Feature: Andrew Robinson (Farms) Ltd

Buying an 840 acre farm, building a new farm steading and converting to organic production would be a huge challenge for any farming enterprise, but Andrew Robinson (Farms) Ltd in Northumberland have successfully managed to do so at the same time as reducing labour requirements and doubling output.

Lenny and Judy Fortescue farm in partnership with sons Charlie and Nick, and all are directors of the family business.  The enterprise includes 840 acres at Tughall Farm, Chathill as well as 293 acres at Newton Barns and 1040 acres at Glantlees some 17 miles to the south.  In addition, they rent organic grazing land directly adjacent to Tughall that fluctuates between 800 and 900 acres annually.

The farming enterprise consists of 520 suckler cows, mostly Aberdeen-Angus cross and Limousin cross cows, with all progeny retained for finishing or heifer replacement. They also run 1600 ewes, increasing to 2000 next year.  Cereal production averages 500 acres, with a six year rotation of winter wheat, spring wheat and spring oats followed by three years of grass with clover.  Next year triticale will replace some of the spring oats for home use.  Around 750 acres of grass silage are also produced annually, with organic soya or sunflower expeller bought in to deliver extra protein.

In the late 1990’s the business, like many others, had started to struggle with its profitability.  “We needed to reassess our situation and took advantage of a business development grant to appraise our business model,” Judy Fortescue explains.  “It confirmed much that we knew already but its conclusion was blunt – doing nothing was not an option.”

Geoff Haddick of Lloyds TSB Agriculture held a similar view. “It was obvious that production volumes were far too low for the acreage being farmed” he explains.  “A greater focus on improving output was needed to improve margins and secure a long-term future for the business.”

Increasing throughput and converting to organic were therefore identified as a solution to the farm’s problems.  However, Judy’s late father, Andrew Robinson, was reluctant to enter organic conversion, fearing that going organic would mean the farm would become covered in thistles and saddled with a self-imposed extra layer of bureaucracy.

But recognising that they were able to produce a niche product for a small, but growing market enabled Judy, Lenny and the family to persuade Andrew to begin the process of converting to organic production.

By 2003 most of the land was fully certified and the business had benefited from a sizeable organic conversion cheque which was used to restructure the business.  Massive cost savings were made on fertiliser and chemicals input costs, with red and white clover introduced to improve the quality of the grass leys and to maintain soil fertility and productivity.

The vital cash boost that converting to organic gave also coincided with the farm becoming available to purchase.  “My father and grandfather had been tenants of the Northumberland Estate since 1913 and we never contemplated that the opportunity to buy the farm would come our way,” Judy explains.

The existing cattle sheds had become unfit for purpose, with low roofs and poor ventilation rendering them ‘pneumonia palaces’.  Narrow feed passages also meant that silage had to be fed by hand to the housed cattle.  Plans were therefore drawn up to relocate the steading onto a WW2 airfield on the farm which extends to 90 acres of tarmac hard standing.

There was a 12 month gap between the purchase of the farm and the sale of the old farm buildings, during which a bridging loan from Lloyds TSB Agriculture was used to fund the redevelopment of the farm.

The new buildings include a main cattle shed, machinery workshop with storage area and stock isolation pens, and a large hay and straw storage shed which also doubles as a lambing shed.

The main cattle shed is capable of housing 450 cattle and comprises a central feed passage with eight internal pens, each of which has access to a system of external pens.  The layout was designed with input from Charlie and Nick, and allows stock to be handled by one person if necessary.  Investment in a large feeder wagon has completely revolutionised the feeding operations making it possible to feed all the housed cattle quickly and efficiently.

Finished beef animals are sold to Dovecote Park for Waitrose. “We aim to finish at least 60% of animals off grass at 18-20 months to minimise the number which are housed for a second winter”, Nick Fortescue explains. “The Dovecote Park grading grid can be difficult to meet, but that provides us with the discipline to ensure we produce to the specification that the market requires.”

All cows are put to Aberdeen Angus bulls which are chosen not just on their physical conformation but also according to their Estimated Breeding Value (EBV).  “We use the best genetics we can afford at the top of the system to get good genetics out at the bottom,” Charlie Fortescue explains.  “We select sires which not only produce quality beef carcasses, but which also produce good breeding stock.  We look at various technical performance indicators, including daily live weight gains, particularly the 600 day weight, ease of calving and also milk yields on the maternal side to help produce the best breeding heifers”.

Heifers are bulled at about 16 months and are selected by weight and general conformation. EBLEX figures are used to monitor performance against industry benchmarks and regular meetings are held with farm vet, Andrew Sawyer of the Alnorthumbria Veterinary Partnership.

With the help and encouragement of Lloyds TSB Agriculture much has been achieved in what has turned out to be a decade of transformation.  An overdraft was put to good use, steadying the farm’s cash-flow over a period when 80 to 100 heifers were being retained annually to expand the breeding stock from 220 cows to beyond 500.

Business development is still a work in progress, with additional investment needed at Glantlees to improve the handling and calving facilities for the three hundred cows which are based there.  Work is also ongoing to build low cost external corrals on the airfield to hold additional store cattle.  Some investment will also have to be put into equipment for reading EID’s.

Looking towards 2013, Judy explains that “there is still more work to be done in order to be financially viable going forwards but with hard work and a fair wind, I think we will be ready to cope with the next stage of CAP reform.”