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Coming from a non-farming family, Kieran had been told he would be a herd manager in the UK at best, but was struck by the opportunity to move up through the industry to farm ownership whilst travelling in New Zealand.
Gaynor Wellwood was brought up on a grass focused dairy farm in Cheshire. Following her agricultural course at Reaseheath, she met Kieran. It quickly became evident that they were going to farm in their own right, so they looked at a sharemilking opportunity in Cornwall.
In 1997, after three years of saving, Kieran and Gaynor were in the market for their first county council farm, located near Plymouth. The farm covered 37 acres and was used to calve 11 purchased mature cows alongside 20 home-reared in-calf heifers. It served as a starter farm, with the expectation of moving on to a bigger holding in the near future.
Within a year they relocated to a new farm at Broadhempston, doubling their acreage – a move financed through borrowings. After 5 to 6 years, they nearly doubled their farm size again when they moved to a new council farm 3 miles away. At the time, the milk quota system was financially restrictive.
With the final council farm, they had a 10-year contract and once that was over, they would have timed out of council holdings. With this in mind they looked at joint ventures, contract milking agreements and other tenancies to remain in farming. Through their research they came across the tenancy at Saltby farm in Leicestershire which took them to 342 acres and 330 cows.
With an eye on growing the business and banking a nest egg, profitability was the main focus. Cost control whilst optimising output from grazed grass was important, as this helped shape the system and cows that were milked. In the beginning the herd was made up of Brown Swiss, Swedish Red and Holstein Friesian in a 3-way cross, producing around 6,000 litres with 4% fat and 3.25-3.3% protein. They were using a small amount of LIC genetics but didn’t go exclusive until 2008.
The move to LIC genetics to maximise profit
The move to using LIC genetics exclusively was driven by wanting a truly grass based cow, one that was slightly smaller than what they had, targeting 530 kg liveweight. Being a block calving farm, fertility was particularly important and the longer gestation length of the Brown Swiss was impacting the block. When assessing options from around the world, New Zealand stood out at the time with close to 100 years of breeding cows for the system they were running, so it just made sense. In 2012, Gaynor joined a LIC study tour of New Zealand and saw consistently high-performing herds, confirming they had made the right decision.
As tenant farmers, their cows were their greatest asset, so maximising profit while improving herd value was key. For this to happen, the aim was to have a herd of cows that delivered it all; great milk solids, high fertility, good health and confirmation, qualities delivered by LIC bulls.
Physical performance of the mature herd was 6,338 kg based on 294 days in milk, with milk solids of 4.74% fat & 3.79% protein from an average of 700 kg of concentrates. Also, the stocking rate worked out to be 2.8LSU/Ha. A keen focus on rearing great quality heifers meant all those that ranked highly on the LIC tracker tool were AI’d to dairy. This helped drive the performance of the herd forward. Surplus heifers and breeding cows managed to get sold each year due to their great fertility; a 6-week in-calf rate of 91%.
Using the LIC tracker tool enabled greater focus across the entire herd, not just the top end, but also the bottom end. As a result, the production gap between the top and bottom 3-8 lactation cows narrowed to 164 kg, and the average production of the herd increased. Interestingly, when they analysed the top 10% of the herd, no single bull dominated, it was a mix of genetics, confirming their bull selection strategy was working. Sires included in the top 10% of performers in the herd were Sierra, Boy Jaks, Renegade, Grandeur, Prelude and Easyrider.
High herd value brought new possibilities
This attention to detail with their breeding paid off over the years. When the time came to finally sell the herd in March 2025, the known value of their herd brought farmers from far and wide to the sale.
The catalyst for looking at retirement was their tenancy coming up for renewal in 2025. Renewing the tenancy would mean farming for at least another 10 years, but the limited size of the farm and rules of tenancy prohibited the ability to take on a manager and step back from the day-to-day work.
By this stage both of their children had moved abroad, with Rory dairy farming in Tasmania, and Angharad working as a dairy vet in New Zealand. With travel restricted to the dry period, seeing their kids and grandkids was limited, so returning in January 2024 from a visit, the decision to retire felt right.
The tenancy required 12 months’ notice to end, but before finalising this decision, they needed to carry out due diligence. First, they spoke with their children to share their retirement plans and confirm neither of them intended to return home to take over the business.
Both were very supportive of their decision to retire. farming career, ensuring adequate funds were available for lifestyle goals post-retirement from dairy farming was a key priority.
Along with this, it was important to know what options were available to invest the proceeds from the sale.
Now retired from farming, Gaynor continues with her consultancy work, which she greatly enjoys, along with the farmers she supports. Kieran offers help to other farmers but without any fixed commitments, giving him time to take up water colour painting again. The biggest impact they have noticed is the reduction in stress. Farming brings many little stressful events that farmers deal with daily, but you don’t necessarily notice them until they are removed, Kieran noted. Looking ahead, they plan to spend more time with family, likely spending a month or two in each country.
Kieran and Gaynor remain positive about dairy farming and offer the following advice to new entrants:
“Join a discussion group, this enables you to network and benchmark your farm. Research your chosen system to understand the key profit drivers and keep learning. Have goals and a plan, this will help you navigate year-to-year but also make the big decisions easier to make.”
