Winners announced for the British Grassland Society Grassland Farmer of the Year 2022

The announcement was made at an awards dinner jointly hosted by BGS and Powys Grassland Society on Tuesday 1 November. The competition and the awards evening are kindly sponsored by Germinal, Nufarm and Yara.

With sheep and beef farmers having won the competition on the previous two occasions, this year’s finalists were all from the dairy sector.

Father and son Aled and Owain Rees, representing Cardigan and District Grassland Society, run a 300-cow organic dairy herd on 105 hectares that forms part of a larger 385-hectare organic farming system.

There is a mix of spring and autumn calving cows, the majority of which are pedigree Holstein, with a small number of Jersey crosses to improve milk solids figures. Grass is measured weekly, and fresh grazing is allocated twice a day. The clover content of the pastures is high, at more than 40 per cent.

A multi-cut silage system is employed. Reseeding takes place when needed on under-performing pastures, and regular aerating is carried out on both silage and grazing areas. Environmental work, including hedge laying and tree planting, has been carried out and the installation of solar panels has reduced electricity costs on the farm.

Head judge Hugh McClymont from SRUC said that Aled and Owain showed both enthusiasm and passion. They had full sets of figures for all aspects of grass and milk production and the whole family, including Aled’s wife Hedydd and daughter Mared, were working together and all driven by results.

In what was a very close competition, the runners-up were Claire and John Beckett from Ulster Grassland Society, and Jeremy Way and Kate Lywood from West Sussex Grassland Society.

Claire Beckett, who also works part-time as a nutritionist for Trouw Nutrition, farms in partnership with her parents, John and Karen, at Donacloney near Craigavon, where they run a 150-cow herd of pedigree Holsteins. Grass measuring is key to the system and is carried out every five to seven days following which, the grazing area required is accurately calculated and allocated using a strip grazing system with back-fencing.

Hugh McClymont stated that the attention to detail on the farm ensured that the farm was working at the highest level with a clear direction of travel.

Jeremy Way and Kate Lywood run an organic dairy herd of 320 spring calving cows which are a mix of Friesian, Norwegian Red and Jersey genetics at Kirdford, near Billingshurst.

Cows are turned out to grass as soon as possible, generally mid-February, and are allocated fresh grazing after each milking. Herbal leys now cover 15 per cent of the farm and are used for grazing, whilst silage leys are a mix of red and white clover and Italian ryegrass.

A highly detailed soil carbon study is being carried out on the farm. Kate is a third-generation tenant on Marshalls Farm, with the use of further rented land for replacement stock.

In summarising, Hugh McClymont said it was good for the future of the dairy industry to see young farmers involved in decision making and future planning on all three farms.