What we do...
Rented land
Blanchard Farms can rent land on short- or long-term basis depending on your situation. This reduces management time and risk for the landowner often freeing up time, capital, buildings and resources. Landowners have the comfort that their land is being maintained and improved in a sustainable way. Blanchard Farms have the fairly unique ability to import organic matter readily where needed to improve soil quality. They have capacity and fully equipped for investment in maintaining existing ditches and land drainage. Records of condition and soil samples are easily implemented to give piece of mind to landowners.
Alongside any rented land we can provide ‘estate services’ on land outside rented areas owned by the landlord.
Contract Farming Agreements
We are seeking to engage with additional contract farming clients and have available capacity in our labour and machinery profile and output. We can offer a flexible approach to managing land and can cater to varying levels of risk in either:
- Share Farming agreement with a quarterly fixed contract charge and percentage profit share split.
- Whole farm/estate management on operational basis. Where either a flat rate management fee per hectare is charged OR works charged on an operation-by-operation basis. Either way the landowner retains 100% of any margin with this option.
- We offer competitive contract fee terms depending on cropping. Per operation charges can be requested. Individual operation jobs can be discussed.
We're happy to talk over options to get the right arrangement for all stakeholders. We can provide full and transparent management accounts, record keeping and mapping to aid meetings and decision making.
Muck for Straw Arrangements
We are looking for a muck for straw arrangements on a large scale for ease and logistics. Blanchard Farms can offer:
- 4:1 ratio per ton, muck for straw in the swath (i.e. not on a per ha basis). All weighed over weighbridge.
- No preference over barley or wheat straw.
- All very good, even, well rotted pig and cattle muck from middens. Samples and nutritional analysis are available.
- Muck can be collected from throughout the year from a concrete clamp. We can offer delivery, depending on distance and workload.
- We have our own "disc" spreader and can spread down 30m tramlines, fully CTF, very evenly and accurately. It is also compatible for the 'variable rate spreading of nutrients' option (PRF1) £27/ha. This can either hired on day rate, or an operator can be provided on contract rate depending on workload.
- When delivering locally during the winter we normally use "bog" mats and excavator to reduce compaction and keep heaps high to save space. Trailer backs in off a road or track to avoid making mess, digger then pulls into heap. Very similar to how sludge is delivered.
- We can spread in summer post harvest, ahead of spring crops, or to tie in with SFI option dates (i.e. following AHW7 enhanced over winter stubble pre harvest). Works well ahead of OSR.
- Baling wise we do everything 'in house' . We run an accumulator (or chaser) behind our own baler therefore operate fully within 10m CTF (which we do here also). We would need to temporally stack somewhere to then haul back post harvest.
Estate Works (for contracted land & landlords only)
Exclusively for our contract farming clients and FBT landlords, we can provide a full turn-key solution, for most estate works, even if it falls outside a CFA or FBT land area.
Example works:
- Tidying and clearing ditches (360 excavator), drainage outfalls and drain jetting.
- Cultivating and establishing all game crops (annually). We have capacity and a workforce that can establish cover crops and spring cereals at the same so one is not done at the detriment of the other.
- Hedge cutting, boundary maintenance and planting.
- Fencing and fence repairs.
- Tree sheering.
All of this is within our team skill set at Blanchard Farms and we are experienced in all these areas. It is proposed that the works are charged on a job-by-job basis. Deadlines and estimated timescales for the works will be discussed and agreed beforehand with landowner or estate management team.