29/11/2024
Join our team! (position now filled as of Jan 2025)
We are recruiting to replace two members of staff in spring 2025. Our two team members leaving us in March are returning to New Zealand to pursue their own dairy farming venture after spending 18 months with us.
Welbatch Farm is a 300-head autumn block calving dairy farm, situated 5 minutes south of Shrewsbury, Shropshire. See our page for photos of what we do.
We will be looking for two new people to join our team. These people could be a combination of a person with a lot of dairy farming experience / a placement student from university / an apprentice, or someone with no dairy experience who is looking for a career change. Our priority is to find people to join our team with a positive attitude and an eagerness to learn.
The role
The role will include milking through our 40:80 herringbone swing-over parlour as part of a team of two, feeding calves, scraping out, moving break fences, moving stock, measuring grass, fencing, winter feeding, calving, drying off, shared responsibility for keeping the farm clean and tidy, heat detection, assistance with AI, foot trimming, disbudding, weighing heifers, inputting data into Agrinet, involvement in planning grazing, vaccination, mobility scoring, quarterly data submission for QVIS as part of Tesco milk contract, body condition scoring, metri-checking, updating of in-parlour feeding rations, record keeping using Uniform, assistance with vet fertility visits.
About the farm
We calve from mid-August to early November, calving outside on standing hay. Cows are housed 4 weeks prior to mating in mid-October, served from mid-November until late January and then turned out as soon as ground conditions allow in the spring. The cows have Sense Hub heat detection collars used for breeding.
We outwinter our group of 90 R2 heifers on deferred grass and bales. The heifers have a CIDR sync program in mid-November, after which they are AI'd to replacement semen and then run with our three Hereford stock bulls.
Our R1 calves, born from mid-August to early October, are reared in groups of 10, weaned at around 8-9 weeks once their group all achieve 2x birth weight. Calves are fed using a Stallion milk-machine. Calves are weighed regularly until weaned and then approximately every 5 weeks through to service at 15 months using Trutest weigh cells.
We milk through a 40:80 herringbone parlour with 2 people milking, at 6am and 3pm. The parlour has feeders with auto-ID, ACRs and a back flush system. We carry out most stock work on the cows including vaccinations and fertility work through our herringbone race which holds 15 cows. We vaccinate for IBR, BVD, lepto and salmonella.
We employ contractors to carry out our silaging, fertilising, muck spreading, hedge cutting etc, however carry out all of our own paddock maintenance including water trough plumbing and fencing. The farm is sub-divided into 3.2ha paddocks (24 hours grazing assuming 300 cows at 16kgDM requirement and an opening cover of 3,000kgDM and residual of 1,500kgDM). A large proportion of the farm is tracked with concrete railway sleepers. Grass growth is measured weekly with a plate meter and information is input into Agrinet, from which we decide the following week’s grazing plan.
We grow maize for maize silage and cut grass silage both from the milking platform and from away ground.
The farm uses a quad bike, Kubota scraper tractor, Manitou telehandler, Kubota tractor and Abbey feeder wagon.
In winter, the cows are fed cake in the parlour, and a mixed ration of blend, grass silage and maize silage.
We use Horizon Dairy Vets for all veterinary work and consulting (Dave Gilbert), the Anderson Centre (Tony Evans) for business consulting, and Chris Thorpe Nutrition for feed advice.
We currently produce 4,000 litres from forage, targeting just over 7,000 litres per cow from 1.6 tonnes concentrate.
We are an AHDB contributor farm for Forage for Knowledge, submitting weekly grass growth figures and fortnightly grass samples.
We are members of an autumn block calving discussion group and have hosted farm walks for AHDB, British Grassland Society and our discussion group.
Mission Statement
A resilient, profitable dairy business where people and cows enjoy their days. Where we produce milk in the most cost-effective manner to the highest standards and where we strive to improve what we do.
Business Goals
To utilise grassland to maximise milk from forage and streamline the business so we are as efficient as possible in how we operate.
Further details
Accommodation can be available for the right candidate in a one-bedroom flat, with a kitchenette, en-suite bathroom and large bedroom / sitting room.
Rota is 2 days off every week, one week being a Saturday and Sunday and the following week being two week-days (subject to change depending on staffing at the time). Working days generally commence at 5.45am and end at 6pm, with longer hours during calving and shorter hours during the summer / dry period. When you are working a weekend, if all jobs are complete you will be able to take the middle of the day off.
