This year AHDB Leicester Monitor Farm will discuss what makes a successful farm business.

Jack Smith, farm manager at Stoughton Estate on the outskirts of Leicester plans the meeting topics with a steering group of other farmers and agronomists, and AHDB Knowledge Exchange Manager Harry Henderson.

An important subject for the group was to identify traits of good farm businesses, regardless of size.

It is a topic that has come up because the Monitor Farm group includes a wide variety of farm sizes, all from the local area. Jack manages 1,650ha for Farmcare and is at the larger end of the spectrum.

Jack said: “I’m striving to have a better-performing business. People often think that bigger is better but that’s not always true. You can get a lot of dis-economies of scale and end up taking your eye off the ball because you’re trying to look at too many things.

“I’d like us to look at the secrets behind successful businesses. What can the big farms learn from the small ones, and vice versa?

 “Our Monitor Farm benchmarking group works really well. There are ten core farmers and although we’re not all of a comparative size, there is always something you can learn.

“We’re not just farming, we’re running a business. That means we’re always trying to improve our performance. If we find a successful business that’s half our size, we want to know what they are doing to make it work.

The group has been benchmarking using AHDB’s CropBench+ programme and will this year use the new Farmbench system, which allows farmers to enter multiple enterprises into the same programme.

The Leicester Monitor Farm benchmarking group is led by Chris Stoate of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

Harry Henderson, AHDB Knowledge Exchange Manager, said: “Leicestershire is traditionally a mixed farming county, so AHDB’s new Farmbench will be useful for many of the farmers here who have both livestock and arable.”

The first meeting of the season will be held on Tuesday 7 November at Oadby Lodge Farm, when Jack will give an update on the farm as well as introducing the topic of soil and tissue testing.

Jack’s update will include his comparison of crops established with a direct drill versus those conventionally established, taking into account costs and yields.

“When we looked at the costs alone,” Jack said, “we worked out that we wouldn’t need to lose many tonnes in yield from direct drilling to outweigh the savings from less diesel or time. That’s the challenge. When I work out the yield figures for the first meeting we’ll be able to say whether the risk was work it.”

Both Jack and Harry would encourage as many farmers as possible to get involved in the meetings.

Jack said: “The more people that come along, the better the meetings will be. At a packed meeting with lots of farmers asking lots of questions, we all learn a lot. You definitely learn from sharing ideas and findings with other farmers.”

Meeting dates and topics for Leicester Monitor Farm this winter are:

• Accurate leaf and soil testing: 7 November 2017
• Grain storage: 5 December 2017
• 500 acres or 5,000 – which is more resilient?: 9 January 2018
• Succession and tax: 6 February 2018

To find out more or to attend one of the meetings, contact Harry Henderson, AHDB Knowledge Exchange Manager, on harry.henderson@ahdb.org.uk or 07964 974465.

AHDB Monitor Farms bring together farmers who wish to improve their businesses by sharing performance information and best practice around a nationwide network of over 30 host farms. Monitor Farms are part of AHDB’s wider Farm Excellence Platform, which works with the industry to improve performance through knowledge exchange and benchmarking.