NSA Advantage Feeder prize giveaway 2014: Andrew Baxter, Worcestershire
8th May 2014
The second of six 3in1 Advantage Feeders in the NSA 2014 membership recruitment campaign qent to Worcestershire farmer Andrew Baxter.
“I joined up because Charlotte Underwood, the NSA Membership Recruitment Officer, is a near neighbour and had been badgering me!” says Mr Baxter. “I find the regular email updates really helpful in keeping up with the latest news in the sheep industry. The ability to access the Lambing List was another reason for joining.”
Mr Baxter is a tenant on the Croome Estate, farming 670 acres in partnership with his wife. They run 350 ewes and 100 sucklers, as well as growing 450 acres of combinable crops. The North Country Mule ewes are put to Suffolk rams and the finished lambs sold through Worcester Market. The sheep and cattle are primarily grazed on HLS grassland that makes up part of the National Trust’s Croome Landscape Park.
“The 3in1 feeder I am sure will be a very useful acquisition,” says Mr Baxter, who paid to upgrade from the 800 model (holds 500kg of feed) to the 1800 (1,150kg). “The principle of controlling feed rates and stopping gorging by the greedy ones will be of great benefit and make creep feeding more cost efficient. The ability to be able to feed our own cereals through the feeder in a controlled way will be really useful too.”
The 3-in-1 feeder is designed to allow restricted feed intakes and make ad lib feeding easier. It can be set to require stock to lick feed out of a groove between two adjusters, which can be moved into different positions to limit feed intake to varying amounts. As saliva levels decrease with successive licks, each feeding period is limited naturally.
