The Farmers Mart Dec-Jan 2018 - Issue 54 | Page 56

56 DAVISON FARM
DEC/JAN 2018 • farmers-mart.co.uk
69408 - RiponFarmServices - 8TH.pdf 1 21/12/2017 15:09:11
far side of the valley from Davison Farm –
in 2002. It had been a nice little dairy unit
and I was very lucky to get the tenancy. I
moved to High Burrows. The farmhouse
building, which was more like a mansion
was fantastic. It had eight bedrooms and
there was only me, so I could sleep in a
different room every night if I’d wanted.’
‘In 2003 Davison Farm came up to let,
once again from Mulgrave Estate, and
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Proud suppliers to Guy Prudom at Davison Farm
‘ The move away
from organic farming
combined with lessons
learned from that system
has led to Guy feeling
greater satisfaction
with the moves they
have made in cattle
breeds and genetics
’
we added it to our acreage. The estate
took the farmhouse at High Burrows and I
moved here to Davison Farm. At one time
with the three Mulgrave Estate farms and
other rented land elsewhere we were up
to around 1300 acres.’
‘When the headage payments ended as
the Basic Payment Scheme was institut-
ed in 2005 we were quite badly under-
stocked and that’s when we decided to
go organic. It suited us with the amount of
grass we had.’
Losing some of the non-Mulgrave Estate
land was a blow and although it was partly
responsible for bringing about the move
away from organic farming it has also sig-
nalled a new impetus in the breeding cow
numbers as Guy is now finishing steers
before 18 months old, six months faster
than previously.
‘We currently have just shy of 200
breeding cows with around 80 Simmen-
tals, 40 Angus, 40 Beef Shorthorn and 40
Stabilisers. We could see the Stabiliser
move to being our main breeding cow.
We’re monitoring their progress. They’re
very easy calvers with better conception
rates than other breeds and because
we’re not having to put them out to grass
for a second summer we have a lot more
grass available. We’re looking at increasing
suckler numbers to between 250-300.
Our calving is in a 10-week period starting
usually around March 7. We’d like to get it
down to eight weeks.’
The Prudom acreage now runs to just
over 1000 acres – the 500 at Northfields;
300 at Davison; and the 200 at High
Burrows. In addition to the cattle enter-
prise there are 400 acres of cereals at
Northfields where Guy and Peter are also
growing red clover that is very high in pro-
tein and makes for a fantastic feed for the
cattle. Three cuts a year are taken.
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