WILLOW TREE FARM 65
• JUN / JUL 2024
WILLOW TREE FARM 65
months . The in-calf heifers graze during the summer months , we rent some land off a neighbour .
“ We farm just over 400 acres , growing grass , winter wheat and maize . This year has been slightly different of course because of the weather . We normally try and get some kind of greening crop in on the maize land in winter , normally putting in mustard and forage rape . We had quite a bit to swap around this year and decided to put some Westerwold grass , getting a crop of grass in and then going back to maize .
“ We had 50 acres of that and 20 acres of Italian ryegrass . It was a hell of a first cut that we ’ d been hoping to have end of April but went at the beginning of May – then we ploughed the grass out and went into maize . It worked , so we ’ ve got an extra crop off it .
Stewardship schemes and other ways in which they are working and also genomic testing means that the fatherson partnership has a lot to consider .
“ We ’ re involved with a Mid Tier stewardship scheme ,” says Tom . “ We ’ re also just on tweaking bits for the SFI scheme , getting a winter greening crop in . We ’ re also trying to do more slurry sampling . We ’ ve bought a dribble bar that should be in action this year and should make a difference .
“ We ’ re still using the plough . We just worked a field off the top last year and drilled straight into it , but it didn ’ t work as well , you can tell the field is nowhere near as good as the rest . Our land needs ploughing , turning over . It ’ s medium to heavy soil .
“ We don ’ t push for milk now , as we ’ ve already got the yield , but fat and protein are big ones for us and our Starbucks contract with Arla means we get paid for those . I started genomic testing 5-6 years ago looking at traits . My main one at first was mastitis resistance . We had quite a big issue with that and it has come right down now .
Tom looks to select the bulls based on the traits they need to improve on .
Today , the farm partnership is between five of them , with Tom and Emma having joined their parents Howard and Debbie and Tom ’ s grandma Joyce .
“ When I came up to leaving school it was a case of going on to agricultural college or coming home , putting sheds up and growing the business . I ’ d just done my GCSEs and didn ’ t have much interest in going to college so I ended up coming home and we put some more sheds up and that ’ s when the cows went from 170-180 to 250 .
“ I did quite a lot of courses and worked with our vet Mark Glover who has been coming here the best part of 40 years . I went on and learned the hard way .
Tom was a Great Smeaton Young Farmers member at 14 , club chair for 2 years , then Cledales District chair just before Covid , which he then did for about 5 years . Emma is currently working in New Zealand .
Tom and his partner Rachel also have the sixth generation at Willow Tree lined up although it may be a little early to say whether she will have the same enthusiasm for dairying as her father and grandfather as daughter Edith is just two years old .