Identifying that growing 80ha of spring barley for seed in the rotation would produce a 25,000 uplift in gross margin is typical of the attention new Western Barometer farmer, James Taylor pays to the management of The Co-operative Farms' Down AmpneyEstate. Extending over 2,160ha, the business consists of four separate farms - the l,320ha block of owned land on Down Ampney Estate, not far from Cirencester, plus a rented block of 320ha near Swindon, and two further blocks totalling 520ha on contractfarming agreements near Hungerford. In total, the blocks are about 40 miles apart, says Mr Taylor. "It sounds a long way, but they are fairly equally spaced, and if I have the management right, we can normally bounce from one to another and back again."
展开▼
