Farming Today
Waglands Farm is tenanted by Hosier Brothers Limited (HBL).
In 2022 HBL entered into a contract farming arrangement with Homer Farming, the Homer Farming team has a wide-ranging skill set, with the knowledge, experience and equipment to manage both dairy and arable farms. The Homers farm under various arrangements, such as tenancies, share farming and management agreements.
To learn more about Homer Farming
Farm Policy
The policy at Waglands Farm is to grow productive crops using necessary amounts of fertiliser and pesticides without maximising yield, making use of home-produced resources, to maintain the soil in a productive and healthy state, and generally looking after the environment. This requires a mixed farming approach whereby crops and livestock are able to complement each other enabling a rotation of crops around the whole Farm with a few exceptions of permanent grassland areas.
Cropping
We grow all types of cereal crops, winter wheat is usually the crop that gives the best return, we choose the most fertile ground which typically follows a break crop, which is a crop other than a cereal, often Oilseed Rape, Beans, Peas, Maize, Oats, and Grass (usually after grass it is possible to grow wheat for two years as the grass is likely to have been there for several years and likely to have had stock on them) By growing different crops year on year, it gives us the opportunity to control pests and diseases not just by chemicals but also by cultural means. After a year of Winter Wheat, we tend to grow barley hopefully to go for malting if the correct specification can be achieved.
Following harvesting of cereal crops the fields are usually sown with a crop, termed a cover crop, which is to prevent the leaching of nitrogen through the winter retaining it in the organic matter produced which in itself helps to build up organic matter in the soil and helps retain the nitrogen to be used by the crop sown in the spring. Crops used for this job are Stubble Turnips, Forage Rape, Oats & Vetch all of which is usually grazed with livestock stock which again helps the fertility of the soil.
It is important that the soil needs to be kept in a good condition, with a good organic matter content to allow crops to produce a good root system which can then scavenge for the nutrients. Dung from the stock is important as it means a lot of nutrients get recycled. Phosphate it the nutrient that is most lacking on chalk soils, why we use sewage cake which is a very good source of Phosphate and also supplies organic matter and various minor elements.
Dairy
The Dairy is a 320 cow autumn calving herd with all cows calving between August and November. Running the dairy with a tight calving pattern means that all the cows are at a relatively similar stage in their lactation (annual cycle) resulting in easier management of the herd.
After calving in August, the cows then start their lactation being fed on some grazing but also supplementary feed such as silage and concentrates. As the autumn progresses the amount of grass becomes less and supplementary feeding increases meaning a very regular diet which means good milk production after three months. In November all the cows will have calved and they are on a regular diet meaning that their fertility in good. . If all goes well the whole herd will be back in calf by February.
Grass growth begins in mid-March, as the cows are now all back in calf, milk production is likely to be starting to wane as the cows are later in their lactation, however new grass will tend to lift the milk yield so the supplementary feeding can be gradually stopped and just grass fed. This will carry on through the spring and early summer, by June the grass growth generally reduces with the hotter weather which means it is now time to dry the cows off and keep them on very little grass in their dry period which lasts for two months before they calve again in August.
All Friesian Heifer calves are kept as replacements for the dairy, all Friesian Bull calves tend to be sold as calves. Beef Cross calves will either be sold as calves or may be kept and reared on to be sold as stores or finished for slaughter. We also take in in Lambs for the winter to graze on any surplus autumn grass, to help any new grass leys get established by grazing off the new shoots which make the new plants spread out, and also to graze off cover crops.