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Running a dairy actually means you also have a large part to play in the beef industry! Every year we will have both a mix of dairy and beef calves born on the farm with the Dairy calves being Holsteins and the beef calves being Angus x Holstein. These calves are weaned off milk and then depending on the time of year travel off farm to different locations. Calves born in the autumn travel all the way to Scotland to maximise the land that we own just outside Chirnside in the borders. Calves born in the rest of the year travel to a farm in Surrey in the South East of England.

Our “Scottish” calves are now nearly a year old and having been in for a quick check-up are looking fantastic out in the Sunshine!

We are pleased to announce that we have recently been named in the Top 10 herds in the world for the number of Excellent cows. Our cows are independently scored on a range from Fair to Excellent and we currently have 92 out of our 422 milking cows. To be named in a Top 10 with other farmers and dairymen who do such a great job is amazing humbling and we would like to congratulate all the other farms from the UK who made it into the Top 10, especially Michael & James George at Brynhyfryd!

A fantastic day in the roaring Sussex sunshine attended by over 150 people. Wow we were all super busy! Visitors took time to see and engage with our the arable and dairy teams as well as learning all about the sustainability and environmental work we do!

The dairy looked magnificent, huge thanks to our team and the many people that were very generous with their time, helping to make the day such a success. We can’t wait to do it again in 2020!

Spring has finally sprung in Sussex! That means we are pedal to the metal to get crops in the ground and to start stockpiling silage to feed the cows. Hopefully the bad weather is behind us, it’s certainly not a bad day for a bit of farming today!

Hoping the weather warms up as ewes need to be vaccinated before lambing and  cold weather brings on metabolic diseases if ewes are stressed.

We have been lucky enough to receive some grant funding to support our pursuit of increased sustainability & productivity.

This was specifically for our Dairy Efficiency Project which aims to replace the historic lights and vacuum pump in the dairy. Both of these improvements will utilise less electricity and therefore increase the sustainability of the dairy. The increase in area that is lit during working hours will also mean a safer environment for both the cows and the team here at Huddlestone.

The grant was supported by the Rural Development Programme for England, for which DEFRA is the Managing Authority, part financed by The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas. More information about this type of funding can be found at the EU Commission’s rural development page at: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/index_en.htm

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