When Richard Abell won the Herefordshire Grassland Society's grassland competition in June, judge Charlie Morgan was full of praise for his system and overall management.

He said the grazing management and grass and forage utilisation at White House Farm, Little Cowarne, were excellent and commented on the clean, well grazed, well structured ryegrass clover swards.

So it was no surprise that, when Richard was entered by the society into the next stage of the national grassland management competition, he came out on top in the central region and went forward as one of the three regional winners to compete in the national BGS Grassland Management Competition, the first Herefordshire farmer to do since the competition was started in 2002.

Emyr Jones, a beef and sheep farmer near Bala, won the overall competition, with Richard a worthy runner-up.

Richard converted to organic production in 2001. The family's farm, where the cows had been run on a grass and forage low input system, with its small fields and hedges, easily met the requirements to enter the Organic Entry Level Scheme.

However, they went through a difficult period for a few years after becoming organic as the market for organic milk had not been fully developed.

They had to face a period when the organic premiums failed to cover the extra costs and lower production was achieved.

Over time, as the demand for organic milk developed, premiums returned, moving the farm back into profit.

Richard Ratcliffe, a Cheshire dairy farmer who headed up the probing judging team, commented on how Richard had successfully changed to organic production, saying the change to organic had made the relatively small farm into an extremely efficient and profitable business, by utilising high quality grass to drive the operation.

The judges described the quality of the grass over the whole of the farm as superb, with the red clover leys outstanding and found the grazing management exceptionally efficient.

The grass at White House farm is religiously measured each week and calculations are done to ensure the cows have access to the optimal amount of grass - and to ensure the paddocks are properly grazed, with high levels of grass utilisation achieved and very few weeds visible in the pastures.

The cows, mainly New Zealand-type Friesians, are usually out at grass from the end of February until early December and graze behind an electric fence, which is moved to give the cows access to fresh grass twice a day.

Due to its success, the business has been able to expand by buying more land, which has allowed Richard to make major changes to his system.

He installed a new milking parlour in 2007 and is increasing cow numbers eventually from 95 to 120, with the intention of rearing the young stock away from the farm to allow more grazing for the expanded milking herd.