Unit / Herd Manager - Banks, Wildon Grange Thirsk, England
Job description
We are looking for a Unit / Herd Manager to join our high-performance dairy farming business and team near Thirsk in North Yorkshire.
Our Business: At our heart we are a family farming business with a long-standing team who are committed to cows. We milk our 850 Holstein cows, 3 x day in a 60-point GEA rotary with average production of over 930Kg solids/cow/year. We have invested significantly in the past 10 years to futureproof the business and support our aspiration to produce high quality dairy products from healthy and high-performance cows. Our cows are accommodated in modern barns with deep sand bedded cubicles and outside loafing yards and we run separate early lactation and first-lactation groups. We have supported the expansion of cow accommodation with all the desirable infrastructure required in a modern dairy business including high spec calf and heifer accommodation, cow handling and management facilities, silage clamps and slurry storage. We continue to invest proactively in technology on the parlour and throughout the business with the aim of enabling the team to manage cows easily and effectively. Our CowScout collars monitor activity and heat and our CowConnect feeding management system links directly to farm records on Uniform, we also have ACRs and auto dip and flush on the parlour, all of which supports the attainment of our key performance indicators including Preg rate at 27%, mastitis rate at 7% and mobility score of 7% score 1 & 2. We monitor cow performance, health and our climate impact rigorously and use this information internally to benchmark and proactively improve our performance along with reporting the data back to our farmer cooperative milk buyer on a monthly basis to meet the requirements of our higher tier supplier standards. Our highly skilled, cow-focused team spend considerable time during the day focussing on fertility, feet and feeding to proactively seek out continuous improvement and they are fully committed to a proactive and preventative approach. All replacement heifers are reared to weaning on the main unit before moving off to additional units managed by us or onto a third-party contract rearer. Beef calves are reared alongside dairy replacements to 4 weeks of age before they are sold on contract to a single buyer. Our heifers consistently achieve an average AFC of 24 months, and we are actively reducing this to 23 months. We maximise the inclusion of homegrown forage and combinable crops in the diet and put significant emphasis on growing, and with the support of a local contractor, harvesting high quality grass and maize, wheat, and barley.
The Role: As Herd Manager you will share the responsibility and reward of leading the team and managing the cows on a daily basis. You will be a key member of the Senior farm team, working directly alongside, collaborating, and making decisions with the hands-on farm owners and our skilled Head Herdsperson. We envisage you will spend a significant proportion of your time committed to ensuring our cows and our people are able to perform at their best and you will be given the autonomy to plan rotas and workloads to deliver this. We know that, on our farm, our team work best when you are actively involved in many of the day-to-day operations and working alongside them, providing encouragement and acting as a sounding board and giving guidance on advanced technical issues when required. We have a team of trusted advisors who will support and challenge you in delivering the required KPI’s on which your success will be measured. We host frequent processor, retailer and customer visits, open farm days and vet-led third-party training courses and we would want you to be actively involved as a facilitator and ambassador for our business in these events.
Skills, attitude & experience: The successful candidate will be energised by working with fantastic people and cows and will have a naturally positive and solutions-focussed outlook and attitude. You will be experienced in leading and developing a capable team and managing a herd of high-performance cows and will have refined the important skills required to do this effectively including the ability to organise, plan, prioritise and problem solve. Whilst we will protect management time for planning and keeping meticulous records, you will still enjoy, and want to work hands on with cows most days. Our existing team members are skilled in all major cow related disciplines, but we would fully utilise any existing skills in AI, PD scanning, foot trimming or ROMS mobility scoring you may bring. An appetite to continually improve the farm and people is non-negotiable and we anticipate you would be excited by and willing to embrace new ideas, concepts, and ways of working along with training and developing yourself and others.
Pay & Reward: We envisage the starting salary for this role being in excess of £50k with consideration and a higher starting salary available for candidates who are able to demonstrate they are experienced in delivering at this level. The package also includes a generous and well-presented 5-bed semi-detached family accommodation in a small village 3 miles away. The future rewards package and opportunity to progress will not be limited and we will offer accelerated salary and progression, or other profit share opportunities for an exceptional candidate who comes into the business and supports the existing family team in continuing to meet their goals of achieving the highest levels of production and welfare, whilst at the same time opening opportunities for them to potentially spend more time away from the farm. We are focussed on the delivery of outcomes, not hours and will offer significant flexibility in the working pattern and hours to ensure the role meets your personal and family needs but we envisage you will work on average 55 hours/week including working every other weekend and providing some out of hours emergency cover. We offer 28 days paid annual leave and pension contributions plus a budget for training and the opportunity to develop your personal skills, position and package.
Location: Based in the village of Coxwold on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, the farm is in a rural location but with easy and quick 10-minute access to major roads including A19 and A1(M) and only 25 minutes’ drive from the City of York. The accommodation is 3 miles from the farm in the adjoining villages of Bagby and Balk, which has a great local pub serving food. The local market town of Thirsk is a further 3 miles away and has extensive facilities and services, including a train station on the main East Coast London to Edinburgh rail line.
Additional information
Please note, the employer does not have the sufficient licences to offer sponsorship under the Skilled Worker Visa.
*Kite Consulting supports farmers with the recruitment process, we do not act as a recruitment agency. If you are successful and offered a role you will be employed and paid directly by the farm business.*
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Salary: From £50,000.00 per year
Application question(s):
- Do you hold a UK Driving Licence?
- How many years of dairy farming experience do you have?
- This the employer is not licenced to provide sponsorship under the Skilled Worker Visa, please confirm you do not require a visa by answering 'no' to this question.
- Please confirm the best email and phone number should we need to contact you about your application
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: One location
Reference ID: Unit / Herd Manager - Banks - Wildon Grange
