A farm shattered by road building schemes is not the most appealing way to attract a son back, but the Cornish magic worked its spell and drew home Neil Jeffery to Glebe Farm near Indian Queens.

A fully qualified civil engineer, Neil is now milking in partnership with his father Harold and mother Denise, having shifted the farm’s emphasis from mixed farming to specialising in dairy.

“I returned in 2000, and like a lot of traditional Cornish farms we were equally split between arable, beef and dairy. We see our future firmly in milk production, and have been working to optimise what is essentially a shattered farm to meet this aim,” says Neil.

A series of improvements carried out to the A30 trunk road since 1992 split up the farm-land, which now requires careful planning in order to maximise forage production. With the only contiguous land of the 325 acre holding near the farm, it has been essential to optimize this block for grazing and grass production. With this in mind a programme of re-seeding has been undertaken using Nickerson Red Circle grazing mixture.

“We needed a mixture that will last as we don’t want to be spending lots of money in the future re-seeding,” says Neil.

Now milking 160, and aiming at 220 cows in the near future, Neil intends to get more quality milk out of the grass for their Dairy Crest manufacturing contract, based on milk solids, for the award winning Davidstow cheese-plant.

“The Red Circle is long lasting and recovers very quickly after grazing. As the cows are on just grass from mid-April to late August to September, we can’t afford to run short of grazing. I need to be confident the grass is growing ahead of the cows,” says Neil.

It’s the ability for long-term production and extended grazing from the new grassland that is the appeal for the Jefferys. “Red Circle’s high quality suits our system and with it we have managed to increase the cow numbers by 30% in five years without increasing the grazing area.”

Seeds have been supplied by Cornish independent agent Kevin Tregunna who has worked in Cornwall as an agent for 26 years. His business covers all of Cornwall, employing five sub-agents. Since selling Nickerson’s Circle leys two years ago he has seen his grass seed sales double.

“Neil is typical of the progressive dairy farming we are seeing in Cornwall at the moment. Geographically they are some of the most remote farmers in the country, so the Cornish have to be spot on with their farming approach,” says Kevin.

Circle Leys are part of Nickerson’s integrated Circle Science forage concept, which encompasses, Circle Leys, Wholecrop, Root crop and Maize varieties geared to individualise requirements.By taking into account their genetic traits new-generation wheat varieties can give cereal growers the opportunity to target inputs better and apportion fungicide cost accordingly, says the UK’s leading wheat breeder.

For further information contact Alastair Moore on 01472 371471 or amoore@nickerson.co.uk