Postern farm is located in the heart of Derbyshire on 140 acres of ideally conditioned land for rearing ewes, lambs and store cattle. Laura and Rob White run the farm full-time, with help from their three farming-mad children around lambing time. Rob’s parents previously ran a dairy farm down the road, where he worked until 2016, before moving to Postern farm full-time.
Since starting out slowly with 20 sheep in 2015, their flock has grown steadily, with Laura and Rob now having over 200 Swaledales, 200 Texel-cross mules and 20 Blue-faced Leicesters.
Ewes are split by breed for a slightly staggered lambing, with the Texels tupped during October and the Swaledales in November to help Laura and Rob reduce the intensity and spread lambing over two months. Lambing is run across a combination of a conventional lambing shed and a permanent polytunnel system. “The polytunnel gives excellent airflow and warmth, which is a real advantage at higher altitudes,” says Laura. This setup has helped maintain a smooth lambing process whilst ensuring the health and comfort of their flock.
Laura and Rob focus on keeping pens well-spaced and they use lime in all pens and walkways to help keep diseases at bay. “We’ve been working closely with Eliza for the last six years, tweaking the diet and processes as we go along. The ewes are fed NWF Champion Ewe nuts on the lead up to lambing, before switching to a bespoke lamb blend for weaning. Initially, we began trailing with slight variations in our bespoke Postern blend, before finding one that suits the flock perfectly. We feed the blend ad lib, alongside haylage and silage bales. The nutritional support we’ve received from Eliza has been fantastic; the flock is performing well, health is exactly where we want it, and daily liveweight gain (DLWG) is great. We’ve topped and won the best mule ewe lambs at Leek market three years in a row. The mule lambs have a great frame, don’t have that ‘pumped’ over-fit look. We’ve greatly reduced days to slaughter, helping with livestock rotation and bottom-line finances,” adds Laura and Rob.
Working with Laura and Rob, Eliza recommended feeding a 16% bespoke blend, with high levels of starch, formulated to improve intakes and support frame growth whilst adding a good cover. Offering a bespoke option allows for tweaks in formulations to match both the flock and the forages fed; be it fresh grass, silage, maize or wholecrop. Formulating a nuttier blend helped with reducing sorting and driving intakes. The blend includes the full NWF mineral pack for health and growth, plus ammonium chloride to prevent urinary stones, making it suitable for both ewes and tup lambs.
With strong beef prices over recent years, the introduction of 35 store cattle was brought in to provide an additional source of income and help with shed utilisation across the year. Working with Eliza, and with only having one feed silo, the store cattle are fed the same bespoke blend as the flock to make life easier, however they are provided with a separate source of copper to support herd health.
Looking ahead, Laura and Rob aim to increase the number of ewes and cattle and add a second permanent polytunnel to expand lambing capacities. With excellent success showing locally, Laura is also keen to continue showing her flock and retaining her title at Hope show.
For further information on improving flock performance, please contact your local NWF sales specialist. NWF Agriculture would like to thank Laura and Rob for sharing their story and for their continued business.