Launching a successful contract farming business, whilst simultaneously doubling the size of the farm’s pig herd, has allowed fourth generation farmer Jack Bosworth to successfully expand his business during the last 8 years.

   Trading as FJ Bosworth and Sons and based near Chelmsford, the successful diversification and herd expansion has put the business, first established in 1934, on a firm footing with a positive outlook for the future.

   Jack says” We currently farm 350ha’s of combinable crops with the main focus on growing both winter wheat and winter barley as feed for our 7,500-pig herd split across 2 sites in Essex and Norfolk. Running a competitive pig business is all about controlling feed and other key input costs. Milling and mixing our own grain for feed on farm has ensured the enterprise remains as competitive as possible and has certainly helped speed growth for us in this respect. 

    “About 5 years ago we also began looking into contract farming. There’s high demand in Essex for both umbilical application of slurry and digestate, along with an increased demand for specialist services such as Avadexing, over-seeding and cover crop establishment, particularly from farms already under pressure through congested spring and autumn work windows, labour challenges and uptake in environmental stewardship schemes.  

    “I’d always been interested in buying a lightweight, multi-use applicator for the farm to reduce our own historical reliance on contractors. So, investing in a new 12m Multicast 400 trailed unit to run behind our John Deere UTV in September 2020 to give us more control during those busy work windows was a pretty straightforward decision. The new applicator also opened up another revenue stream for the farm by offering key services to other farmers.

    “The trailed unit comprises a 400l capacity tank along with a 12m manual folding boom, both mounted on a single axle trailer chassis that uses high quality load rated tyres and suspension units. Product is accurately applicated through the machine’s distribution head via a powerful, Honda engine driven fan unit to outlets spaced at 500mm intervals along the full width of the boom. Work rates are controlled and monitored via a cab mounted, GPS Garmin rate controller.

   The real beauty of the Multicast is its versatility. By simply changing the metering cartridge and recalibrating the application rate you can broadcast grass seed, cover crops, granular fertilizer, Avadex granules or even slug pellets accurately and easily.

    “The Multicast is very light, weighing less than 250kg, and can be used to perform different tasks simultaneously reducing the number of passes and lowering fuel costs. In the last two autumns many farms in Essex have experienced very wet weather making successful establishment of crops increasingly more challenging. Farmers have also started to favour later autumn drilling in recent years, when ground conditions tend to be much heavier anyway, so using a very light machine, such as the Multicast 400, that is still able to travel in heavier soils without damaging the soil or a young, newly established crop is a major advantage.

   “With shorter, dry weather windows drilling decisions are also often made at the last minute, so with key tasks, such as Avadex application that requires a 48-hour window post-drilling to maximize its effectiveness, its critical for farmers to either have their own applicator, or source a reliable, locally based contractor to ensure the task is carried out at the optimum time.

   “Working at optimum speeds of 12-14 kph in good conditions we can readily achieve up to 80ha of Avadex application or cover cropping per day, with the machines light footprint making it almost unnecessary to factor in whether customers are working on 24m, 28m, 30m, 32m or even 36m tramlines. Combining both the contracting work and our own use of the applicator, we’re now using the Multicast to apply product across 600ha of land per year, with additional capacity to increase that workload as the contracting business grows.

   “In summary - the accuracy, quick calibration, easy set up and reliability of the Multicast have made it one of our best machinery investments in recent years. In terms of the economic benefits, we retain more money in the business each year by reducing our reliance on contractors and generate additional revenue from the contracting business. This brings a positive balance of circa £10,000 per year, comfortably justifying the set-up we have. Overall, we’re delighted with the Multicast and would certainly look to go for the same machine again at renewal” he concludes.