Green Hammerton. Mike has always been
a firm believer in analytical farming, taking
heed of the figures on his 360 acres, rented
from several different landlords and occu-
pying 11 parcels of land between Whixley,
Green Hammerton and Ouseburn.
At the heart of Mike’s operation, run
with his father Tom, is his suckler herd
of just shy of 100 cows that has recently
seen him make a slight change in breed-
ing policy adding Norwegian Red cattle to
his existing South Devon X Limousins.
‘We will have 95 cows calving this
spring,’ says Tom. ‘Of those over 20 pure
South Devons will produce replacement
cows for the herd. We use sexed semen
to ensure that’s the case. We’ve been
producing South Devon X Limousin cattle
in the past but we are now on with South
Devon X Norwegian Reds.’
‘The Limousin is a great X,’ says Mike.
‘It produces great carcases, but what we
wanted was to increase our herd fertility,
getting into a good, tight calving pattern
and the cows back into calf easily. We felt
we needed a slightly smaller cow with a
little more milk than the Limousin X were
giving, a correct cow with well-placed
udder and teats.’
Telephone
Caroline Poultney,
Breed Secretary
01392 447494
www.sdhbs.org.uk
‘We looked around the breeds and
came across the Norwegian Red. The
Norwegian government has sponsored
its national herd, specifically looking at
fertility, calving, good feet and udders.
They’ve adopted an excellent system,
culling hard in order to ensure the
national herd is now nearly 100 per cent
fertile for getting the cows in-calf first
time. In this country the dairy industry
is only at 40 per cent success rate, we
The South Devon Society is very pleased
to be working in support of the Powley
family at Green Hammerton, York, and
wish them well for a strong future in their
beef enterprise using South Devon
genetics to produce excellent returns.
were already at 70 per cent, so if we can
up that figure further with the Norwegian
Reds that’s another tick in our box.’
‘We are also finding that the Norwegian
Red X has a growth rate of around 15-20
per cent faster than we were anticipating,
which means they get to good weights
more quickly. We’ve kept our basics the
same of spring calving, block calving in
an 8 week period with them all calved in
sheds and let out to grass in summer.’
‘We wanted what we call a herd of
ghost cows that we only really need to
see once or twice a year, that all calve
correct and everything happens natu-
rally. Maybe we’ll see them once or twice
at service but other than that I don’t really
want to be all that aware of them in the
herd. They can just get on and enjoy
themselves. That’s what the Norwegian
Reds are bringing. They only make up a
small part of the herd so far, with around
12-14 cows.’
‘What we are all striving to do is to
produce a piece of beef that the con-
sumer takes home, cooks and has a
fantastic eating experience – tender,
tasty, no plate waste and reasonably
priced. All the research and experiments,
and the things we are doing here in
terms of the way we look after our herd,
through stress-free lives, feeding and
breeding are all aimed at that ultimate
eating experience. The Norwegian Red
is presently ticking all of those boxes –
giving more protein, increased energy for
the calves through cows giving good milk
for their young and hence cutting down
the number of days spent on the farm.’
Mike and Tom’s acreage is made up of
half and half grassland and arable. They
have made the switch to ‘techno grazing’
whereby the cattle have two days’
grazing before moving on to another
field.
‘The idea is that a grass plant doesn’t
start regrowth for 48 hours, so you get
your cows in there, get it grazed and get
them out before the regrowth,’ says Mike.
‘The plant can then regrow. If the cows
are still there after that time it starts to
deplete the grass reserves. This way you
get better quality grass growth and better
quality growth rates in cattle through
more milk.’
The Powleys have also moved to ‘con-
servation tillage’ using the experiences of
American farmer Gabe Brown.