Farm of the Week: Bishop Burton College farm that has to be commercially viable as well as an education

“Our number one objective is commerciality, we’ve got to be a viable enterprise. Number two, very closely behind is we must be seen as an on-point resource for students.

“The two are closely linked because students need to see what a viable enterprise looks like. We can show them a range of farming practices and sectors but if they are not viable, not something they can take home or into their careers elsewhere, then we’ve done them a disservice.

James has spent much of his near two and a half years since taking on his role as farm manager and then farm director in refining and improving the farm’s performance and last month he was delighted with the coming together of the new pig unit.

“Plans were in place for it in 2019 but Covid intervened,” says James. “The college had 1500 bacon pigs on a bed and breakfast arrangement with White Rose Farms, part of Cranswick and we were moving to a bed and breakfast farrowing contract.

“We got the project back under way when I started in September 2021. We decided to refurbish one of the bigger pig houses, instead of a new-build, and set it up as dry sow accommodation. We then used that as the base of how many sows we could carry. We could fit 300 sows. That’s where our target number came from and we now have farrowing capacity for 72.

“It’s a self-contained complete unit. The piglets leave us for weaning at 7 kilos and go to a White Rose specialist rearing farm. It works for us as a college, showing students the breeding cycle and we can now deliver everything we need to deliver.

James says that the whole project has been a massive learning curve for him too.

“I’ve been around cattle, sheep and grass in my career so far, both on the family farm near Ashbourne in Derbyshire and also as a stockman on a farm in Gloucestershire.

“I’ve been on a massive pigs learning curve for the past two years. The stock is mainly JSRTS90s. We get great support from Rick Buckle, managing director of White Rose Farms, and his team. The way the contract works, we provide the labour and the buildings, and they provide the livestock, support and feed. Daniel Barnes, their North of England breeding manager oversees the unit once or twice a week and we draw on their team at servicing and weaning.

James says that working with business partners in various farming sectors is how Bishop Burton College’s farm operates soundly.

“Our 85-strong suckler herd is the Stabiliser breed and with breeding cows plus followers we sit at around 210-220 head of cattle. We carry quite a lot of breeding heifers because we are a multiplier, breeding heifers to sell into the breeding market through The Stabiliser Cattle Company.

“Sucklers have been my background my whole life and especially Stabilisers. It’s all about efficiency, monitoring cost of production and producing calves. Our weaning percentage is 97 per cent this year. Breeding decisions are based upon recording data and using that to achieve breed potential. We calve two-thirds in spring and a third in autumn.

“What we’ve done in more recent times, as the college moved to Stabilisers a few years before I came back, is looked closely at cattle diets, agronomy, nutrition, all easy wins for us and we work with the Stabiliser Cattle Company.

The farm’s sheep farming operation is another that is now using newer modern breeding and data to show students its value.

“The college had started transitioning to an Aberfield flock before I returned. It’s something we’ve accelerated having invested in stock from all over the north of England buying mainly crossbreds, Aberfield-cross-Cheviots, cross-Lleyns, and Aberfield Highlanders and now have 300 breeding ewes.

“We have two flocks and use Aberfield maternal tups on the A flock, investing quite heavily in our maternal tups; the B flock goes to an Abermax tup, with the sole purpose of producing deadweight lambs. It is now a closed flock, breeding our own replacements. We’ve taken what we’ve been doing with the Stabiliser herd into the sheep with data driven breeding decisions, using the most modern breeding for commerciality to produce stock in the most efficient manner.

The college’s arable acreage runs to between 150-180 hectares dependent on the rotational grass.

“This year we harvested wheat, barley, oilseed rape, maize and spring beans,” says James. “Wheat was our main crop with 50 hectares all down to Astronomer, which we are with again for 2024 harvest, but also with second wheat Champion while also trialling Typhoon and Tapestry. We harvested 30 hectares of winter barley variety Kingsbarn for feed. Here again we have a professional relationship with Agrii. We are an R&D site for their variety trials.

“In addition to the arable cropping we have three main grasses; permanent pastures, silage leys of medium duration hybrid grass mixes; and herbal leys in the arable rotation that we are using to graze our Stabiliser suckler herd. We’ve established 30 hectares of herbal leys in the last two years.

James says that the college farm also has a moral responsibility to the local farming community and vice versa.

“We are here as a resource for the local farming community too. A lot of them have an affinity to the college. Farmers like Paul Hayward at Cold Harbour Farm in the village sits on farm advisory board and has supported me personally. Andrew Cooke of Mount Pleasant Farm has done the contracting for the farm for over 20 years. Robert Rook of Market Weighton is also on our farm advisory board and Kate Moore of Pockmor.

“I first came here as a student because of a local family connection. My uncle Bob, who farms at Leven, was Level 3 course manager here for about 20 years.

James is excited about the college farm’s future.

“The new pig centre is in everyone’s interests. White Rose Farms know how difficult it is to get new people recruited. This offers students and company an excellent opportunity to build for the future.

“We are also well on the way to achieving the net zero target that our principal Bill Meredith set us in 2020. We are more than on track to meet that, very soon.

“We are also looking at couple of AI systems and how they can be applied to agriculture, artificial intelligence can be used in live sampling of slurry as we apply with JD Harvest Lab to monitor content of nitrogen and the target weight to be put on.

“We then have another big project we are currently looking into - a move back into dairy. That’s for the next big story!