On the estuary of the river Taw in Barnstaple, North Devon is Woolmers Farm, home to second-generation farmer Paul Tucker and his wife, Anita. With sons Jack and Thomas the 850-acre family farm has 400 suckler cross cattle and 1200 breeding ewes.
Taken on as a tenancy in the 1960s by Paul’s father, the farm was purchased in 2009 by Paul and Anita and has been extensively expanded ever since. Woolmers’ farm also grows 120 acres of grain, 60 acres of maize and 30 acres of fodder beet each year. Adopting an intensive rearing operation, the family purchase 250 beef calves each year to rear. The youngstock are reared on a combination of 6 litres of NWF Ultra Life Skim milk replacer and NWF calf starter pellets until they are around 12 weeks old, gradually transitioning onto their bespoke Tucker Beef Blend. In those first eight weeks of life, the feed conversion efficiency is at its highest in the lifecycle, maximising this period with quality milk replacer and starter feed is critical to improve margins further down the line.
“We chose to use NWF Ultra Life Skim milk replacer because of its advertised excellent growth rates and recommended use in accelerated heifer and beef rearing systems. We’ve found it mixes well and the calves love it”, says Anita who has products supplied from the local NWF feed mill at Wixland.
The herd are grazed from early Spring through to Autumn, with the ewes also having stints of grazing on salt marshland on the river Taw estuary. Focusing on keeping yields high at grass has helped support the farm’s margins. Rotationally grazing helps support grass re-growth across the farm, improves performance per hectare and helps extend the grazing period therefore reducing housing costs.
“Since purchasing the farm in 2009, we’ve worked closely with NWF Agriculture to develop our farm business. We have worked with our ruminant nutritionist, Paul Crocker for over 15 years who rations our diets, helps us understand our forage value and assists with aligning feed to suit our system. The support from NWF Agriculture and Paul has been key to improving DLWG,
livestock health and supporting our family business. The sucklers are fed on a bespoke 16% blend from NWF mixed with our home-grown grain and added molasses from NWF. We’ve found the well-mixed blend and molasses makes for an incredibly palatable ration that has been key to driving great DLWG, the cattle just can’t seem to get enough of it”, comments Paul.
Once the animals reach the target liveweight of 680kg they are sent to KEPAK meat processors a target dead weight of 400kg, with a 58% killing-out percentage. Paul, who works for KEPAK
has set up an on-site collection area on the farm to save on both haulage and time, finishing on average 400 cattle per year. “In line with maximising livestock productivity and profitability, over the past several years we’ve put a real focus on driving up daily liveweight gain (DLWG) instead of focusing on the kill-out age of the animal. We’ve been hitting up to 2kg DLWG whilst finishing our beef, which has improved our margins but not jeopardised herd health thanks to focused and correct nutrition. We currently weigh every two weeks and monitor growth rates, tweaking accordingly but have found the herd now consistently averages well,” adds Paul’s son Jack who along with his brother Thomas is involved with the day-to-day farm operation.
Looking to the future the family want to continue expanding Woolmers Farm and further increase both the suckler cross and ewe head count. Paul and his sons are happy with their DLWG but are always looking to increase it further and support their margins.
NWF Agriculture would like to thank Woolmers Farm for their continued support and business.
For further information on maximising your beef herd, please speak to your local NWF Sales Specialist or call 0800 756 2787.