Summer Meeting 2024

The Roaming Dairy, Kingsclere Estate, Ramsdell

Oli Chedgey set up the Roaming Dairy Limited in 2017 on the Kingsclere Estate on a share farming basis, integrating the dairy system with organic arable farming. The 450 crossbred cows are calved in an 8-week block, beginning in March. During mating, AI is carried out over a 21-day period and then Aberdeen Angus bulls are turned in with the cows.
The milking parlour is a mobile unit, and cows are milked once a day. Milk is sold on an Arla contract. The cows are outwintered and are dried off on 1 December.
The cows are grazed on herbal leys, which form part of the rotation on the Estate. The system relies on forage only, and the average yield per cow is 3,300 litres with 5% fat and 3.87% protein.