LIVESTOCK farmers from across Britain visited North Yorkshire last week to see the very best in grassland farming.

Organised by the grassland societies operating within the county, together with Whitby Discussion Group, Yorkshire was the venue for this year's British Grassland Society summer meeting.

The itinerary for the 150 delegates included visits to the Metcalfe family's large scale dairy business on the edge of Leyburn; to Les and Christine Scaife's family farm at Nether Silton; and to quality beef producer Mike Powley, who farms at Green Hammerton.

At the Metcalfes' Washfold Farm, delegates saw a dynamic family partnership, where machinery plays as important a part in the business as the cows do.

The herd of 550 averages 9,400 litres on three times a day milking. The cows are fed a total mixed ration throughout the year, using a mix of grass, maize and wholecrop forages. Yields are recorded at each milking and pedometers on the cows' legs help staff identify which ones are bulling.

With plans to expand the dairy herd, all heifer calves are being reared for replacements.

Baby calves are fed using an automatic calf feeder, programmed individually and activated by a transponder round the calf's neck.

With so many animals producing muck, and some land in the Nitrate Vulnerable Zone, manure handling is taken very seriously. A new slurry separator and holding tank have been put up in the yard, and a 2m-gallon lagoon excavated in the middle of the silage ground.

The solid fraction is used on the maize land; the liquor pumped into the lagoon is stored until it is tankered out in the spring. Nutrient analysis shows that the liquid has a fertiliser value of £35/acre.

As well as large-scale productive farming, the Metcalfes carry out extensive conservation across the 660ha, including six-metre Countryside Stewardship margins on all the arable and maize land; dry-stone walling; hedge planting, and other conservation schemes on areas of rough grazing and heather moorland.

At the next farm visit, BGS delegates heard that even before foot-and-mouth took out their 170-cow dairy herd at Nether Stilton, Les and Christine Scaife had decided to change the way they ran their 83-hectare tenanted farm.

"We had a successful high input, high output system, but always felt like firemen coming to the rescue," Mr Scaife said. "We never had time to think, and we were always tired. Something had to change."

The farm was restocked in spring 2002 with 100 cows and, encouraged by the local grazing discussion group, the Scaifes developed a system which focused on producing milk from grass.

Breeding policy is based on New Zealand genetics, and the herd is block calved from mid February to the end of April. As the cows calve, they are turned out and the grassland is rotationally grazed until November.

In October the cows are milked only once a day and all are dried off at the end of November, allowing the family to have a complete break. Milk yields have dropped to an average of 5,400litres/cow but this is achieved on only 300kg of cake.

"There are many ways to string a cat but, as long as you are profitable, it doesn't really matter how you do it," said Mr Scaife. "We wanted to make good use of what we had on the farm - grass, cows and quota. We now have a simple, sustainable system that is a pleasure to run."

Keeping costs down was also the theme at Mike Powley's 113ha farm, where he is producing low-maintenance cows and top quality finished beef, minimising costs and maximising output per cow and per hectare.

To achieve this, the Powleys are developing a herd of "red cows" - South Devon/Limousin crosses, artfically inseminated by a Belgian Blue terminal sire.

"The South Devon is docile, prolific and milky. The cows are also voracious grazers," said Mr Powley. "It is a great breed to have on the maternal side of the cow, and the Limousin adds quality to the carcase.

"We work closely with our customers, and we feel this is the perfect cross to produce the type of meat the consumer wants to buy."

The bulls are finished on a mix of home-grown barley, soya, molasses and fat. They average a daily liveweight gain of 1.5kg throughout their lives. Last year 33pc graded E;p 54pc u+ 8pcU- and 5pc R. All finished in fat class 2 and 3. Average carcase weight was 415kg at 442 days old, killing out at 62pc