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Glovers Farm
Name:
David Cross
Location:
Sedgeford
Farm sectors:
Beef & Lamb
About Glovers Farm
Follow Glovers Farm if you are interested in:
- Livestock in arable
- Herbal leys and soil health
- Regenerative farming
David’s six key goals and objectives:
- Improve farm and business resilience
- Improve soil health and increase organic matter
- Improve stock performance (growth rates, number of lambs, margin/ha)
- Increase pasture yield without N fertiliser to drive stocking rate
- Native-bred suckler cow enterprise to help pasture quality and direct selling
- Maintain collaborative mindset
Changes in farming practices at Glovers Farm
David Cross, a tenant farmer in North Norfolk, manages approximately 550 hectares (ha) made up of 330 ha on the home farm and additional grazing land. The farm is predominantly made up of light alkaline soils – 50% sand and 35% chalk. The annual rain for the area is about 600 mm.
Six years ago, David recognised that his farming practices had to change. He has since been looking at the long-term sustainability of the system.
Over the past 18 months, the farm has transitioned into countryside stewardship schemes and SFI options such as SAM3 and GS4 mixes. By May 2024, a third of the farm was enrolled in these schemes, with 100 ha to be sown in autumn and the remainder of the farm home will be enrolled in spring 2025.
Additionally, capital works have been used to set up 35 km of fencing, 20 km of internal fencing, 5 km of hedges and 15 km of piping to create an efficient alleyway grazing system.
In addition, two mobile chicken huts have been installed, producing eggs from 900 hens. These eggs will be sold directly to consumers from the farm. The hens will also graze on pasture following the sheep, enhancing pasture quality and soil health in line with traditional mixed farming practices.
Livestock grazing management
David now manages pathway cattle; at the time of arrival, they weighed about 150 kg. The cattle arrive from mid-March to May, with up to 580 on the farm for the grazing season.
They are initially transitioned with a specific feeding regime before moving to a rotational grazing system. David is paid per kilos gained, so he doesn’t want to push them too hard.
The goal is to achieve a daily liveweight gain (DLWG) of 0.9 kg off forage to meet the minimum weight requirement of 380 kg for leaving the farm.
David aims to maintain a cover of 2,000 kg dry matter (DM) going into winter to ensure spring grazing availability. Delays in reaching target weights can impact autumn and spring grazing plans and subsequent cattle arrivals.
The sheep enterprise involves outdoor lambing, set stocking for six weeks and a gradual transition to rotational grazing. Depending on weather conditions, lambs are weaned at 12 weeks or earlier.
Future plans
David plans to manage 1,400 ewes and 1,100 pathway calves. In spring, the mob size is about 240 cattle, reducing to 120 as temperatures rise.
For the 2024/2025 autumn and winter period, a fodder beet grazing trial will be implemented, with 12 ha of fodder beet and deferred grazing with bales throughout the winter period. This will be designated for lighter cattle and for those who arrived on farm later in the season.
He will take them to 500 kg in spring and take advantage of compensatory growth. He will then aim to have them gone by the middle of May to take advantage of compensatory growth.
This will also help safeguard higher cover in autumn and more will be available in spring for the next round of grazing.
Current research areas
During the 2023/2024 Monitor Farm Pogramme, David focused on improving soil health and identifying limiting factors within the soil.
Since his return to the farm, David has increased organic matter (OM) by 2% (from 2 to 4%) with a five-year lucerne crop.
However, he feels more needs to be done than merely working on OM content. He would like to monitor the impact the GS4 and SAM3 options are having on the soil conditions of the farm, over and above the usual pH, P and K value.
The research carried out by Dr Liz Genever involved focusing on four fields:
- An arable field (an ex-potato field)
- A third-year herbal ley
- A second-year herbal ley
- A first-year herbal ley
These fields provide a diverse management range, with all herbal ley fields transitioning from long-term arable use.
The in-depth soil analysis at Glovers Farm has pinpointed key areas for improvement to enhance soil functionality. The tests revealed issues with macrominerals that need correction and suggested adjustments to micronutrients to stimulate soil biology.
The analysis also showed shallow roots, minimal nodulation on the clover and no rhizosheaths.
As expected, given the soil type, the analysis showed the fields had lower-than-ideal levels of organic matter, high levels of calcium and lower-than-ideal levels of magnesium.
Success will be measured using straightforward indicators such as Brix readings, rooting depth and the presence of root nodulation.
Innovations and past research areas
To address soil exhaustion and low organic matter, David introduced lucerne into the rotation as part of an Innovative Farmers field lab study.
This study compared the growth rates of ewe lambs grazing on lucerne. Farmers in this field lab set out to investigate grazing their sheep on lucerne, a legume that is widely used as forage for sheep in New Zealand and valued for its high yield, drought tolerance, protein content and digestible fibre.
Field lab: Grazing sheep on lucerne (innovativefarmers.org)
Additionally, David participates in projects focused on soil health, including a soil health scorecard with NIAB and AHDB, and a performance assessment of grazed GS4 mixes with ADAS.
This farm trial aimed to assess the performance of three different GS4 mixes grazed with sheep to identify which performed best and help inform future decisions on sown seed mixes.
Farm trial: Performance assessment of grazed GS4 mixes