Introducing Honeypot Farm

Honeypot Farm run by the Wade family joined our strategic farm programme in July 2020 and gave us an introduction to their Leicestershire herd and operations. 

The farm is home to an autumn block calving herd of 380 Holstein-Friesian cows, with a new 350-cow autumn block herd set up on greenfield site next door.

Switch to autumn calving

They converted from a high-yielding all-year-round calving herd to an autumn block over a three year period. 

Membership of a local dicsussion group introduced them to other autumn calvers who were making more profit with a simpler system. Autumn calving was prefered to spring due to local weather and liquid contract with Muller. The biggest challenge for them was changing mindset but they describe it as the best thing they have ever done.  

To prepare they added 100 cubicles, replaced their 20:40 Fulwood parlour with a 30:60 with ADF and built a new silage clamp and invested in parlour feeders.

Herd and grazing summary

• The herd achieves 8,000 litres per cow, 5,000 litres of which is from forage with fats at 4.3% and proteins 3.6%
• Turnout is usually in February or March depending on the weather and cows graze until mid-October.
• Calving starts on 24 August for 12 weeks although they'd like to achieve a tight six-week block so there is a break between calving and serving for staff.
• First cut is in early May for dairy cows only with 30% DM, 12 ME. Seond cut for heifers and later lactation cows starts around 6 weeks later. Maize is consistent every year and suits the farm
• Digital dermatitis is an issue in the winter months and they footbath four to  five times a week to keep it under control.
• Cow bedding is in cubicles on sand which has improved mastitis cases.
• Slurry is managed by contractors with umbilical kit and then sand scraped out once per year. 

Second greenfield unit

• They wanted to expand but the home layout didn't suit this so bought 93 hectares and decided to set up a new site and bring forage in from their rented land
• Investments include new cow tracks, water troughs, grassing the whole farm down and installing electric fencing for rotational grazing.
• The 32:64 swingover Waikato parlour sits centrally in the grazing plaform 
• Cubicle housing and a straw-yard calving area were built
• Three self-feed silage clamps, one of grass and the other two maize.

Financials

• They're aiming high with goals to achieve 10p/ litre profit on both farms and being in the top 5% of farms nationally
• Autumn calving favours their existing contract, with minimal penalties in the spring
• Their currect performance was compared against our key performance indicators.