We farm: “A spring-calving dairy herd, milking 116 cows that are mostly 70% Holstein Friesian and 30% British Friesian.”

Grass: “We aim for cows to get as much grass as possible, and supplement it with a bit of meal, and try not to feed too much else if it works out.”

Improvements: “In terms of the system and stocking rate we are well set up for what we are doing – if we could keep getting years that are good for grass, silage and everything else. We have a good bit of work done on facilities such as cubicles and calf housing, although the parlour needs work.”

Parlour: “We milk in a six-unit, double-up, which is not really big enough and takes too long to milk – it could take 2.5 hours to milk at peak with two of us milking – so we are hoping to get a bit of work done on that in the next couple of years.”

This year: “Has probably been the worst year for grass growth since I came home to farm. In terms of silage, we had a pretty good first-cut, and we have tried to stay away from eating into that by feeding extra nuts during this spell, which has been particularly bad.”

Second cut: “We have about 40 acres of second-cut left to put in, and some Italian ryegrass, which we tend to get good cuts off, so hopefully we will have enough silage to see us through the winter.”

Growing up: “I wouldn’t have been into farming, it was only when I turned about 15 or 16 I started doing a bit of machinery work [that I got an interest in]. I ended up going to college and studying architectural technology, but I hated it. It showed me I could never work in an office or sit at a desk, so then I came home and farmed. After working with cows for a couple of years, I fell in love with them, which I never thought I would, as I wasn’t interested in farming when I was younger.”