West Sussex dairy farm manager, Matt Penny has been titled as this year’s VetPartners Sustainable Dairy Farmer of the Year award.

Now in their third year, the awards recognise farmers committed to improving business efficiency, environmental sustainability, enhancing livestock productivity or fostering community relationships.

Mr Penny, who manages Oliver Grant’s Carters Lodge Dairy, near Handcross, was nominated by farm vet Matt Dobbs of Westpoint Farm Vets in Horsham.

Managing the 330-cow dairy herd, Mr Penny operates a six-week whole herd block calving system achieving conception rates of 65%.

According to Mr Dobbs, with his support, the farm team is running several initiatives to reduce input costs, and farm environmental impact while improving herd welfare.

“They’ve extended grazing and optimised pasture to increase carbon capture as a CO₂ sink. The herd is fed home-grown forage and very little cake is imported, both reducing external input costs and carbon footprint,” he says.

Not only is the farm successfully reducing input costs and environmental impact it has recently been awarded a new Aldi Arla contract.

Mr Dobbs explains why he along with Westpoint clinical director Emily Phipps nominated this farm: “The team pays amazing attention to detail. In addition to having low-stress, happy cows, they’ve reduced antibiotic use, FEC routinely and have reduced worming treatments on youngstock.

“They’ve proven teamwork, planning, organisation and sticking to best practice yields results,” he says.

“This care is evident in no down cows, low cull rates and strong attention to detail in transition.

“This farm is a strong advocate of health planning with regular vet visits in the breeding season as well as planning meetings at the start of the season.

“The herd has been marked as disease-free from IBR, BVD and Leptospirosis. Plus their Johnes control started 10 years ago and there has been no clinical disease in seven years,” he adds. 

Runners up

The two award runners up were Ryan Dobson from Colley Farm in Somerset, and Lucy Noad and family, of Woodhouse farm in Wiltshire.

Mr Dobson was who was nominated by farm vet, Cormac White, from FarmVets SouthWest while the Noad family was nominated by Sarah Bolt, technical knowledge exchange manager at Kingshay dairy consultants.

VetPartners head of environment, social and governance Hannah James said of the importance of this award:

It’s important to acknowledge the significant contributions and innovation of farmers dedicated to enhancing environmental sustainability, as well as the wellbeing and productivity of their livestock.” she says.

“It’s especially positive to see the nominees working closely with their vets to improve herd welfare and reduce anthelmintic and antibiotic use. With the volatility of input costs and milk prices, this is a win for both the business and the environment.”