Bisterne Farms

Bisterne Farms include a 600-cow dairy herd and separate arable unit, farming over a total of 2500 acres across the estate. Our herd are predominantly Freisian-Jersey cross breeds, producing 3.7 million litres a year. We sell our milk to Arla Foods.

Our separate arable unit produces crops for the open market and as supply to the dairy, as well as managing our countryside stewardship schemes.

Our arable unit is led by Martin (above), who has farmed at Bisterne for nearly 40 years, and leads all decisions on cropping, input costs and marketing, and CSS/ELMS. A primary challenge at Bisterne is particularly sandy soils, which hold very little moisture, making many crops difficult to grow. The cultivation of fields is on a no-till regime, in order to avoid upsetting the soil structure every year with deep-ploughing. We direct-drill with rare tactical use of a plough if absolutely necessary to correct a severe problem.

Our dairy manager is George (above), who has been managing the Bisterne herd since 2019. Previously he managed a dairy herd in Northamptonshire, having completed a degree in Land Economy from Cambridge. In one sense, George’s mantra is very technical: intelligent herd management to increase milk solid percentage against modest mature cow live-weight. In another sense, it’s remarkably simple: very happy cows equals high quality milk. George oversees a team of five on the ground, their day starting at 4.45am to bring the herd in for their first milking.

The cows coming in for their afternoon milking (above). We run off a dairy platform of about 600 acres in size, alongside remoter fields and the Avon water meadows. We use a combination of sexed semen and running Hereford stock bulls over the herd, calving in February and August.

Our rotary unit (above and below). Once the cows have arrived at the rotary, two herdspeople can milk 350 cows in 1 hour forty minutes. Each rotation takes about 15 minutes. Numbers on each cow’s rear match their ear tags - these are for easy identification.

If you are a student or young person looking to work within an outstanding dairy or arable team, we welcome enquiries. Please see our contact pages for more info.