A Cornish dairy farm has won an award in recognition of the adoption of innovative approaches to farming.

Adam and Georgina Roberts from Trye Farm, near Penzance, have won the 2023 ‘VetPartners Sustainable Dairy Farmer of the Year’ award.

Autumn block calving farmers, Mr and Mrs Roberts, have been clients of Rosevean Vets for many years and Matt Berriman who nominated the couple for the award.

They have carefully introduced systems to reduce business costs whilst maintaining an excellent level of herd health.

The team has pre-breeding and calving meetings with the vet and nutritionist, to identify key action areas for the herd in addition to planned fertility visits.

The farm focuses on a tight block with proactive farm team engagement, which has led to improvements in mastitis and lameness cases and is well below average antibiotic use.

Mr Berriman explained his reasons for nominating the husband-and-wife team:“The couple have seen some fantastic results in the past three years, as part of their current five-year strategy. They know sustainability is vital to stay business efficient and to protect their farm in the long term.

“They’re great to work with and are so keen and so proactive. They’re clients who really maximise the value of working closely with us as their vets."

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VetPartners farm director and award judge, Ian Cure, said: “At a time where input costs and the price of milk are so unpredictable, we want to recognise farmers who are making huge efforts to improve business sustainability as well as the welfare and productivity of their herds.

“We asked our vets to nominate farmers who are dedicated to continually improving their dairy operations, whether that’s working with the environment, herd efficiency gains or sharing their knowledge.

"The team at Tyre Farm has maximised milk production from forage, improved health and nutrition and developed a suitable breeding programme, all in an effort to reduce input costs and carbon footprint.”