Cattle Haylage Production

The City of London Corporation (the City) invites Tenders for the provision of Cattle Haylage Production.

Production of hay, haylage and silage from our own land for feeding our cattle herd in winter.

As one of its core activities The City of London grazes Epping Forest and its surrounding lands utilising a herd of pedigree Longhorn cattle. During the winter the cattle are housed at Great Gregories Farm where the cows will calve inside buildings. When ground conditions are favourable in the spring the cattle will then go out to graze. Currently the herd size is 200+ with plans to increase this year on year, currently we require at least 1100 bales a year from our own lands to feed the herd through the winter months.

Silage, haylage and hay needs to be cut at different times of year in order to preserve enough feed for the cattle and to meet the conservation needs of our grassland sites. In order to reduce plastics, we plan to cut at least 120 bales as hay (unwrapped) and store undercover at the farm. Most of the grasslands are unimproved and receive no fertiliser, they yield on average 10-15 bales a Ha.

We are undertaking a tender process to appoint a contractor to produce our winter feed over a 5 year period.

We are having a purpose built hay shed erect June 2024 as move to having more bales made as hay (un-wrapped)

The appointed contractor will be expected to carry out the whole process. This will include: