Mixing it up makes all the difference for lamb

A thriving family farm business is carving a niche for itself in Warwickshire. Sara Gregson reports.

Specialist herbal leys are helping to produce a consistent, tasty cuts of hogget and lamb to sell in the farm shopwhile also boosting soil and animal health on one Midlands farm.

Martin Greenfield’s father, Peter took up the tenancy of Norton Barn Farm, near Twycross, Atherstone in 1962, running sheep and arable enterprises across 53 hectares. The area farmed was increased by renting further parcels of land and today extends to up to 130ha.

Six years ago, Martin bought the holding from the Crown Estates and he continues to improve his already impressive sheep rearing and finishing system – while son Ben is developing the butchery and retail side of the business

The sheep flock started with Suffolk/Scotch Half-bred ewes. From the mid-70s, these were mated with Texel sires to produce a better butcher’s lamb.

When Martin sold his successful sheep shearing business in the early 2000s to take on the running of the farm, he swapped to Texel cross ewes and built the flock up to 1,000, buying in ewe lambs for replacements. The flock is now closed.

“Dad was ahead of his time in terms of the way he was grazing his sheep back in the 1960s,” says Martin. “He had 200 ewes on 30 acres of temporary grass, rotating in 10-acre paddocks at seven ewes per acre, and doing a very good job.

“We have followed on, looking for the best ways to produce a good carcase as cheaply as possible on home-grown forage. Growing diverse leys is one element that is really working for us.

“We have a lot of sheep and not much land. We are always looking to graze where we can, including 37ha (90 acres) of GS4 Countryside Stewardship in the village, and on aftermaths on a farm running an anaerobic digester ten miles away.”

Two flocks

The sheep are split into two flocks: 450 ewes lamb from 20 February indoors. The remaining 550 lamb in the same shed, which has been thoroughly cleaned from 1 April. The ewes are fed a high protein cereal feed from GR White Feeds based at Shepshed, once a day with ad-lib hay and minerals. The aim is to sell 1.75 to 1.85 lambs/ewe.

The first lambs go out onto temporary grass and are creep fed for a short time, although the amount offered is reducing. Eight hundred lambs from the second flock are turned out and rotated around a herbal ley and are not creep fed.

“We used to sell the lambs all at once at market,” Martin explains. “But now we are supplying our shop and other local butchers we need to spread the supply across the year. There is less need to give lambs concentrates and the feed quality of the leys is also improving.”

The first lambs are ready for the early market at eight to ten weeks of age at the start of May, reaching carcase weights of between 22 to 24kg. Up until that point, last year’s hoggets supply the farm shop.

From then, the fittest 20 to 30 lambs are drawn each week, leaving the rest to grow on. The ones for the farm shop are transferred to the butchery at £165 a head.

Specialist leys

Martin was one of the first sheep farmers in the country to grow Puna II chicory, starting in 2008. In 2012 he began to grow short-term leys with mixtures of grasses, legumes and chicory, rotating these around the farm with winter wheat. However, wheat has not been grown for the past two years and the leys are staying down for longer.

Always keen to discuss forage options with national experts and advisers, Martin is now working with Monty White from forage seed company DLF, becoming a designated Partner Farm, showcasing specialist lamb finishing leys and trialling a new breed of grazing red clover called Relish.

This has been successfully grown and grazed by sheep in New Zealand and is now in UK National List trials. It is shorter and denser than types grown for silage, with a low crown and soft stem.

“I am looking to maximise lamb liveweight gain purely off grazed forage and no hard feed,” says Martin.

“In one 14-acre block, where the soil is heavy clay, a new chicory called Choice was drilled, with plantain, red and white clover and a small amount of a tetraploid perennial ryegrass called Nashota, and a tetraploid hybrid ryegrass called Tetragraze, at the beginning of June.

The field was performing very badly after three years of Italian ryegrass and the soil was tight and compacted.

“The field is split by electric fencing into three zones and 200 lambs graze each section for eight days and then move on – so each area is rested for 16 days. The regrowth is incredible – it grows 25mm (one inch) a day. And the soil is already opening up.

Tests carried out by our regenerative agronomist Daniel Lievesley, from DJL Agriculture based in Derby, are already showing improved infiltration rates from using calcium sulphate, which has increased flocculation. Organic matter levels are also rising due to the use of diverse pasture crops, reduced cultivations and use of manure.

“The weaned lambs came in on the 29 July when it was 450mm (18 inches) high and the first 24 finished animals were pulled off two weeks later.

The forage is high protein, high energy and the deeper rooting plants pull up minerals from lower in the soil keeping the lambs fit and healthy. The chicory also acts as a natural anthelmintic. It is consistently giving us the right quantity of meat with a taste our customers love.”

“This is predominantly a herb and legume mix with only 27% grasses,” Monty explains. “Lambs will eat more of the broadleaved plants which will break down in the rumen in two and half hours, as opposed to grass taking six hours. This means the lambs are back grazing much more quickly.”

Martin will keep lamb numbers at the right level to maintain the quality of the grazing through until October – when the remaining lambs will go onto a catch crop of Marco stubble turnips and Berseem annual clover, growing on a local arable farmers land. In spring, ewes and lambs will give it a light graze down to 50mm (2 inches) to keep the chicory vegetative, before next year’s weaned lambs come back in July.

“There is no doubt that this crop needs managing carefully, but the rewards are definitely worth it,” says Martin. “We feed it with our own muck from the sheep sheds, the clover, the fresh manure from the lambs and a dressing of Calcifert at establishment. Chicory is a hungry plant, but the legumes support its growth.”

Selling direct

Martin started selling one or two lambs at farmers markets at Hinckley and still enjoys going to Market Bosworth once a month to meet customers and gather feedback.

In 2009, he installed a cutting room on the farm which now has two large three metre fridges, a dry age cabinet and a retail counter. Ben started cutting meat at 14 years of age, standing on a beer crate. Now 26, he is in charge of this side of the business.

“Covid was a game-changer for us, with people queueing down the drive and we sold three weeks-worth of meat in one day!” says Ben. “Rather than opening just one day a week we are now open Thursday, Friday and Saturday and have started selling meats from other local farmers.

“The abattoir is half an hour away and we get the carcases back the morning after they go. We hang the lamb for ten days and then break it down. It is a high-quality product which we sell at a good, honest butcher’s price.

“Dad never thought bringing people to the farm would work, but we are in a great spot here serving the commuter villages between Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham.

“We are passionate about what we do and want to keep on progressing – perhaps opening a café on the farm and expanding the sheep enterprise by working with other farmers, possibly arable farmers with cover crops to help them repair their soils. The possibilities are endless.”