In the fourth instalment of our series looking at how producers across the South West are adapting their business under the new Single Payment System, Kevin Brewer visits a Cornish family focused on milk, and a family farming California style

The Partridge family have been at Ennerleigh Farm, near Tiverton, for over 20 years although the Sandyridge prefix of their 300-plus herd of pedigree Holstein Friesians is a vestige of a previous unit, Sandy Farm, and the second half of the family name.

David, wife Pamela and son Clive, operating as Partridge Farms Ltd, run around 900 cattle on 810 acres, 200-270m above sea-level, with the help of three employees. Clive is the mechanic of the family, with responsibility for machinery purchase and maintenance, including a New Holland self-propelled forage harvester and a growing contractor business. Arable includes 126 acres of winter wheat and barley, plus undersown spring barley for wholecrop and 90 acres of Justina maize under plastic.

David takes responsibility for the cows, rising at 4.30am for morning milking through a Manus auto-tandem parlour. "I believe in treating cows as individuals. The tandem helps us to achieve this, together with computerised feeders topping up the mixed diet with concentrates according to yield," said David.

The herd averages over 9,000 litres and in-milk cows are managed as two groups in the summer, three in winter. A mixed forage diet based on Ecosyl grass and DoubleAction Ecocorn maize and wholecrop silages is formulated to 36 litres for the high yielders, 27 for the mids and 18 for the low group with the addition of home grown wheat and a purchased blend. "We switched to Ecosyl from acid around 15 years ago as it is safe, simple to use with no hassle and has always given us decent silage. We are buffer feeding our first cut now and it smells lovely."

Both AI and natural service by homebred and purchased bulls from the Moet and Wheaton herds are used.

"We are not after show cows, but rather a cow that can work," said David. "We want to increase yields, so favour bulls with a PLI in the high 40s, but we also look for a good leg and heel depth and reasonable body size."

All calves are retained, and 133 heifers are due to calve during the year. Holstein bulls are barley-fed to finish at 12-14 months and cross-bred Limousins finish at 300-340kg, with around 180 cattle a year sold on the hook to Southern Counties at Langport. A small pedigree Limousin herd has also been established under the Ennerleigh prefix. "We look at total farm profit rather than margins, like the variety of our mixed enterprises and do not plan any changes post SFP," said David. "My grandchildren are interested in farming and our aim is to maintain a profitable business for the next generation." * As arable area payments end and wheat trades around £60/t, a Cornish farming family is introducing milk production California-style to a 1,000 acre former arable unit at St Breock, near Wadebridge. Construction at Pawton Manor Dairy, operated by brothers Anthony and Jim Wills, wives Vicki and Vicky and their four children, is almost complete, the first cows came in last October and it is now up to its 1,050 cow capacity.

"The family milked at Trevelver Farm, near Rock for eight generations, increasing the herd to 250, but with further expansion limited, we decided to move the dairy to Pawton Manor," said Anthony. "We realised it would need high cow numbers to justify the investment, made three trips to California to get the best ideas on caring for a large herd and spent 18 months on planning and design before breaking ground in March 2003."

A 60-point Rotatech rotary parlour fitted with Buomatic milkers and a viewing gallery for visitors, allows 900 cows to be milked in just over two hours, twice-a-day, on a 12 hour interval by a five man team. One droving, the second stripping and dipping, a third paper wiping teats, a fourth cupping-up the American way at 500 cows an hour and the fifth post-dipping before the cows return to the feed barriers.

The routine promotes milk let-down for an average 4 minute milk-out and minimal mastitis, reflected in a herd average cell count of 160 and bactoscan of 12.

"An annual hygiene bonus of £100,000 more than justifies the extra labour," said Anthony. Sand and sawdust bedded housing is also to an American blueprint, the feed and cubicle passages flushed every three hours with recycled water from the waste separation system, removing all scraper problems and ensuring clean and sound feet.

Complete feed, based on Ecosyl grass and Double Action Ecocorn maize silages, plus maize gluten, soya/rape, protected fat and minerals, mixed through a twin vertical-screw feeder from Canada, is available ad-lib 365 days a year. The herd is already averaging 32 litres a day off 11kg of concentrate at 4.12% butterfat, 3.41% protein with yields expected to rise as replacement heifers come through.