Redgate Farm

Redgate Farm provides the opportunity to acquire a large dairy unit set in a ring fence in the fertile Cambridgeshire Fens. The North American style cubicle house, collecting yard and parlour, constructed in 2007, provide housing and infrastructure for 600 cows with the potential for further expansion and additional staff accommodation. Milk is currently sold under an Arla Foods milk contract.

As well as potential for further expansion of the dairy, the farm has potential for a roof mounted photovoltaic scheme and anaerobic digestion unit, further details are available from the Vendors' agent.

Redgate Farm House
Constructed in 2007, Redgate Farm House is located on the eastern edge of the farmyard and is accessed via a gravel drive leading from the main farm entrance with a gravel parking area in front of the house. Brick built under a tile roof the house provides spacious family accommodation.

The ground floor comprises a large, dual aspect sitting room with fireplace and timber floor. An open plan dining room with tiled floor leads into the kitchen / breakfast area. The kitchen has timber base and wall units with a timber work top, Belfast sink, ELBA gas hob and over plus wooden bench seating. Double doors lead onto the gravel garden area at the rear of the property. Accessed from the kitchen is a utility room, with wooden work top, Belfast sink, Warmflow boiler and plumbing for washing machine, from which there is a back door and downstairs WC.

The staircase leads from the dining room to the landing which provides access to four double bedrooms and a family shower room. The master bedroom has a large en-suite bathroom and storage area.

The house benefits from double glazing, oil fired central heating and private drainage. The garden is laid to lawn with a gravel area around the house.

Farm Buildings
Cubicle House (140m x 36m) – of steel frame with fibre cement roofing, roof lights and end cladding with PVC coated profile steel sheeting. Automated curtain ventilation with rain sensor. Housing for 600 cows with straw yard isolation and calving pens automated slurry passage scraping to central slatted external slurry sump with sand trap and pump to adjacent slurry lagoon.

Parlour and Dairy building (49m x 24m) of steel frame with fibre cement roofing and adjoining the cubicle house. The building houses an automated gate push collecting yard, animal drafting and treatment races and a 20:40 rapid release Dairymaster herringbone parlour. The parlour fills two bulk tanks with a total of 32,000 litre capacity, sufficient to store milk for every other day collection. The building also houses an office, wash room, machinery room and has a pump plant housed in a lean-to adjoining the building. Included within is a three phase generator. Part of the building has been subdivided to provide staff accommodation over two levels and comprises a kitchen, sitting room, four bedrooms and a bathroom. Standing aside this building is a 60,000 litre fresh water storage reservoir with central pumping station.

Calf house (18.8m x 10m) – Steel frame with brickwork to the eaves, corrugated roof, concrete floor and open ended with half height metal doors.

Outdoor Cattle Yard – Adjoining the cubicle house and parlour building is an outdoor concrete cattle yard.

Machinery Store (16m x 5.5m) – Traditional timber framed and brick building with corrugated roof and concrete floor. Planning permission was granted in 2006 for conversion of this building into a two bedroom dwelling. Work on this conversion has not been started.

General purpose building (23.5m x 18m) – steel frame, 5 bay, former grain store with corrugated cladding and roof. Adjoining lean-to at the rear of the barn, housing a generator. Adjoining mono-pitch store (23.5m x 7m) with steel frame and fibre cement roof and cladding.

Dutch Barn (22m x 5.5m) – 6 bay, open fronted barn with steel frame with corrugated steel roof and cladding.

To the west of the cubicle house are two silage clamps with over 12,000t capacity, on a concrete pad with earth bunker sides and drainage to a single point for piping with auto pump to slurry lagoon.

Bunded slurry lagoon with butyl liner fed by automated scrapers and pumps with approximately 8 months storage capacity.

Clean water is collected from roofs and stored within a lined above ground reservoir for livestock watering and washing down.

There is a mobile home located near to the entrance of the farmyard, which has planning permission and is currently occupied by a member of staff.

Farming
The farm is run inhand by the Vendors as Redgate Farm Limited. There is a herd of approximately 425 with 359 in milk, although there is capacity for a herd of up to 600. The herd, as recorded by CIS, has a 12 month rolling average yield to 1st August 2012 from qualifying lactations at 10,100 kg/head with a calving index of 401 days and milk sales showing butter fat of 3.88% and protein at 3.09%. The low yielders are out to grass and the high yielders are fully housed but the unit has previously run 600 cows on a fully housed system. Currently the milk is sold under an Arla Foods milk contract. The current staffing on the farm comprises four full time members of staff. In recent years the Vendors have been rearing some heifer replacements having moved away from a flying herd.

More details of the herd performance, the milk contract and staffing together with the machinery and livestock for sale are available within an information pack from the Vendors' agent. Buyers interested in purchasing the livestock and machinery should note that these items are for sale at an additional price (to be confirmed) to that which will be agreed for the land, house and buildings at Redgate Farm.