Derbyshire Holstein Club held their AGM on 22nd March at the Bluebell Tissington the election of officers was as follows,

 

President: Ron Tomkinson (Coxengreen), Vice President:  Melvyn Shephederd (Meldamar),

Chairman: Andrew Bunting (Alsopdale), Vice Chairman: David Cotton (Chasmar),

Hon. Secretary & Treasurer: Chris Morris, HYB Co-Ordinator:  Jess Mills (Bullsmoor).

When the formal part of the meeting was completed we welcomed our guest speaker for the evening Mr Will Armitage from Oakham Leicestershire with is talk “Growing the organic business and biological farming”.  Will was well known for being herd manager of the Lyons herd this is where he experienced showing and showmanship classes the herd was sold off in 2003.  He then moved towards organic farming in 2005 and started selling organic milk in 2007 unfortunately after buying in a small herd in to the organic cows in 2009 the herd went down with TB. This did not deter expansion as he installed a 24-48 parlour along with his business partner who used to be his boss.

 

In 2011 saw the purchase of 274-acre Glebe Farm Oakham later they were offered 145 acres of arable land next to Glebe Farm on a 7year FBT which gave them the option to expand and put a new dairy unit there where milk production started on 15/4/15.

 

 In 2013 Will was granted a Nuffield Scholarships of which he chose to look at sustainable milk production in Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and the USA.

 

So, at present running 2 milking herds of 350 Autumn calving averaging 7,500-8,000 litres and a spring calving averaging 5,500 – 6,000 litres these mainly sired by New Zealand Holsteins they also produce yogurts and are considering other processing.

 

He gave us a very detailed insight to how important it is to look at your soils and spoke of Soil Food Web and the need of the microbes.  He also asked have you ever thought do your cows suffer from wheat intolerance like humans and many other animals.

 

His final words were Biological Farming is the future and you must know your base saturation levels and adopt a fertiliser policy.