Heanton Barton Farm

Follow Heanton Barton if you are interested in:

• Investing in infrastructure to benefit your cows and lower costs
• Considering three times a day milking
• Improving people and business management
• Assessing and reducing your carbon footprint

Overview

Jim Kirk farms on 700 acres in North Devon with his father and brother-in-law, employing three full time staff. Their all-year-round calving herd produces over 11,000 litres per cow, supplying Crediton Dairy. They’ve invested heavily in recent years, including a 60-point rotary parlour, water lagoon, purpose built calf shed and new silage clamp.

Our farm

They own 520 acres and rent 180 acres, growing 80 acres of maize (which is bought as a standing crop) and 170 acres of their own feed. The remainder is grass, which is reseeded regularly to maximise home-grown forage.

They bed the cows in cubicles and have spare capacity, along with a dedicated loafing area and feed space. There’s a custom-built calf shed, good shed space for maternity cows, the milking herd, youngstock and the beef enterprise.

• Watch drone footage of Heanton Barton (YouTube, 2 minutes)
• Jim Kirk gives a short farm tour (YouTube, 2 minutes)

Our herd

The 606-strong Holstein milking herd is in good health, with a regular vaccination programme and vet visits. In 2020, they focused on breeding using Genus RMS and used sexed semen on heifers, as well as some cows. They raise their own heifers on-farm and calve down at 24 months.

Our journey

Over the last decade, they switched from a herringbone parlour to robots and subsequently, to suit future plans, installed a 60 point GEA rotary parlour, which enables them to milk in under 2 hours.

Jim is keen to share his knowledge and experience with other farmers. He continually strives for improvement and is willing to learn and adopt new ideas

Our key performance figures

Heanton Barton openly share their key performance indicators, so you can see how they perform against a number or technical and financial measures.

News and past events

• Become an effective business leader webinar (January 2023) Jim and Heather Wildman from Saviour Associates discuss how to better manage your time, yourself, and your team (YouTube, 1 hour 30 minutes)
• Pregnancy rates drive profitability (May 2021) Jim explains how improvements in fertility have lifted pregnancy rates from 20% to an impressive 25%
• Strategic farm launch webinar (November 2020) Jim and his family are joined by a host of farmers for the launch of Heanton Barton as a strategic dairy farm

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