Gilbert Hitchen Farm

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Gilbert Hitchen Farm

• Warwick Brennand And Tom Berry

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Type of Farming

• Dairy Farming Cows
• Size 450 Hectares(200acres)
• Situated on the Cheshire Plain
• Herd Size 160 cows
• inputs Extensive
• Processes Pastoral
• Outputs Commercial

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Farm Background

• Gilbert Hitchens family have 450 hectares of land
  which has been in family possession for 5
  generations. They were encouraged to enlarge
  their herd from 100 cows after the Second World
  War as Britain was short in agricultural
  products. They were offered subsidies from the
  government and later on, the EU. The family were
  unlucky when in 1960 their herd was ravaged by
  Foot and Mouth disease. They had insurance but
  the cows they received as compensation were not
  as high quality. Recently, technology has helped
  the Hitchens in some ways, The refrigerate Milk
  Lorry is an example. Computers are another.
  However recent changes in Dairy Farming have
  meant that he is no longer making the profits he
  used to.

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Type of Farming

• Dairy Farming Farming systems diagram

INPUTS
PROCESSES
OUTPUTS

• PHYSICAL INPUTS
• Climate Mild winter, cool summer not too hot to
  kill grass) and reliable rainfall
• Relief Animal Friendly
• Soils deep and fertile/rich

• ANIMAL PRODUCTS
• Milk
• ANIMALS
• Calves

• Shearing/milking
• Cultivation of land

• HUMAN AND ECONOMIC INPUTS
• Labor Family run
• Buildings
• Machinery/technology
• Animals Cows
• Subsidies (decreasing)

Profit or Loss
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Effect of Government Policies

• The EU has taken control over farmers in Britain
  after Britain joined the EU. Now, farmers must
  obey rules set forth in the Common Agricultural
  Policy. The EU has been overproducing certain
  goods so now if farmers exceed quotas which they
  are given they are fined heavily. Now, the
  Hitchens can no longer afford to farm as they
  did, they must diversify. They have been offered
  grants for Setting aside land they do not use and
  recreating wildlife spots although these earn
  little money. They are mainly short term
  solutions.

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Scientific Advances

• The introduction of Refrigerating Lorries and
  computerized dairy farming have meant the
  Hitchens can hire less workers. These investments
  are expensive and only worth it in the long run.
  Now a computer controls the food intake of cows
  and punches out cards to record the daily milk
  yields of each cow. With the refrigerated milk
  lorry, milk can be transported twice daily to the
  nearby city of Manchester via the M6

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Conclusions

• In the past dairy Farming has been affected by
  subsidies and other governmental policies which
  have both helped them and also damaged them as a
  farm. This has lead to problems such as the farm
  having over production and then having the
  support/subsidies taken away from them leaving
  the farm with an over production which they can
  not make money on.
• Diversification is something that appeals to the
  Hitchens Family Farm to improve the profit being
  made on the farm. This includes going into
  growing cereals like barley.
• Organic Farming is also another option for the
  Hitchen Family. Over time popularity for organic
  farming has increased and so it is possible
  something that the Hitchen Farm will get into.
• New governmental schemes are always being made
  and the hitchens farm will probably take
  advantage of these schemes. These schemes include
  things like Wildlife schemes, Leave fallow
  scheme and Improving milk quality scheme all
  create benefits for the farm.
• There is also the possibility that due to the
  increasing use of mechanization and increase in
  Farm size there is a possibility that the
  Hitchens Family Farm will join another farm to
  make it possible to afford costly equipment that
  is need to increase yield and therefore bring in
  bigger profit. This process is known as
  agribusiness