Clive Lumb, with his wife Margaret and son Ian, farms at Greetland on the urban fringe of Halifax.

Stockmanship, grassland management, immaculate dry stone walling - all in the urban fringe

The farm is 170 acres in size, all grass and lies 700 feet above sea level. From such a height it is possible to see many of the former woollen mills that created employment in past centuries. With the M62 only three miles away, industrialisation remains key to the conurbations around Leeds, just to the east, and Manchester, not far to the west of the farm.

Yet for all the problems frequently associated with farming in such close proximity to large centres of population, this is a picture of good stockmanship, grassland management and immaculate farm maintenance. The Lumbs have a herd of 100 suckler cows, two thirds of which are predominantly Simmental, while the remainder are Limousin crosses. Yet this is a source of significant management change as Clive Lumb, with more than a touch of perplexed sadness in his voice, explains:
"Increasing levels of extensification payments means we are worse off financially by maintaining our output. We have built up our cattle numbers to a level where our stocking rate is just under 2 livestock units per hectare. We have invested a lot of time and effort in turning out cattle to the very best of our ability and we continually try to breed better stock. It’s a crazy situation when we are forced to sell less to make more income!"

A typical example of the way Simmental calves thrive on Clive Lumb's upland farm near Halifax

CHANGE OF BREED
However, the one thing the Lumbs have decided to do is to disperse their Limousin cross cows. The Simmental portion of the herd produces much faster growing cattle, and the benefit of higher milk yields gets passed on into the calves. This is particularly noticeable as the calves get to five to six months of age. Clive Lumb justifies their decision by saying:
"We were all Limousin initially, but the introduction of Simmental bulls since 1992 has been accompanied by vastly reduced veterinary and medicine fees, especially as cows get back in calf so easily. In addition, the quiet temperament makes the stock a pleasure to work with and by turning out well presented cattle we are getting more per beast as a result of the higher growth rates."

Each year some 20 heifers, not intended for home breeding, are sold as 10 to 12 month old stores when their weights range 370 kgs at the younger end, right up to 480 kgs for the heavier cattle.

Calving starts on 1st March for a three-month period. The male calves are left entire, in recent years they have been sold as stores at weaning at Skipton Market, because the Lumbs have viewed this as a more profitable option than finishing the group themselves. However, past experience shows that bull beef from the herd reaches slaughter specification by February to March – that is only 10 or 11 months of age.

The soil type is sandstone, consequently prone to drying out from mid-summer, but grassland management is such that neither the growth potential of the calves nor the fertility of the cows is compromised by a lack of forage.

Such dedication is reflected in the calf mortality level where only three calves have been lost in the past five years – an exceptional and enviable level of success.

EXAMPLE OF EXTENSIFICATION INCOME OPTIONS
Ian Ross encourages livestock farmers to look at maximising subsidy by leasing in suckler cow quota to claim for un-bred heifers, plus renting forage acres to achieve super extensification for these stock numbers. This is particularly beneficial where winter housing, silage and effluent storage all have the capacity for the higher number of cattle.

To sustain their current stock levels at the Super Extensification level of less than 1.4 Livestock Units per hectare and maximize subsidy income, the Lumbs would need to lease in 25 units of Suckler Cow Quota and rent 25.8ha (64 acres) of grazing.

Total herd gross margin, after fertiliser, conservation and other forage costs on the additional land, for an average performance herd is calculated to be just over £10,000 greater. However, the costs of land rental and cow quota must be deducted to arrive at a possible net margin.

While it may appear easy to demonstrate the financial benefit of such expansion, it is not always practical for farmers like the Lumbs to find the right parcel of land within a manageable distance, otherwise even more costs get swallowed up. Clive Lumb and his family intend using the extensification option to increase Simmental genetics in their herd, leading to improved overall animal performance. From this base the option exists to build up numbers again and make optimum use of their total facilities.

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