In October 2015 Richard Saxby joined the team to take responsibility for the day to day running of the herd with help from two other members of staff. Since Richard’ s arrival improvements have been seen in all aspects of the herd including herd health, fertility and production.

Thurlstone Jerseys are vaccinated for Lepto, BVD, IBR and they are in a Johnes Testing scheme, as well as in a one year TB test area. Great care is taken with both the herd health and breeding of the herd.

In addition to the strong Jersey herd they also have 50 – 60 stores for finishing to be sold at market. These Hereford Jersey Cross stores are housed for the first four months and then live outside grazing grass until the finishing stage usually the last two months where they are fed a TMR diet. The stores tend to finish at around 600 – 650KG under 24 months- this is an ideal weight as people don’ t want big joints these days, which is also much better for butchers. They now supply Everton farm shop and Eatons of Tickhill and Harworth. Stores are slaughtered at RB Elliott & Son where the meat is typically hung for two weeks. More and more people are coming back again and again thanks to the quality and taste of the meat which has both fat and great marbling.

Manor farm covers some 400 acres with grass, maize, fodder beet, and Lucerne.

Thurlstone Jerseys are, however, only part of the Manor Farm success story. They also now have some 400 acres of potatoes having initially started with a humble 50 acres. They formed a partnership with successful local farmer, Andrew Houghton back in 2003 called Pro Potts. Together they own a share of Mease Valley Potatoes, a farmerowned marketing company operating alongside 3 other farmers from Hereford, The Midlands and Yorkshire. This has now grown in to a very large concern supplying some 40,000 tonnes a year from the group to the likes of Walker’ s Crisps and McCain’ s.

SERIOUS INVESTMENT IN SPUDS

Potatoes for Pro Potts represent a seriously big investment – two million pounds- which demands the slickest of management both from the office and the field. Timing, the weather and equipment are all crucial for success. In 2005 Gareth Brumpton started work part-time for Pro Potts and is now running the day to day operations. Gareth’ s hard work, attention to detail and mechanical abilities allows all equipment to be completely

stripped, overhauled and replaced where needed, once a season. They use local bearing companies and engineers.

Tom’ s training has proved a great asset because when you are working in partnership things need to be absolutely spot on and you must all agree. Tom and John said to me:“ They are very dynamic partners and it is great to work with such positive people.”

I asked about the biggest challenges they had faced. John said that was setting up the potato growing side in 2003- and managing the disastrous crop of 2012 after the torrential rain.

Their biggest success was the change from Holsteins and sourcing the new milk buyer in Longley Farm.

So with all that going on you’ d think that would be it – just keep things ticking over? No! Not a bit of it. I only wish I lived near to Scaftworth as they have just rented an

outbuilding at The King William Inn in Scaftworth from which they will be selling fresh Jersey Milk daily via a vending machine where from 7.30am to 10pm customers will be able to buy milk in bottles! And you can even bring your empty bottles for a refill – all from the herd around the corner – Imagine!

We wish this prosperous forward thinking team continued success.