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Showing 25–36 of 52 non-featured articles

Cameras, Scales and EID: The Innovative Tech We Are Fitting in Gestation

25 April 2024 · 4 min read

A look ahead at the new automated weigh-scale and camera system we are about to install in gestation accommodation. Plus an update from a busy month on the farm, with Emma settling in on the office side and Ed continuing to impress on the arable.

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Industry Insights

Targets, Actuals and the Tweaks to Come: Optimising the Gilt Gestation Feed Plan

18 March 2024 · 3 min read

A wet start to Ed's first spring on the arable side, plus a closer look at what our gilts should be weighing across gestation, what they actually are, and where we think the feed plan needs adjusting to improve both litter size and body condition.

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Industry Insights

Otley, Eindhoven, and Why Honesty in Industry Conversations Still Matters

12 February 2024 · 3 min read

A trip to talk to Otley Pig Club, three days in the Netherlands seeing units where producers pay €30 per cubic metre to have their slurry taken away, and why being honest about what is working and what is not is the most valuable thing producers can offer each other.

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Farm News

Strong KPIs, A 35 kg Sale, an Invitation to Yorkshire, and a Planning Refusal That Tells Its Own Story

08 January 2024 · 4 min read

A New Year update from the farm. Three new starters settling in well, very strong breeding and finishing KPIs, healthy 35 kg pigs sold to a major producer who noticed, an upcoming talk at Otley Pig Club and a Dutch study trip, and the planning refusal that is part of a wider story about asking farmers to diversify.

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Farm News

Where on Earth Has 2023 Gone? A Year of Recovery, A Growing Team, and a Butchery Plan in Motion

04 December 2023 · 4 min read

A year-end reflection on a much better twelve months for the business. Updates on the mental health work I started in January, my son Freddie growing fast, two more recruits joining the team, and the butchery planning application now under way.

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Industry Insights

A Year of Swings: Feed Down 17.5 Per Cent, Prices Up 15 Per Cent, and Why the Arable Side Will Run Tight

24 October 2023 · 4 min read

A year-on-year look at how our pig and arable enterprises have moved in opposite directions. The numbers behind that swing, the latest performance KPIs on the unit, and a word for those caught by Storm Babet.

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Farm News

Welcoming Gemma, and What We Actually Look For When We Recruit

20 September 2023 · 3 min read

Gemma has joined the pigs team, the first induction in our new staff facility. Why dairy experience translates well into our pig unit, the non-negotiable attributes we recruit for, and an open invitation to anyone interested in joining the team.

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Industry Insights

Ammonia: Cover the Store, Feed the Pig, or Both? A Question for DEFRA Worth Asking

26 August 2023 · 3 min read

Slurry stores have to be covered by 2027 under the 2019 Clean Air Strategy. We are also trialling a seaweed-derived in-feed product that claims to cut ammonia in pig slurry by over 50 per cent. The honest question is whether the regulation is reaching for the easiest answer rather than the most effective one.

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Farm News

How I Try to Manage People: SPORT, and a Long-Overdue New Staff Room

10 July 2023 · 4 min read

Labour is one of the biggest challenges in agriculture today. Here is the framework I use to think about managing the people who make our business work. Support, Profile, Opportunity, Reward and Tools. Plus, the new staff facility we have finally built.

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Farm News

A Visit We Were Not Looking Forward To: How Our HSE Inspection Actually Went

02 June 2023 · 3 min read

An email arrived on a Friday afternoon to say the HSE would be on the farm the following Wednesday. Two hours later, here is what I actually took from the inspection, and why a good attitude to health and safety is not something farms should be afraid of.

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Farm News

Three Firsts: A Coronation, A Promotion, and Welcoming Frederick

08 May 2023 · 3 min read

A more personal piece on three first-time events. Why I think a Championship-bound football club can teach a family farming business more than another farm visit ever could, what we have got right through our own period of major change, and welcoming our son Frederick.

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Industry Insights

The Next Step for Our Gilts: Earlier ESF, Daily Weighing and Better Service-Week Decisions

19 March 2023 · 3 min read

How our current ESF training pen system works for gilts, where it falls short on monitoring, and what we plan to do with the 2023 Farming and Equipment Technology Fund if our application is successful.

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