Moor Farm Facts

Host Farmers

  • Moor Farm Demonstration Farm is farmed by Andrew Rees, alongside parents Colin and Jean. Andrew is married to Vicky, who is a land agent and they have a daughter, Florence.    

Land

  • Moor Farm extends to 370 acres.
  • The home block comprises 250 acres - 150 acres is used as the grazing platform for the milking herd, with the remaining 100 acres utilised as grazing for youngstock. 
  • A 120 acre off-lying block is used for silage and grazing calves later in the season. All land is within one mile of the main holding.
  • All silage ground has been reseeded within the last seven years. Grazing ground is a mixture of young leys and permanent pasture. 10% of the land is reseeded annually. 

Livestock

Dairy

  • The herd consists of 240 British Friesian cows plus followers.
  • Average annual production per cow is 6,400 litres at 4% butterfat and 3.4% protein from 1.1 tonnes of concentrate. Andrew is targeting 500kg of milk solids from 1 tonne of concentrate.
  • The herd is spring block calving on an extended New Zealand-style grazing system.
  • Recent building projects include new herd housing and collecting yard, extending from an earlier milking parlour project. 
  • All stock is bred via AI. Andrew recently started breeding bulls for sale with some interest from AI Studs.
  • The milk is sold to Meadow Foods. 
  • All remaining Friesian bull calves are reared as steers and sold as stores at 18-20 months.

Cropping

  • All grass farm, swards currently include clover, but future reseeds may be grass only swards for simpler weed control plus early season growth and ground cover.
  • airy grazing platform grass is measured and recorded weekly. For the last four years it has averaged 14.7t DM/Ha (16.4t DM/Ha last year) utilising about 300kg nitrogen per hectare.
  • Considering direct drilling for future reseeding.

  • Aim to sow late heading diploid grass varieties for grazing..

Additional information

  • Andrew is an active member of the Grazing Dragons discussion group.
  • Graduated from Harper Adams University College 2009 with BSc (Hons) in Agriculture.
  • Andrew is a former member of Tiers Cross YFC and competed successfully in public speaking, stock judging, farm business development and tug of war competitions.