All change in farm contracting in mid-Wales area

Kelvin Cave Ltd is indebted to farm contractor, Peter Holloway, who is retiring from contracting after over 20 years in the business. Peter has been a keen advocate of crimping throughout those years, having introduced the process to his own farm in mid-Wales and spread the word of its benefits throughout the region. He will continue to farm at Mount Farm in Welshpool, but his crimping machine – a high throughput KC Bruiser – has been sold to nearby farmers, CV & EM Lewis & Sons, who will now offer a grain rolling and crimping service as part of their contracting business.

Peter recalls how he first saw crimping at a ploughing match in Ireland, and, as an asthmatic, was particularly attracted by the absence of dust from the milling process, with moisture contents of the rolled grain for crimping being over 25%. Purchasing a second-hand Murska 700, he then moved up to a Korte 1000, followed by a Korte 1400 and 2000, and on to the KC Bruiser.

Peter has been a keen advocate of crimping throughout those years, having introduced the process to his own farm in mid-Wales and spread the word of its benefits throughout the region.

Throughout that time, he always used the Kelvin Cave recommended crimping preservative, which has latterly been CrimpSafe 300, with its proven ability to keep grain stable through storage and after opening the clamp.

He says: “The Kelvin Cave products have always worked and I would not have taken the risk of using anything else.”

After introducing crimped grain to his own stock, he soon realised its virtues extended far beyond his own health and the product’s excellent keeping quality. Having kept a herd of up to 140 spring calving, dairy cross continental suckler cows, he found their progeny could be fed ad lib crimp and achieve excellent performance, from weaning in October until they were sold as stores at 10-13 months.

The convenience of storing crimped grain is cited as a further benefit and he says in the early days he would make a temporary clamp out of round bale silage. Today, his own clamps are a permanent fixture.

Completely won over by the product soon after taking it on, he also praises the service from Kelvin Cave Ltd, firstly from former technical director, Andy Strzelecki (now retired) who helped him build his customer base and latterly from Richard Parks, who has always been on hand with advice from the Kelvin Cave workshop.

Kelvin Cave Ltd would like to wish Peter and his son, Ross, well
with the continuation of their farming business.

The 130-head suckler herd produces around 40 to 50 breeding bulls every year, so presenting these in top condition is essential for the success of the business.

Colin says: “We are competing against people who would spend an awful lot more money on feed than we do, so it’s essential we focus on quality.”

This means making the best round bale haylage and silage they can, which is fed with ad lib crimped barley. To this, just add a small amount of sugar beet pellets with vitamins and minerals are added.

Crimp to calves

This is offered to calves to nibble from as little as three weeks of age to drive early feed intakes and exploit the best feed conversion efficiency attainable from the youngest animals. The same ration continues to be fed through to finished stock and young breeding bulls, which consume up to an estimated 10kg/head/day.

Colin says he values the crimp’s versatility and simplicity of feeding, and says having just one ration for all ages of stock suits the farm’s system.

“We also find the crimp is much more rumen friendly
– we wouldn’t have been able to feed the same volumes of dry grain,” he says. “We used to put molasses with the dry grain we’ve fed in the past to make it more palatable but don’t need to do this with crimp.”

The result is average daily liveweight gains of 1.6kg throughout their rearing period but they can hit 2kg/day ‘when they’re flying’.

This is mirrored in the most recent kill sheet for nine bulls that didn’t make it into breeding. This shows the group achieved an average deadweight of 392kg and average killing out of 63%. They achieved this at an average 12.4 months of age, with seven of the nine head achieving carcase grades of E – the others grading U.

Colin says: “It would be very hard to achieve this with other feeds but the palatability and high nutritional value of crimp makes this performance possible.

“The moist grain for crimping comes in from the field at its optimal nutritional value, in contrast to dried grain, which has started to die off and lose its nutritional quality.”

Producing the crimped grain itself is also said to suit the farm and the contracting business well.

“It suits our system to combine, clamp and crimp, and that’s the job done,” says Colin. “And if we can do that three weeks earlier than with a dry cereal crop, it spreads the harvest workload, and the sooner we can get another crop in.”

Farming in a difficult area that’s prone to flooding, he says he has sometimes lost parts of winter cereal crops. If lost areas have been reseeded with spring barley, it has been possible to harvest the whole crop for crimping, even if it’s unevenly ripe.

Having used CrimpSafe 300 and its predecessor products as his preservation chemical for at least 10 years, he’s found the feed has always stayed fresh and cool at the feed face and in the trough.

He says: “The clamp we’re feeding now was made 11 months ago and is still in perfect condition.”

He looks forward to adding crimping and dry grain rolling to his contracting services which already include cultivations, hay and silage-making including round baling, and combining.

All at Kelvin Cave Ltd wish Colin and the family well in this endeavour. Contact details for CV & EM Lewis & Sons and all contractors working with Kelvin Cave Ltd can be found on our contractors’ page.