Ex-NFU dairy board member becomes AHDB strategic dairy farmer

Former NFU Regional Dairy Board Chairman Jamie Butler, from Whitewool Farm, joined our Strategic Dairy Farm (SDF) programme with his brother, Will, in March 2024.

Based in East Meon, Hampshire, the farm is made up of 400 Holstein-Friesian cows on an autumn block-calving system and 240 ha of combinable crops (mainly wheat).

Jamie and Will also have a number of diversified activities, such as glamping, fly fishing, corporate days, clay shooting and self-storage.

Jamie manages the dairy at Whitewool Farm and Will looks after the arable side of the business.

Both sectors of this farm work hand in hand, through growing forage crops, managing soils, slurry and fertiliser, and ensuring the overall business is focused on being the most productive farm in the UK.

Jamie and Will leaned more towards a sustainable approach when their non-farming businesses demanded it.

They then realised that, if done right, there were huge savings to be made by focusing on this area, and they are now adopting this approach across the whole farm.

Throughout his career, Jamie has had several NFU roles, including branch chairman, county chairman (Hampshire) and SE regional dairy board chairman.

During this time, a lot of work was done on the dairy contract reform, bringing much-needed change to the way processors and farmers interact.

Since Jamie retired as dairy board chairman, he and Will have joined the SDF programme to help the farm transition to natural productivity and a more sustainable future.

They also want other farmers to learn from Whitewool by seeing what’s going well and what doesn’t work and helping with the progress.

The SDF programme is designed to help facilitate farmer-to-farmer learning. Over the course of three years, our SDF farmers will share their knowledge and experience to help other farmers learn from one another.

The aim is to give farmers the confidence to explore new ideas and adopt change in their own businesses.

Over the next three years, Jamie and Will want to focus on improving overall productivity, particularly where it aligns with environmental benefits.