By Jack Bosworth, Director, FJ Bosworth & Sons. Published 2 July 2024.
I hope everyone is well.
The year is flying along. By this time next month, hopefully we will have winter barley and oilseed rape harvested, the first straw in, some slurry out, and cultivations underway. Farming is usually that straightforward, isn’t it?
A June that did not feel quite as quiet as it usually does
June is typically a bit of a quieter month on the farm for us. That has not really been the case this year.
- Ed has been busy with contract spreading, which is now finished until the autumn.
- Some of us have taken some annual leave, which of course temporarily increases the workload for those still here.
- We have been continuing to progress some of our development plans.
It is good to see Ed taking the lead on the contract spreading. Twelve months on from joining, that kind of progression is exactly what our SPORT framework on people management is designed to enable.
Buying in wheat for the mill
Elsewhere on the pig unit, we have been buying in some wheat to make sure we have sufficient stock to gradually introduce new crop as it gets harvested.
We took cover for the Norfolk unit earlier in the year, and held off for Spains Hall requirements until recently. Pricing has been fairly consistent at £165 to £176 per tonne delivered.
A volatile month on farrowing performance
What has been more volatile recently is farrowing performance.
We began June with the first week of farrowings averaging 14.1 born alive per litter. That is still very good performance in absolute terms, but it was 3.5 per cent below our rolling 12-month average.
By the last week of June, we were averaging 16.8 born alive per litter.
The reason for that spike, honestly, I wish I knew. Alex and Gemma keep a consistent approach to every single week, whether that is on gilt numbers, parity profile, accommodation, heat checking or routine. The consistency in their work is exactly what allows results like that to land at all. The variation between weeks is rarely something one person on one shift can control.
On a personal note
It has been a great month for me since my last piece:
- Becoming a married man.
- A long weekend away in Majorca for our “minimoon”.
- And last but not least, being shortlisted as a finalist for the Farmers Weekly Mixed Farmer of the Year award.
I am very much looking forward to showing the judges around in the near future.
I hope everyone has a successful, and more importantly safe, harvest.
Editor’s note (May 2026)
FJ Bosworth & Sons was confirmed as a finalist for the Farmers Weekly Mixed Farm of the Year 2024 award. In the same year, the farm also won the National Pig Awards Sustainable Farming Award 2024 and was a finalist for National Pig Awards Pig Producer of the Year 2024. You can read more on the Awards and Accreditations page on this site.
About the author
Jack Bosworth is a fourth-generation farmer and Director of FJ Bosworth & Sons, an arable and pig farming business at Spains Hall, Willingale, Essex. The farm has been in the family since 1919, and Jack farms alongside his father Stuart Bosworth, who was named Farmers Weekly Pig Farmer of the Year in 2011. The business is Red Tractor assured and runs an integrated farm-to-fork model, with home-grown cereals milled on site using solar-generated electricity.
You can follow Jack’s articles on fjbosworth.com, or get in touch via the WhatsApp link on the site.
Fourth-generation farmer at Spains Hall, Willingale. Runs the contracting team and writes most of what appears here.