Farm of the Week: Dairy operation that has expanded with vending machines and the farm next door

James said that his motivation to expand comes from a combination of his personal desire to improve and his two sons.

“My father, Geoffrey, who passed away about 20 years ago, and my mother Pat, purchased Cumboots in 1992, moving here from having farmed in Brighouse.

“This has always been a 100-acre farm and I never wanted to do anything but farm. I farmed alongside my dad from leaving school and I’ve farmed it with my mother ever since Dad passed. She’s fantastic and milks the cows every morning.

“We were down to 20 cows before losing dad and we’ve built it up to 120 dairy cows now, with 100 milkers.

“I now want to move the farm forward and make more of a living out of it. Taking on the farm next door puts our acreage to 240, which will allow us to grow the dairy herd. I’m looking at taking us up to 200 milkers, putting in as large a parlour as I can.

“My partner Anita and I have two boys - Harrison, eight, who is mad keen on farming, and Alfie,15, who is interested in going into marine welding. They’re both a consideration in what I’m looking to do, but I’m also as much doing this because I want to."

James said his dairy herd is quite a mix, which he is more than happy with having experimented on crossing to good effect, and that his overriding concern is cow longevity.

“If I can breed a cow that lives longer and gives milk for longer I then don’t need as many replacements. I’m wanting eight to nine lactations from each cow rather than the four to five that you tend to get from Holsteins.

“Our herd includes quite a few Holstein Friesians. I cross them with the Brown Swiss, which puts a bit of life into them and I’m crossing all my heifers with the Longhorn bull, as I have half shares in a herd of Longhorns with fellow breeder Michael Cleasby.

“The calves out of the Holstein Friesian-Longhorn-cross are born very easily and the calves are up and running as soon as they hit the ground. We are milking the heifer crosses in the herd. Their protein and butterfat levels are a lot higher than the Holsteins and with heir good bodies they also sell well when the time comes for them to go.

“Trying the Longhorns was just an idea, brought about because I had them, and they seem to strike a nice balance. I’d had difficulty with heifers calving to a continental bull. The ones that had been born were good, but the losses I’d experienced had detracted from the quality. I’m now running two Longhorn bulls with the heifers and I’m using a Holstein bull on the milkers this year, but I’m hoping to swap it for a Fleckvieh as it gives the body condition and hopefully the longevity I’m after."

James said his cows currently yield an average of 8,500 litres, spend a larger proportion of the year out on grass and that he is looking to get to 150 dairy cows as his next step towards reaching 200.

“Ours is a closed herd apart from bringing in bulls. Everything here is naturally served and we are going to achieve our growth of the herd purely by breeding, not purchasing.

“I don’t like to see cows inside for any longer than they have to. Ours stay out usually until mid-November and I aim to get them back out for April 1 if not before."

James is happy with the direction in which the milk price has gone and continues its rise, but akin to every other dairy farmer he’s concerned about the spiral in costs of production at the same time. James also points to at least one way in which he has at least become a price maker.

“We sell most of our milk to Meadow Foods and we are at 46 pence per litre, which is fantastic, but I have also never known a time when barley was £300-£400 per tonne, when fertiliser and energy costs have jumped so much.

“We’ve started with a milk vending machine five weeks ago. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while and we had great advice over it from Becky Waring who has her Cherry View Milk vending machine at her home farm in Cherry Burton.

“We are already averaging daily sales of 85 litres. This is one way in which I know how much I’m getting paid for it and I have control. We’ve also just added another vending machine for eggs, selling Martin Brown’s eggs from Redcliffe Farm."

James said his cows rely mainly on grass and silage and that this year’s climate is proving challenging.

“Normally we are used to getting a good sea fret that dampens the ground early in the morning and allows for a bit of fresh growth but that hasn’t happened this year, it’s unheard of and we’ve had a lot of grass burned off.

“We had our first cut at the beginning of June and filled the silage pit, and the grass then normally goes back into grazing for the cows. We took the plunge for a second cut last week, which provides haylage for my sister Kimberley’s horses and all our young stock, but only managed a paltry 24 bales from 50 acres.

“Fortunately, we have feed that we carried over from last year, which I am now already feeding in August because of the state of the grass. With fertiliser prices being so high I had decided not to put as much on and that has come back to bite me. I’ve now put some of it on that I had left and hopefully, if it also rains, I can get a decent third cut, otherwise I could come a bit unstuck."

Despite this James is thinking positively about the farm’s future. His sister Kimberley runs a successful livery business that Pat used to run previously and he also gets good support from brother-in-law Joe Marshall, as well as being able to enjoy his other two passions.

“Joe’s great and helps out wherever he can. I also enjoy showing the Longhorns at the Great Yorkshire Show each year and myself and our two boys are all mad keen on rugby. Harrison is looking forward to September because that’s when he reaches the age where he can tackle somebody.

“We’re all set to tackle everything here at Cumboots too. I’m reckoning that by April next year we will be where we want to be with young stock coming through."