Investing in skills training and business advice can be expensive for a family farm, but securing subsided and fully-funded Farming Connect courses and services has lightened the financial burden for a third-generation Radnorshire poultry and livestock producer.
George Wozencraft is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Abraham, and father, Malcolm, at Glanalders, Nantmel.
Beef is produced from a 30-cow suckler herd and lamb from 250 Improved Welsh and Welsh Mule ewes.
In 2011, the Wozencrafts diversified into free range egg production with a 16,000-bird system, now producing eggs for Stonegate from Clarence Court hens.
To help put the business on a firm footing for the future, George has accessed a range of Farming Connect services.
As a member of its Radnorshire business discussion group, he has been encouraged to assess all aspects of his business, including scrutinising costs.
This exercise has proved invaluable in helping him to understand which enterprises are performing the best, to inform growth and investment going forward.
To build on this, George has also completed a Farming Connect e-learning course on understanding the fundamentals to a successful business and completed a book-keeping course through the Farming Connect skills programme.
Under the Farming Connect Our Farms Network, he has embarked on a project helping him to improve efficiency and bird welfare in his poultry flock, while sharing that knowledge with other producers too.
The project has seen him replacing strip lights with LED lighting to become more self-sufficient in energy while improving bird health and welfare and reducing the farms carbon footprint.
“We are looking at our electricity costs and the savings we are making, and any improvements to bird welfare from having low intensity lighting,’’ George explains.
The results of this on-farm project, which has included input from his packer, vet and genetics supplier, will be shared with other farmers later this Autumn in an open event.
To further improve efficiency, he is also targeting home-produced nutrients to where they are needed, informed by a Nutrient Management Plan funded by Farming Connect.
Twenty soil samples were taken and, based on these results, lime has been applied to improve pH levels and reduce reliance on synthetic fertiliser.
Farming Connect has not only helped to encourage that responsible approach to soil fertility but responsible and effective use of medicine too.
Through a Farming Connect clinic involving Ddole Road Vets, George says he now better understands the importance of using antibiotics only when and where they are needed.
“The clinic concentrated my mind on the value of targeting treatments, not just the benefits of reducing those to prevent resistance but reducing our costs too because if we don’t need to use antibiotics then we are saving money.’’
Farm safety and first aid are at the forefront of George’s mind with recent deaths and accidents involving fellow farmers.
To ensure that he is better informed on how to react in an emergency situation he has undertaken an emergency first aid at work course, part-funded by Farming Connect, and completed a health and safety e-learning module.
George’s wife, Kate, is a nurse but should a medical emergency arise while she is off-farm, he knew he needed to be in a position to respond.
A new addition to the family, their son, Bertie, added further significance to that.
When George looks to the future, he also appreciates that there is much knowledge he can gain from farmers who have been in the industry for longer than him.
He therefore applied to the Farming Connect mentoring service and was matched to beef and sheep producer John Yeomans.
“We wanted to improve calving and our calf growth rates and knew that John was a good role model in how to produce cattle well, I am really looking forward to working through some of our issues with him,’’ says George.
After experiencing first-hand the benefits Farming Connect services have brought to him personally and to the farm business, he encourages other farmers to tap into these too.
“I had never been someone to make the most of what is out there until recently but I am so pleased that I now am,’’ he says.
“If we don’t use these services, it might be that one day they will no longer be available to us.
“So many of them are heavily subsidised or fully funded, it just doesn’t make sense to not make full use of what is on offer.’’
Completed activity is automatically recorded on Farming Connect’s secure online data storage tool ‘Storfa Sgiliau’ and can be easily accessed at any time.
