Welcome to Clive Hall Farm, which is to be Cheshire’s first Dairy monitor farm.
Clive Hall is a 62 ha farm, operating a spring block calving, grass based system that is currently one of Andrew Fletcher’s (Fletcher & Co) contract farming businesses, with the farm being managed by me, Phil Asbury.
Regular updates from me about progress on the farm will be posted below throughout the year…
AN electronic ‘daily diary’, created by Dr Kay Carson (Steering Group member) is a new management tool to collect, store and analyse data at Clive Hall Farm.
Farm manager Phil Asbury spends 15 minutes at the end of each day inputting all relevant information from the day, for example grass growth, litres of milk produced as well as any general issues.
This ‘daily diary’ stores all the necessary day-to-day information in one place and monitors key performance indicators (KPI’s). KPI meetings continue on farm with the attendance of Phil, Geoff Booth (Fletcher & Co LLP Operations Manager) and Dr Kay Carson to monitor and review Clive Hall’s weekly performance.
Focus Areas
Clive Hall Dairy Monitor Farm Key Focus areas are:
Cow Management – health and welfare, fertility, milking /overall cow performance and young stock
Grass growth and Harvesting – grass growth performance, species and soil quality/analysis
Asset care – machinery and parlour improvements/maintenance, buildings and tracks and efficiency of utilities
Next Discussion Group Meeting – would you like to take part?
We are now developing the dairy monitor farm discussion group so that you can contribute to the monitor farm project by expressing your views, experiences and ideas. Through this discussion group and knowledge transfer you and your business could see the benefit.
An on-farm open day will be held at Clive Hall Farm early September and all are welcome to attend. The day’s demonstrations will relate to Clive Hall’s focus areas which were identified by the steering group using the lean management style process mapping.
Full details are to follow, if you are interested in attending and would like more information on any of the above please contact Lesley Innes, Reaseheath College Tel: 01270 625131 ext 308 / mobile 07788 721 943 Email: lesleyi@reaseheath.ac.uk
WELCOME to Clive Hall again…
When I finished my last report, I had just tail painted all the cows to enable me to identify any non-bulling cows before the start of service on May 1st. From May 15th, I noted daily each bulling cow. This was done because Ed (the vet) was due to visit on the 28th and cows bulling from 15th to the 21st could be estrumated to pull their next heat forward 10 days, and thus condense service. We will do the same with the cows bulling from 21st to 28th.
12 to 16 cows a day
Put another way, we are pulling cows that, if left, would cycle in week 2 of service forward to week 1, and week 3 cows forward to week 2. So when I started to A.I at the beginning of May, I was busy serving 12 to 16 cows a day.
Geoff (my manager) and Ed were keen that any lean, light, lame and or non-bulling cows identified by the 28th May should be put into a once a day milking group – to take the pressure off them and give them a better chance of getting in calf. I wasn’t keen but it hasn’t been too much of a problem, and very successful, as of the 20 cows we put in that group, there are only 4 cows I have not AI’d or been bulled to date ( 7th June).
90% served
By the 21st of May, I was targeting to have 93% of the herd AI’d but had only managed 83%. However, by 24th we had got 90% served.
When Ed visited again on the 24th, I had 25 cows for him to examine that had not been served. We put Cidrs in 6 and estrumated 8 and the other 11 he was happy that they were ok and would come bulling in the next few days.
Grass cover at 1,922kg/dm/ha
Away from the cows, grass growth has been steady. We made 6ha of round-bale silage on the 3rd of May, and another 15ha with the forage wagon on 12th May. By the 20th we took another 10ha out from the grazing platform and put that in the pit together with 13ha of grass away from the farm a mile up the road.
This year we have carried out 5ha of reseeding. These paddocks will have been grazed three times since the start of February but are always slow or poor leys.
Dales Contractors came and sprayed these fields off and 10 days later, direct drilled them with Matrix cool grass mix. These fields are now only just coming through and desperately need some rain – which is now falling as I tap away doing this blog.
So, with a dry May, my grass has grown really well until last week when it started to slow and with some ground as reseeds the farm cover is low at 1,922kg/dm/ha but I am happy that I have control.
I know I need to get the cover up, so two weeks ago I put corn up to 5kg in the parlour from 1kg. This had no effect at all on milk volume telling me that grass quality is good. This has enabled me to reduce the grass demand and help cover to increase.
On 4th June, I dropped the corn back to 2kg and, again, this has had no effect on milk volume. With the rain now falling and fertilizer on the fields I am sure growth will be good and get me back on track.
THE dairy monitor farm steering group has now established the key focus areas for the monitor farm – originating from the lean management style process map which was created by Andrew Fletcher (Managing Director Fletcher & Co LLP) and Phil Asbury (Clive Hall Farm Manager), with support from Robert Wiseman Dairies and Dr Kay Carson.
Dr Kay Carson, Geoff Booth (Operations Manager, Fletcher & Co LLP), Phil Asbury and Andrew Fletcher, just having a quick catch up about Clive Hall’s KPI data collection
Collection of Clive Hall’s historical, current and future performance will give an overall picture of performance which will continue and monitor performances as changes in management practice are implemented.
Monitor Farm Focus areas:
- Cow Management; health and welfare, fertility, milking /overall cow performance and young stock
- Grass growth and Harvesting; grass growth performance, species and soil quality/analysis
- Asset care; machinery and parlour improvements/maintenance, buildings and tracks and efficiency of utilities
We are now developing the dairy monitor farm discussion group so that you can contribute to the monitor farm project by expressing your views, experiences and ideas. Through this discussion group and knowledge transfer you and your business could see the benefit.
The first meeting is expected to be held late July (full details to follow).
Who to contact if you want to attend:
If you are interested and would like more information on any of the above, please contact Lesley Innes, Facilitator, RDPE Northwest Livestock programme, Reaseheath College
Tel: 01270 625131 ext 308; mobile: 07788 721 943
Email: lesleyi@reaseheath.ac.uk
THIS spring we will calve 210 cows in 11 weeks and rear 95 heifer calves to 90 -110kg in 10 weeks.
Spring calving
Mapping out the road ahead
We want to look intensely at every single thing that happens on the farm and map out the thought process behind all the major decisions.
We will make a road map that aims to make the farm even more efficient and profitable, and will also help other farming businesses look at their own farms and become better through being involved in the monitor farm experience.
The year so far…
Anyway, I will give you a run down on what has happened this year so far. As I said before, Clive Hall is spring-calving, so from December 23 2009 every cow on the unit was dry – so no cows to milk over Christmas and New Year – happy days.
Dry cows are housed on sand cubicles and fed self-feed silage. As they start to get close to calving the cows are moved onto straw bedded yards and fed good quality hay. The start of calving is February 1st. By Feb 7th, the calved cows were out at grass day and night. You mean ‘so and so’ I hear you say, but they’ve got a leather and fur coat- so what’s the problem?
By Feb 21st 110 of the 210 cows and heifers had calved. The animals that are at grass are allocated 8 to 10kg dm/ cow plus 5kg/dm concentrate and 1 to 3kg/dm of silage if they want it.
We aim to graze 33% of the farm in the first 30 days from turn out – as more and more animals calve, the larger the area we allow the cows to graze each day. This spring has been slow as regards grass growth so we have kept the grazing cows limited to 8kg/dm of grazed grass 5 kg/dm concentrate and 3kg/dm silage.
“Magic Day” and “Rocket Fuel”
Regrowth like rocket fuel
By eating the old grass that’s been there all winter, the regrowth now is like rocket fuel – it’s better than anything your rep can put in your feed hopper.
It’s great to know that we’re actually starting to graze fields for a second time this year before most of Cheshire has even turned a single cow out. I did keep the milkers in for two days when we had the snow because they couldn’t physically get the grass, but as the snow disappeared they were pushing at the gates to go out again.
Late March and the wet weather was a pain. Total farm cover was down to 1639 kg/dm/ha and with very little silage left in the pits, a big load of bale silage was bought from up Leek, Staffordshire to get me through that period .The cows have easily made residuals of 1300 on all but 1 of my 31 paddocks, without too much loss of body condition.
We started the Second grazing round on the 8th April with farm cover at 1700 kg/dm/ha- still a little low but I am confident the farm will gain cover with the good weather and longer days.
Problem cows and metri check
Our focus areas now are dirty cows and non cycling cows – with only 6 cows left to calve as of April 12th. Ed Hays, our vet from Wright and Morten (a fellow Liverpool supporter), came on the 8th April to go through any cows or heifers that had problems at or soon after calving.
It’s so important that any problem cows are sorted out now so they at least have some time to clean up and start to cycle ready for the 1st May when we start to A.I.
Part of the daily morning routine through February and March has been to shed cows out and metri check them for metritis and treat any problem cows with either metricure, excenel or tylan depending how bad they are. Any cows that are fine and don’t have a problem have a white tail tape and are left to get on with it – thankfully I’ve used lots of white tape!
Painting and De-horning
Fluorescent stripes
Reaseheath students have been a great help this spring as they have de-horned most of my heifer calves. I’ve got two groups of 40 outside using the milk bar trailer behind the quad bike. These calves will be shipped away when they are 90 to 110 kg to be reared, and the best ones will return in two years as replacement calving heifers.
So it’s been busy over the last three months but the weather has warmed up and spring has sprung at last. There will be lots more to report as the year goes by.
Phil Asbury
THE Dairy Monitor Farm launch attracted a good mix of farmers who all enjoyed an informative day at Clive Hall Farm. The day’s events started with an introduction to Clive Hall as the Monitor Farm, the RDPE Livestock Northwest programme and team members by Lucy Shenton of Reaseheath College.
On the farm walk: Cows out at grass
He said: “We plan to do this is by using an industrial style business planning method called ‘process mapping’ in order to highlight areas that, if changes are applied, will improve the farm management system. It’s all about making the best decision in every part of the farm business”.
Following Andrew’s short talk, the farmers were taken on an information-packed farm walk by Phil Asbury, Clive Hall Farm Manager, who knows the farm like the back of his hand.
Since it was a dry day and not too cold, the walk covered several fields at various stages of the grazing rotation at Clive Hall Farm. Although the farm walk focused on grassland management, through the monitor farm project other areas of focus will include; milking, animal health, fertility and youngstock management as well as the overall farm business structure.
DairyCo and benchmarking
DairyCo’s James Hague was also present for any questions throughout the day with regard to benchmarking performance on dairy farms. James said: “There are about 150-170 farmers in the DairyCo Milkbench+ scheme. We aim to get a true picture of the monitor farm business, including all costs, some of which may not be reflected in the farm accounts.
“There will be other farms that are profitable, but have other enterprises that make up for poor profits from milk. The scheme looks purely at milk production”.
After lunch, Agricultural Economist Dr Kay Carson spoke about the importance of benchmarking and how ‘process mapping’ within the dairy industry would be a breakthrough in how farms are managed to become more economical.
Kay said: “Looking at current figures from farms taking part in Milkbench+, there is the equivalent of up to 12p per litre difference in production costs between farms in the top 10% and bottom 10% on financial performance. This is nothing to do with milk prices, simply the difference in costs of production which are largely governed by management.This is where process mapping comes in”.
The day was rounded off by Andrew saying a few words, who concluded the meeting by saying, “We will be working closely with DairyCo and their Milkbench+ system over the next three years to look at and report on how we are progressing with our process mapping work. Our aim is to drop input costs by 15% over the three year monitor farm project and help our bottom line”.
Join Clive Hall’s farmer business group
If you would like further information on the activities on the Cheshire Dairy Monitor Farm or to get involved, please contact livestocknw@reaseheath.ac.uk or call Lesley Innes, Northwest Livestock Programme Facilitator on 01270 625 131 ex 308 or email lesleyi@reaseheath.ac.uk.
You can follow Phil Asbury’s blog on these pages here at www.livestocknw.co.uk. Click the “HOME” button at the top of this page for his latest update.
This farm’s launch open day will now take place on March 24th 2010. Please contact Lucy Shenton at Reaseheath College (01270 616457) to find out more about how you can benefit from being involved with this monitor farm.
The event will introduce the farm practices and look at the nutrient, resource and health plan objectives. Dr Kay Carson will also discuss benchmarking and on-farm efficiency.
Find out more about the farm by clicking on the farm factfile in the right hand column of this page