Feed Planning for Cattle and Sheep

A feed plan for your cattle or sheep can make your farm run more sustainably. There is potential for cost savings and greater profitability at the same time as improving the environment through reducing nutrient losses to the atmosphere and water. The feed planning approach can help bring things together on the farm, linking the environment with the health of your cattle and the profitability of your farm.

On a very cold day at the beginning of March I visited one of LEAF’s members, beef farmer Stephen Hobbs at Rectory Farm in Buckinghamshire.  The reason for my visit was actually related to the launch of the Tried & Tested ‘Feed Planning for Cattle and Sheep’ guide on Thursday at the Beef Expo (23^rd May).  LEAF is one of the organisations in the professional nutrient management group and has been involved in putting together the new guide.

Stephen Hobbs, Rectory Farm

The guide has been designed to help farmers identify the energy requirements for animal groups and work through an energy balance sheet, accounting for what can be grown on farm and feeds that are bought in.  I was visiting Stephen to film a short video to illustrate how the guide works in practice and to showcase some of the benefits of this approach. You can see this video below.

We talked through the whole process from start to finish, taking a bottom up approach to feed planning by starting with the amount of energy required by the cattle and the amount of energy Stephen can produce on the farm.  The process revealed some interesting results, “After working through the process and the energy balance sheet, I found that I actually had a positive energy balance. This means I should probably be buying in less feed or looking to increase my stock numbers.”

“The Tried & Tested feed plan helps me with Integrated Farm Management by creating a ‘whole farm’ approach. This new guide fits nicely between the original booklets ‘Nutrient Management Plan’ and ‘Think Manures’.  It really is the meat in the sandwich!”

Copies of Feed Planning for Cattle and Sheep , alongside the other Tried & Tested nutrient management tools, will be available to farmers and advisers after Beef Expo via the Tried & Tested website, by emailing nutrient.management@nfu.org.uk,  or  by leaving a telephone request on voicemail by calling 02476 858896.

Bees, neonicotinoids and pollination: moving forward

So neonicotinoids are to be banned across Europe for two years from December 1^st 2013.  It is evident that there are a range of possible reasons for a decline in bee populations, including diseases such as Varroa, issues surrounding breeding and sufficient food and habitat availability. In two years’ time there will be a review of the ban, but is that long enough to prove anything? I think we’ll just have to wait and see. There are some interesting views on the topic here.

One thing the whole debate has stirred up is the need to do more for bees and other pollinators, and it has given much needed publicity to the importance of bees in the environment.

I spoke to Andrew Hughes, Farm Manager at Trinley Estates, where they’ve done a lot of work to help bees and other pollinating insects thrive on the farm. “I’m a strong believer that if you provide bees with a good variety of plants, populations will be maintained and healthy. We always want to improve the amount and variety of nectar sources with pollen and nectar mixes, wild bird seed mixes, grass strips and we also have a wild flower meadow.  By producing greater plant diversity then we can produce stronger and broader food chains that will rescue some of our most endangered insect and bird species.”

Through some good woodland management, with coppicing and maintaining the flora, there is also a thriving wild bee population in the woodland found on the farm.

Arable reversion meadow at Trinley estates

Andrew has also been working with local natural beekeepers, “The aim is to keep bees in as near natural conditions as possible to promote health and vigour and the ability to cope with pests and pathogens”.  And it seems to be working, “Our beekeepers have mentioned that many of the hives around us haven’t been doing so well recently, but where we haven’t taken any honey from the hives in the last few years, they’re doing really well.”

Andrew has been recording the fauna and flora on the farm through photography on its own dedicated website. “Ultimately, I am interested in monitoring population changes from one year to the next. But what it’s really doing is making me much more aware of the species we do have on the farm”. I urge you to take a look – it’s great to see the diversity of wildlife and there are some cracking photos too, my favourites being the hare shots!

Perhaps we hear about this kind of wonderful work disproportionately at LEAF, because of the nature of our members.  At LEAF, we promote Integrated Farm Management, which is an approach delivering sustainable farming.  One part of this is landscape and nature conservation, which sits alongside other areas like crop health and protection. The point is that everything needs to be integrated on the farm, and lots of our members have that approach.

Bees are vital to farming. Integrating positive steps to provide food and habitat for pollinators into commercial farming is something we fully endorse.

What do you think of the neonicotiniod ban? Is there more we can do for pollinating insects or do you think we’re doing enough already? I’d like to hear your views – please comment below.

Further links:

• Guidance on pollinating insects [LEAF]
• Open Farm Sunday Pollinator Survey [LEAF, CEH]
• British Beekeepers Association
• Bumblebee Conservation Trust

LEDs: Lighting the future of sustainable horticulture?

For many years High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps have been the horticultural industry standard for lighting glasshouse production.  However, there has been steady growth in the uptake of LED lighting systems, with many growers now investigating the new opportunities they present.

LED lighting trials in an open glasshouse environment

One application of LED lighting is being investigated by researchers at Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC), a LEAF Innovation Centre in North Yorkshire, UK.  They have been looking at moving horticulture units into highly insulated enclosed warehouses lit by LED lighting systems, often called Urban Farms.

The benefits of production in this way all relate to control – control of the temperature, lighting, water and even to some extent, control of pests and pathogens due to the closed system.  Large savings can be made in heating costs in heavily insulated buildings, compared to glasshouses, and these savings are expected to outweigh lighting costs, especially as each decade LED prices have fallen by a factor of 10 while performance has grown by a factor of 20 (this phenomenon is known as Haitz’ Law).

However, LEDs don’t just have benefits in an Urban Farm system.  Lincolnshire Herbs and Swedeponic have been trialling LEDs extensively during the 2012/13 winter in Sweden and the Czech Republic on their herb crops in glasshouses.  They found that when LEDs were used at the same intensity as their conventional HPS lighting, they could make energy savings of 48%. This is a really significant saving so I was keen to ask Patrick Bastow, who ran the trials, whether there were any downsides to the system:

“No we didn’t see any downsides. Nor did we see the need to increase the heating in the LED crops to cope with the loss of infrared heat that you normally get with HPS.  However, this could be different for different crops.”

A current problem with LED lighting systems is the cost of the installation, although this is expected to fall in the coming years.  With energy savings of 48%, Patrick thinks it could still be several years before an investment would start to pay off.

“It’s looking at around 8 years before we get payback where we run lamps at 3,000 hours per annum such as in Sweden. When we run lamps for less, in the region of 2,000 hours such as in the UK, then payback will be higher. At this level of payback the technology is still a little away from commercialisation – but affordable for trials.”

There are benefits aside from the financial ones, however.  Light pollution is a major issue in planning permission and with local complaints. LED lighting is more directional, which means there will be less light spillage.  Although this hasn’t been proved on a commercial scale, in theory it makes perfect sense.  Of course, any light spillage means that light is not getting to the plants and is lost, so being more targeted could have benefits in efficiency too.

Part of the LED4CROPS facility at STC showing the multi-tier growing racks illuminated
with Philips Greenpower LED lights.

There are three colours of light (red, blue and far red) which efficiently drive photosynthesis and stimulate the plant to control morphology and flowering time.  LEDs used for horticultural applications emit these colours, but the amount of each colour and how many hours the lights operate can be varied according to ‘light recipes’.  Specific recipes for different crops are being identified in research at STC. Work already carried out in the facility has shown that plant morphology can be greatly altered by changing the ‘light recipe’.  However, controlling the ‘light recipe’ in an open glasshouse environment will need more work.  In Patrick’s trials they achieved almost the same results using three different ‘light recipes’.

So are LED lighting systems a sustainable solution? Patrick certainly thinks so, “Yes they will be. We also found that by using 16% more energy than we use with our current HPS system, we could get up to 250 µmols more light and grow the crop faster.  This will mean more production in less space and remove the need to build more production area.  This is still work in progress but it is another strong financial argument for LEDs on top of payback from energy savings.”

“I would recommend that all glasshouse growers buy a few LED lamps and run some trials, it’s an exciting new tool and growers need to start seeing what it can do for them.”

If you’re thinking of making the transition to LEDs in existing glasshouses or to Urban Farming systems, Stockbridge Technology Centre will provide UK growers with the expertise and knowledge needed to assess the potential benefits, contact Phillip Davis for more details.

What do you think? Do LEDs represent the future for sustainable horticulture? Let us know in the comments section below.

With thanks to Patrick Bastow and Stockbridge Technology Centre.

Simply Sustainable Water

Water management is a global issue; however, the solutions must happen locally. The challenge and opportunity for farmers is how to produce more food, using less water, whilst protecting its quality. In the UK we have historically taken water, and its availability, for granted, but the last five years of extreme weather patterns has started to make us increasingly more aware of the challenges and importance of its management.

On farm, water is one of the most important natural resources, whether sourced from rain, rivers or aquifers, too much or too little can cause major challenges. Sudden rainfall events can lead to loss of nutrients and crop protection products and loss of timeliness of operations, while in severe droughts, farmers can struggle to keep livestock and crops alive. Increasingly, farmers will need to adapt to the ‘yo-yo’ effect of drought and flooding, however, putting effective long term risk management strategies into practice can be challenging.

Today, we are delighted to be launching ‘Simply Sustainable Water’ in association with ASDA and Molson Coors Brewing Company. Demonstrating our joint commitment to raising awareness and opportunities for the best of water management and protection.

Measuring progress and delivering change is at the heart of LEAF’s work through the adoption of Integrated Farm Management and this booklet will help you do just that. If you make only one change on your land this year as a farmer, then make this your first step.

‘Simply Sustainable Water’ is available to download free of charge here and you can see a video showing the booklet in practice at Overbury Farms below.

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Stephen Fell is LEAF’s Chairman and Managing Director of the family farming business HR Fell and Sons Ltd, running a flock of 1000 sheep and growing root crops at Thorganby in the Vale of York. He is also Managing Director of Lindum Turf, a business growing and marketing a range of turf and specialist grass and wildflower products.

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New field margin seed mix makes ‘Flower Power’ work for growers

In recent years, larger fields and a reduction in non-crop vegetation have contributed to steep declines in farmland flowers and the organisms that depend on them.

LEAF is pleased to be one of the partners in the Ecostac project. This project’s key aim is to “develop a seed mixture for perennial field margins that has the potential to optimise pest control, pollination and conservation benefits while minimising potential risks for vegetable rotation schemes”.  This seed mixture contains selected flowers to provide bees, hoverflies, parasitiod wasps and other pest predators with abundant nectar and pollen, as well as alternative prey and lodgings for the winter. For farmland birds, plants that produce abundant seed and provide insect food for fledglings have also been added. Growers will be pleased to hear that any “bad blooms”, likely to support diseases, aphids or other crop pests, have been excluded from the preferred perennial field margin seed mix.

Though only half-way through its 4-year experimental phase, results from the project have already shown that the seed mix used can support a wide range of beneficial insects. Here’s the results so far:

• Many more bees, hoverflies and parasitoid wasps have been observed in experimental flowering margins than in grassy ‘control’ strips in 2010 and 2011
  • As margins have matured, this pattern has strengthened from year to year
• The flowering field margin prescription also seems to have suppressed pest numbers into crops, with significant average yield increases in 2011 of 15-40% for peas, wheat and cabbage near to flowering margins (see figure below)
  • Probably as a result of improved ‘biological pest control’ at these sites

For more information on this project, please see the project website or this press release.

Bringing it all together

Last week, LEAF’s Chairman, Stephen Fell, joined our Technical Day in Yorkshire. Here’s what he had to say.

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Stephen Fell, LEAF Chairman, with James Hinchcliffe, Top House Farm, and Lynda Deeks, Cranfield University

On Tuesday of last week I headed off to our local LEAF Technical Field Day hosted by the Hinchcliffe family at Rawcliffe Bridge near Goole, Yorkshire. BASF have been carrying out field trials there for 16 years and for the last 10 have supported biodiversity practice to show how good commercial farming can be totally compatible with good environmental management.
I was greeted with a chorus of skylark song – so on cue that momentarily one suspected an amplified recording!

The interesting thing is that the skylarks nest in the cover crops but feed on insects in the wheat. The Hinchcliffes haven’t used insecticides in their crops for many years and are now appreciating the multiple benefits of that policy.

This day brought together experts in soil structure, water quality management, active biodiversity management, new chemistry and communicating with the public. Quite a range you might think, but all areas which LEAF brings together so well in the wheel of Integrated Farm Management.

I found the new chemistry fascinating – increasing the kilograms of wheat produced per kilogram of nitrogen used, reducing the tonnes of water used per tonne of wheat produced by 30%, and most interesting of all, ways of increasing root biomass by up to 45%. I firmly believe that learning how to grow roots is at the heart of our next leap in yield – and this encompasses soil structure, and a much greater understanding of soil microbial activity and nutrient availability.

Soil erosion was something I always thought happened in areas of arable cultivation on steep land in the high rainfall areas of the country. I was knocked back to learn that the Elvington treatment works in the Vale of York removes 10,000 tonnes of topsoil from water every year. We certainly still have a lot to learn about managing soil runoff. We all think we know about soil compaction, but how often do we actually take out the spade and dig the hole? The good operators do.

In charting the astonishing increase in bird species and numbers as well as pollinators, over the years, Graham Hartwell, BASF’s Stewardship Manager, had an important message – “the simple things make a difference”. The areas of cover crop and bird seed mixtures don’t need to be huge (2% of the farm in this case) but go for a continuity of food supply by planting something in the autumn and the spring, using mixtures that are proven, and feed birds extra over winter if necessary.

Tamara Hall, a successful Yorkshire pioneer in Open Schools Days in the run up to Open Farm Sunday, again gave simple messages about communicating with the public. The rewards to both giver and recipient were plain to see.

What a good day it was, with all attendees going away with plenty to think about. I would encourage any of you to go along to one of these LEAF events – they are so much more than just a farm walk.

New Podcast: Water Quality and Run-off

We’ve had a new podcast available for a couple of weeks so we thought it was about time we told you about it!

In this episode, LEAF’s Tom Hills and Justine Hards discuss some of the issues facing farmers following a very wet April. Justine talks with Cambridgeshire LEAF Demonstration Farmer, David Felce, on some of the measures he has put in place to tackle the issues of diffuse water pollution and run-off.

You can listen to the podcast with the player below, download an Mp3 or use our RSS feed. The podcasts are also available through itunes here.

Download Mp3 (Right click and “Save target as” to download)

Click here to see the photographs and videos mentioned in the episode. Click here if you would like more information on the LEAF Technical Days to be held throughout May and June. Thanks for listening!

We’ll have a new podcast online in the next few weeks, make sure you either subscribe via itunes or an RSS reader – or you can subscribe to our blog with your email address in the top right corner of this page!

Preventing Run Off Successfully

In Britain we’ve just had the wettest April on record – despite Scotland seeing below average rainfall. In fact, some places saw as much as three times the normal expected rainfall.

This incredibly wet month comes just after a very dry March, which may have presented a few problems with run-off for many of our farmers in the UK. LEAF held two events in March on practical measures to improve water quality. At such a dry time, much of what we discussed at these events was theory based!

At Stratton Farms in Somerset, LEAF Demonstration Farmer, Jeremy Padfield, had a problem with run off on a particularly steep slope. Water was running off onto a road and down into a nearby village. To correct this, Jeremy dug a run off buffer in the field corner where the water was running through, which cost around £250 to implement, using a JCB and dump trailer.

Earlier this week Jeremy sent us some photos (taken 28th April), which clearly shows the impact the buffer has had during this wet month. For comparison, the second selection of photos show the run off buffer as they were exactly a month ago in March (28th).

28th April 2012:

28th March 2012:

You can see more of what Jeremy has done to help prevent run off on his farm in this video that was filmed in March.

Related articles

• Practical Measures for Improving Water Quality – New videos available! (leafmarque.wordpress.com)

Practical Measures for Improving Water Quality – New videos available!

Following our Practical Measures for Improving Water Quality events at Midloe Grange Farm in Cambridgeshire (22nd March) and Stratton Farms in Somerset (28th March), videos filmed at the events are now available.

The videos, supported by Catchment Sensitive Farming, look at ways of improving how your farming practices impact water quality. Including:

• Background information from Catchment Sensitive Farming on some of the issues of diffuse water pollution from agriculture through surface run-off
• Interviews with LEAF Demonstration Farmers, David Felce and Jeremy Padfield, on the measures they have put in place on their farms to mitigate surface run-off

The videos are available below and on LEAF’s YouTube channel – subscribe to be the first to see LEAF’s new videos!

LEAF Marque in the Dairy Sector

This article from Mark Robins, Milk Pool Chairman, Marks and Spencer, originally appeared in ‘Dairy: A Green Future’, which is available online here.

Mark Robins ... "In dairying in particular, it is very easy to become a ‘busy fool’"

Dairy farming is a tough, relentless job which requires day-to-day commitment from those working on the farm with little time for a break, let alone time to reflect on where their business or dairy enterprise is going or why.

In dairying in particular, it is very easy to become a ‘busy fool’, tied to the cows and their need for daily routine without stopping to take stock.

The LEAF Audit offers you the chance to do just that: take stock. It gives the dairy farmer a usable template to review his business to discover what is being doing well and uncover what deserves attention and improvement. The LEAF Marque is a food label consumers and the food industry trusts.

As our consumers become more remote and distant from understanding how their food is produced, it is increasingly important to offer them reassurance that what we are doing is done with passion, is right and proper and something we do with pride.

LEAF has been championing the benefits of Integrated Farm Management for 20 years now. Traditionally viewed as an organistaion exclusively for arable or produce growers, it has been working hard to encourage livestock producers to get more involved. I urge you to do so.

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About the Author

Mark Robins has been Estate Manager of the Farley Farms Estate (a privately owned 1,750 acre diversified rural Estate situated just south of Reading) since 2002. He has been representing Dairy Crest dairy producers since 1998 and has been M&S National Milk Pool Chair since April 2009, having previously been an M&S English Pool Rep for a number of years.

He sits on the Institute of Agricultural Management (IAgM) ‘Farm Management’ journal committee; is the Berkshire Local Director of the NFU Mutual and sits on various local committees representing farmers and the rural sector.