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‘ Every week we send cattle to Selby livestock market , the biggest in the UK and the rest go to the other usual meat outlets . We match the cattle to the job with some native breeds going on schemes run by the abattoirs .’
‘ Deadweight is an issue . We ’ re having to buy smaller cattle to get the smaller carcase that is wanted , which is now more like 370-380 kilos . Like everyone we are chasing the margin and adapting to demand .’
Ensuring the right diet for taking beasts to finishing is where the rest of the farming operation comes in . Winter barley , winter wheat , winter beans , spring barley , maize and rye is all now grown or growing on the farm and together with the advent of the feeder wagon they have their own specific ration they work to through their Strautmann .
‘ It was on my year out from college at Ken Morrison ’ s farm that I saw how much more flexible TMR was with a feeder wagon .’
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‘ We are using a lot more ingredients , some we would never have thought about before ,’ says Mark . ‘ We try to grow everything ourselves as that way you ’ re more in control and we use a lot of maize now , along with grass silage , maize silage , crimped maize , barley , brewers grains and wheat distillers .’
Matt takes over when it comes to the arable farming enterprise . He makes the decisions on the crops and the varieties grown .
‘ Our winter barley across about 250 acres is all the hybrid variety Kingsbarn this year and we have about the same
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acreage down to wheat using the varieties Kerrin , Graham and Gleam . We ’ re growing 65 acres of winter beans for the first time this year having offloaded oilseed rape , which has been a poor crop for the last few years . I ’ ve been trying wholecrop beans from neighbours and they ’ ve fed really well . So , we ’ re trying them ourselves this year to see whether we combine or wholecrop them to push up the protein in the cattle .’
‘ I ’ m also trying about 15 acres of rye on some dodgy land because people have been saying you get a lot of straw and
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that it is cheaper to grow than wheat . I ’ ve around 100 acres of maize , we ’ re growing more and more of it because it feeds well , and 80 acres of spring barley . Currently I ’ ve got our sheep on stubble turnips and dependent on when they finish them , I ’ ll put in more winter wheat . I drill the grass at winter too .’
Matt is a firm believer in both cover crops and caring for the soil quality through less soil disturbance and better soil management through precision farming .
Continued on page 58
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