Farming Partners (FP) is a group of professional farmers who have come together to run a number of dairy farms in Scotland and Ireland. The business model is a partnership approach where landowners become 'partners'. These landowners are passionate about their farms and want them to be well managed. Partners include SLE members Jamie Blackett and Alister Jack.
FP specializes in grass-based farming, growing as much green grass as possible and turning it into high-quality milk. They calve their cows in the spring when the grass is growing, dry off their cows around Christmas, and feed them silage over the winter until the grass grows again. FP uses a partnership approach where they work with landowners. Their people have the skills to run a grass-based system with a track record of delivering consistent profits. They believe in the future of farming and will invest in it when they have the opportunity and the resources to do so. The partnership system gives 50% of the profits to the landowner and 50% to the management and cow owner.
By combining resources, they have been able to make the farms more efficient and profitable. FP loves the way they farm, and while this approach sounds simple, working with mother nature and the various seasons takes a lot of determination and skill. Investing in the physical infrastructure on their farms as well as their own skills allows them to do this efficiently, so that they do a really high-quality job on each of their farms. They operate a grass-fed (New Zealand) system - the cattle are grazed intensively for one day then moved to fresh grass, not returning for 21 days. This has produced much more biodiversity. Cow pats are great for insects and birds. They have a holistic philosophy - they want to maximize food production but regeneratively. FP has a track record of helping young people opportunities within agriculture, for example: Joe McMillan, who manages a 650 cow dairy herd near Lockerbie. Joe has been able to save up year on year and buy a percentage of the herd. 10% of the herd gives him 5% of the profit.
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