Lower Milltown Farm

[RED7726]

Welcome to Lower Milltown Farm, which is essentially part of the family farm 'Milltown Estate'. Running along side the main farm business controlled by my father & three brothers. Lower Milltown Farm is a brownfield site of farm buildings & an old farmhouse. 

My plans for the old farm are to renovate the existing farmhouse & then build new purpose built sheds where the dilapidated old buildings currently stand. Planning has been granted for a cubicle shed with robotic milkers, a calf house, heifer house & silage clamp. 

We've had the diggers in already & clamp one is all but finished, work has started on the cubicle shed with concrete being poured from next week. Lely are booked in for the end of October to start fitting 4 A5 robotic milking machines. These will run along side a Lely Juno feed pusher & Lely Discovery slurry collector.

Milk is sold directly to the main estate where it is used to make real dairy ice cream, a venture run by my eldest brother & his wife.

I have been establishing my own herd of dairy shorthorn cattle since I left school & they have been milked in my father's herd of 1000 head of mainly Holstein, but a number of other dairy breeds mixed in too.

I have 100 milking cows currently, but have plans to expand too almost 200 in the next 12 months once the shed is up & running.

Tractors & machinery will be kept to a minimum as the main farm deals with every job 'in house'.  My youngest brother who controls the machinery side of the business will sub contract all harvesting duties to me as & when required. We do use contractors, but in the main, we do everything ourselves. 

I run a Massey Ferguson 8s 265 as my main tractor. We have a 6s 180 on order, its due in January all being well. We run a 6718s on the main farm, if its half as good as that one I will be happy with the purchase.

I've no machinery as yet, as most things can be borrowed from the main farm. However, I have plans to be more self-sufficient, so have a shopping list that includes a tanker, diet feeder & silage trailer. I've a Kane flatbed trailer in the workshop currently getting upgraded, I will show my progress in due course.

For now, please enjoy my story.

 

 

[Jack390]

Look foward to seeing this👍 good story

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Here is the start of my silage clamp, it needs a lick of paint in places. Also I will look to add extra features like tyres on the purpose built gantry around the top of the pit!

[RED7726]

Hi everyone, wanted to keep you all updated as we have been fighting an injunction on the farm build due to bats living in the old barns that were due to be knocked down. We have finally agreed the best way forward & now things can carry on as before but with a few tweaks! The dilapidated barns will stay put for now & the new buildings will move approx 100 metres from the old planned site. It's been a long few months of planning but l'am happy to say it's now full steam ahead. Unfortunately because of all the cost involved it's meant we have had to consolidate & start smaller than originally planned. 

So we are now focusing on two A5 Lely robots in one shed with 120 cubicles bedded on sand. They will be slatted floors to an underground slurry store & will scraped using a Lely discovery collector. We are also installing the Lely Vector feeding system to keep the cows fed. 

If anyone has seen the recent 'Grassmen' youtube video on Ag Contractors P&R Burbage then this is very similar to the system I will be installing. 

Three silage pits & purpose built stores for minerals & straights will all be close to the 'kitchen' to keep everything close & easily accessible. 

The machinery fleet is small & purposeful. I've recently upgraded my MF 8s265 for a 8s305 with all the bells & whistles. My fellow farming friends do laugh at me, saying its a tractor on steroids! I like it, it's stands out from the crowd. Ultimately it does what I want it to do & the backup is superb from the main dealer. So much so we also have a 6s 180 with a front loader for the yard duties & keeping the kitchen stocked for the vector.

Machinery is minimal as I sub contract myself & tractor back to the main farm & my brothers contracting business. Although I do have tri axle Bailey silage trailer & will have my own slurry tanker when the shed is fully operating. Nothing more is expected on the machinery side at this time although we are always looking for new business & revenue. 

The cows are my main focus & getting the sheds & pits up are my number one job, it's going to be an expensive 12 to 18 months but one I'm looking forward immensely...