Rob Havard - Phepson Angus
Farmer tips
If you let your clover go to seed your cattle will reseed for you free of charge when it passes through them.
Grazing with a back fence is important. You don’t have to move every day but as long as you move cattle every 4 days you will grow more grass for free and your soil will be more productive and less compacted.
Profit per acre is the key measure not production per acre. There is a tipping point when the extra unit of production starts to cost you money – keep production below that point and your business will be more resilient in the long term.
We have been operating our grazing using Holistic Planned Grazing (HPG) for about 10 years now and had rotationally grazed before that. We have found Holistic Management to be a great tool for setting the direction of the farm and making sure that our decisions are not running counter to our lifestyle goals or those of our immediate family. Setting goals that ensure that our decisions are tested against social, financial and environmental criteria, ensures that the future of the farm is not only sustainable but that the profitability, fertility and wildlife resources improve every year.
We use Holistic Planned Grazing to make the most of diverse native pastures and have restored many acres of native species-rich pastures. The livestock thrive on the pasture diversity that provides all their needs and allows us to feed all stock from grass and natural herbs alone.
We move cattle every 3-4 days and always have a back fence. The aim is to avoid re-grazing the growing plant and to maximise regrowth/rest periods. Our rotation is about 90 days in the summer while we try to build a stockpile of grass for winter grazing. We find that leaving at least 4 inches post grazing helps to maximise winter stockpile while also being the most nutritious parts of the plants for finishing store cattle on grass alone.
Stocking rate will determine how far we get through the winter on the stockpile. The aim of stockpiling is to reduce wintering costs, which is the main cost in the business and makes us much more resilient to price instability. In extreme weather years it might not be as effective but if we can save costs 3 years out of 4 then we are moving forward.
Using grazing techniques that are based on recreating natural processes allows us to grow fitter cattle for less money while leaving the land in a better state than when we found it. Populations of wild birds have been increasing year on year, the wildflowers are going from strength to strength, and we’re introducing more every year from local wildlife reserves.
It was a nervous first year when we aimed for wintering outside the whole year on heavy clay and no hay, and while we got to February 15th in the first winter, we managed to get through the whole winter on stockpiled forage for the first time in year three, which had a massive financial benefit as well as improving the winter wildlife on the farm.
Motivations
“Ultimately, the only wealth that can sustain any community, economy or nation is derived from the photosynthetic process – green plants growing on regenerating soil.” Allan Savory
Our family has been farming at Phepson since 1919. I am the fourth generation on the farm and we hope the next generation will want to carry on our work.
At the turn of the century, we were hit hard by both the BSE and then Foot and Mouth outbreaks. Despite not having either disease on the farm, we were hit by sudden market drops at critical times and then family illness at this time led to the sale of all but 50 acres.
I have been working as a professional ecologist for over 10 years and since joining the farm partnership in 2003, we have taken the farm in a more environmentally focused direction. We started grazing nature reserves for local wildlife charities to expand the farm and now farm over 1,000 acres on Farm Business Tenancies and a Contract Farming Agreement.
Using Holistic Management allows us to ensure that the land, environment, people and our bottom line all benefit from our farming, and that is what gets us up in the morning. We aim to farm in Nature’s image; to keep the environment the way it was meant to be kept.
Any questions? Please get in touch.
Our cows
Fertile
Maternal
Long lived
Large rumen capacity – excellent forage converters
Perfect udders
Strong feet and legs
Good temperament
PROFITABLE
Our bulls
Fertile
Long lived
Moderate frame size of high quality
Excellent forage converters
PROFITABLE
Testimonials
“After visiting Rob and seeing how he manages his grass and testing his genetics, I was very keen to purchase some of his cattle. I didn’t need to see them, I just put an order in of what I wanted, and Rob did the rest. It’s very reassuring when you find a breeder who really knows his cattle and can be trusted to send you exactly what you want. We will be purchasing more in the future.”
Geraint Powell
Nuffield Scholar
“We bought a bull from Phepson Angus as we wanted to shift our maternal line to a smaller more efficient cow, high fertility and easy calving. The bull we bought has delivered on everything we wanted. We will certainly be a repeat customer.”
Silas Hedley-Lawrence
FAI Farms
We bought 2 bulls from Rob because we wanted easy calving, fertile, hardy bulls. Very happy with initial results on 62 heifers with 100% in calf, 73% bred in the 1st cycle. Bulls didn't go lame or lose condition while working
Oliver Chedgey
2022 Organic Dairy Farmer of the Year
We have PHEPSON ANGUS bulls available from January 2025
Please get in touch if you would like more information about available bulls. We have sold out for the last 3 years so please get in touch early to secure your breeding bull.
Free Consultancy
We often get requests for consultancy on both grassland and cattle management in holistic management systems. While we do take on some advisory work in limited situations we do tend to try and sign-post to other advisers in the regenerative agriculture sector. However, ALL PHEPSON ANGUS CUSTOMERS receive a FREE consultation with their purchase and for our customers we are always available on the phone. So if you are interested in saving money through your grazing systems and would like to add some proven fertility genetics to your herd then get in touch.
Kaiser, Senior Herd Sire
Semen straws available for UK and International export.
Your opportunity to buy into our programme
Excellent producer of easy-calving, fertile, moderate females for grass production
Will reduce frame size while still maintaining commercial scale.
Extremely fertile Bull - producing over 1000 straws per jump on collection on several occasions (bulls usually produce 150 - 350 straw per jump)
Line bred 4 times to Champion Bull "Evesund of Dupplin" who was known as the "Great Fixer of Udders"
We find Kaiser will correct poor udder structure in the 1st cross/generation
Huge rumen capacity - weighs 1000kg in working clothes - 53 inches at the hip
Kaiser is the foundation of our maternal bull lines, and is now available to you
Semen straws and genetics available for UK and
International export.
Contact Rob or Lizzie for an order form.
Rob - 07973771832
Lizzie - 07799127066
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