Hello and welcome to the blog for Cumbria’s dairy monitor farm, I’m Kate Gascoyne, the facilitator working with monitor farmers Matt and Sue Bland at Hesket Farm, Dacre, Nr Penrith.
I work for Cumbria Farmer Network delivering the Northwest Livestock Programme in Cumbria, organising business group meetings for the farm where practical advice and discussion with other farmers and some of the best specialists in the UK is helping the farm achieve a healthier and more productive herd.
I’ll be posting updates below as the meetings progress – please contact me for further information on how you can join in…
Tel 01768 881462 or email: kate@thefarmernetwork.co.uk
THE Herd Expansion Conference held at Penrith Auction saw over 100 farmers in attendance hear the experiences of Matt and Sue’s herd expansion as told by SAC’s Jimmy Goldie.
Other speakers iincluded a look at animal health issues, adapting buildings and building design and the lessons learned by a farmer and Nuffield Scholar.
The meeting was led by Jimmy Goldie, Senior Dairy Consultant at the SAC Dairy Centre Crichton Royal Farm, Dumfries. There was a demonstration of the effects of the Eden Rivers Trust soil aerator.
Cow Numbers and Grazing Efficiency
Matt and Sue have bought 100 more cows recently and the cows in milk are now 224. Milk sales August 2010 to August 2011 have doubled (100,000 to 200,000litres). Farm labour has increased to one full-time person and more relief milkers.
The amount of grazing available to the milkers has increased this year, due to the sale of young-stock. 350 acres of grass is available for grazing and cutting on the farm.
Jimmy reported on the improvements in the milk from forage figures this summer compared to last summer. Litres from forage in May 2010 was 6.5 and in May 2011 was 10.2 litres, saving 10 tonnes of feed this May. Some of this was due to the season starting earlier this year and it being more consistent, rather than a high peak, but also due to paddock grazing most of the milking cows. This had involved grazing the cows for 2-3 days only on each of the fields, using the LIC plate-meter to assess the amount of feed there and to plan the grazing and cutting routes.
The fields were grazed down to about 1800kg/ha and grass growth had been very good. The original aim was to graze down to 1500kg/ha, but wet season and good growth had prevented this. Many of the grazing fields have also been mowed and baled to maintain the quality of grazing. Fertiliser applications on grazing ground have been reduced this year. Some of the grazing fields were injected with slurry during the season.
There is still work to do to improve the swards and control docks, but over-seeding had not been possible this season, due to the good growth rates preventing grazing the fields right down in preparation.
One issue discussed was that TMR tends to reduce grazing and the cows are not hungry when they go out. They tend to lie down for a lot of the time outside. At present the fresh calved high yielding cows can only take in a maximum of 5kg DM from grass, because they need TMR to sustain the milk yield. The farmers present debated how much to pull back TMR to force cows to graze when they have not ‘learned’ to fully graze.
The issue of needing to feed a very highly digestible, high energy cake in the parlour in order to increase the intake of grass was discussed, for example, 1kg soya hulls will substitute out 2kg of grass.
At present the cows are split into two groups which are the original Hesket cows and the Purchased cows. This has been for bio-security reasons. However the cows could be split into high and lower yielding cows. This would allow the lower yielding cows to make more use of grazing grass. This could be helped using the shedding gate at the exit of the parlour.
Adding an extra ram to an existing shedding gate will make it easier to separate cows into grazing and housed groups after milking, based on milk yield. The low yielding cows could get grass plus cake in the parlour and the higher yielding cows could get access to TMR as well
Autumn Grazing
It was decided to graze only the cows yielding less than 20 litres per day, (between 50-80 of them) for as much of September and October as possible, preferably turned out without having TMR, so that they are hungry and graze for longer. This will also limit the number of cows to go through each gateway – putting them through the same gateway only once per week if possible and quick rotations between fields. Care will need to be taken to make sure that any cows short of condition are not kept grazing for too long to avoid lack of condition problems later in the winter.
Tack sheep will be used again to graze off extra grass over the winter and improve quality for the spring. They currently leave the farm on April 1st. Ideally they should be removed from early grazing fields earlier than this to allow enough time to create a grazing wedge. This will depend on the growing season and amount of rain preventing turnout of cows.
Milk Yield and QualityThe cows are averaging 8,500- 9,000 litres/ lactation and the quality at the moment s 4.08 % B.F. 3.2% C.P.
Cow Health
The existing herd and all of the bought-in cows have been vaccinated as part of a cattle health plan, with IBR, BVD, Lepto, wormed, tagged and blood-tested for Bluetongue. This has cost about £7 per cow and they are all ready for a booster.
Matt said that Johne’s Disease is the main worry, as it is difficult to detect. Cows are blood-tested at drying off.
Soil Aeration
Carrs Billington demonstrated the Ritchie aerator that they use as part of the Eden Rivers Trust trial. The knives were set level and very little disruption to the sward was evident. This should help air get to the bugs in the soil and increase the availability of nutrients to the grass plants.
Slurry spreading causes compaction and blocks air access. Matt would have to spread slurry more often this year as he had 4 months storage before, but with the extra cows it will be only 2 months and so he will need to spread more often.
Planning Winter Feeding
Both 1st and 2nd cut grass silages have a good analysis. Both are at around 16% crude protein. The farm should have sufficient good quality forage available this winter for the larger herd. Matt asked the group for opinion on what to do with his wheat crop. Should he keep it and make his own caustic wheat or with current price should he sell and then buy in caustic wheat as he needs it? Group opinion was to sell. The business has caustic treated wheat on contract and Vitagold available. To maximise the use of home-grown forage this winter, the business needs to buy some high quality protein to balance the other feeds already available. Matt is looking into buying an additional feed bin for a protein blend.
Overview
Jimmy has seen improvements in grazing management and reduced lameness and was pleased to see the expanded herd going into the winter in good shape, with plenty of home-grown feed. The herd size is well-balanced with the productivity of the farm. There is still scope for better efficiency in grazing and improved cow mobility, both of which should improve profitability to finance the herd expansion.
SIZING up the future. A one day conference for dairy farmers who are looking to dramatically increase herd size or who would like to discuss herd expansion.
Where: Penrith Auction / Hired Lad . When: Thursday, September 22nd 10-30am to 3pm
The conference will cover the many issues that farmers face when they seek to expand their dairy herds.
The idea for the conference has come from the experience of the RDPE Northwest Livestock Programme Dairy Monitor farm at Dacre near Penrith which is in the process of increasing its dairy herd from 160 cows to 300 cows by the end of 2011.
The monitor farmer, Matt Bland, is grappling with the challenge of managing and almost doubling in size his dairy herd with the help of a number of specialists, including Jimmy Goldie of SAC Consulting and the dairy monitor farm steering group.
Chairman of the steering group, Kevin Beatty said: “Many farmers are seeking to expand their herds to achieve economies of scale in the battle to stay in the industry.
“This conference will look at the experience of our monitor farm and examine many of the issues involved in herd expansion including making best use of the farm‘s buildings, designing new buildings, animal health considerations, how to keep input costs down, staffing and finance. Farmers will be free to attend the talks they are interested in and also to visit a range of Dairy Company exhibition stands in the Show Hall.”
Speakers at the conference include:
· Jimmy Goldie, Scottish Agricultural College Dairy Specialist
· Karen Lancaster, Vet and Dairy Co Extension Officer
· John Allen, Kite Consulting
· Jamie Robertson Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Biological Science, University of Aberdeen and Livestock Management Systems Ltd
· Andrew Mycock- Farmer and Nuffield Scholar
PLUS OVER 30 DAIRY INDUSTRY EXHIBITOR STANDS IN THE SHOW HALL
For more information about the event, please contact Kate Gascoyne on Tel: 01768 881462 or email: kategascoyne@btinternet.com
Led by Hugh McClymont (farm manager) and Jimmy Goldie (senior dairy consultant). 12 farmers from Cumbria attended.
1) Farm details:
a) The farming business
i) A commercially run unit that charges organisations and commercial companies to carry out dairy research.
ii) All the land is rented, as are the 3 farm steadings, plus additional land rented on short-term agreements.
iii) Total of 750 acres farmed
iv) About 500 dairy cows plus followers
v) Produces about 4.4 million litres milk/ year
vi) Arla milk contract for maximum production
vii) Growing grass, maize, red clover, spring beans, lucerne
viii) The farm is in an NVZ – so storing dirty water separately and using a mobile slurry separator for the two steadings can pump this separated liquid further from the steadings via umbilical at 4.5%DM, 3.2% N/ cubic metre. Similar P and K analysis for the solid and liquid fractions.
ix) Cow tracks installed to paddocks to improve grazing management. One length of cow track is made of Solway recycling grid applied direct to grass, with planings topped off with fine dust.
b) Herd management
i) Two herds, the Langhill and Acrehead herds are kept on the two separate steadings.
ii) All cows are milked three times a day.
iii) Currently rearing calves in the original Crichton Royal Farm psychiatric hospital ‘model farm’ Grade 2 listed buildings.
iv) Bull calves sold.
v) Plan to have a larger calf and young stock facilities in the future.
vi) Heifers calve at 2 years old average, bulled at an average of 375kg, when they are strong enough
vii) Young stock reared separately on a 3rd steading and all housed until P.D. in calf
viii) Mobility score and condition score all cows every week (Step matrix used for early problem detection). Feet trimmed weekly as necessary. The lack of regular trimming of heifers feet is a problem now being addressed.
2) The current research:
Systems and Genetics systems are being trialled.
a) High and Low Forage diet trials.
The Langhill Herd is split into two genetic groups (High genetic merit and average genetic selection). Half of each of these two groups are fed on either a high forage diet (70% DM from forage) or a low forage diet (55% DM from concentrates). The whole Langhill herd is constantly a young herd with new heifers regularly coming in. All cows in the langhill trial herd are first, second or third lactation.
i) Low Forage
Cows are housed all year round and fed a TMR, with loafing area in summer. Individual cow feed and water intakes are measured constantly. The high genetic merit herd on the low forage diet are averaging over 10,500 litres.
ii) High Forage
Cows are given access to grazing when sufficient grass is available.
This is based on paddock grazing. Grass is measured twice per week and grass budgets are checked regularly. Cows are fed buffer TMR when grass availability falls below target. The TMR is 75% forage.
The high genetic merit group fed the high forage diet are averaging over 8,000 litres on 1 tonne of concentrate. This equates to over 6,000 litres from forage.
The herd has a calving interval of around 420 day – so asking a lot of them, particularly as all-year round calving. May be best to run this system on block calving?
Grazing management – paddocks – applied 120kg N in February/ March, before grazing. Then mow and pick up bales after 2x grazing and inject separated slurry – ready for grazing again in 3 weeks, depending on conditions.
b) By-product or home-grown diet trial.
The langhill herd will move on to a new systems trial later in 2011. The two feeding systems will be Home grown diet or By-product diet:
i) All by-product diet.
Diet consists of straw, vitagold, biscuit meal, breakfast cereal, distillers grains, sugar beet pulp, soya meal, molasses, megalac and minerals. Cost about 15ppl for all feed. No land needed, so can rent out land or grazing.
ii) All home-grown diet.
Diet consists of grazing, grass silage, maize silage, beans crimped wheat, lucerne, red clover silage.
3) Discussion
a) Which is the most profitable system?
Main effects are relative feed and milk prices. The average genetic merit and average yielding cows make the most money when livestock sales are included (i.e. making the most from the ‘by-products’ of the milking herd).
b) Any difference in vet and med costs?
Not obvious. Average cost across both herds is £106/ cow, about £50 on routines, plus extras.
(Jimmy sees a range on different farms from £30- £130).
FIND out about the Low Forage and High Forage systems being monitored and the effects of the breeding and management within these systems on profitability, cow health, welfare and the environment.
You are also invited to visit the Scottish Agricultural College’s Crichton Dairy Research Centre Farms, Dumfries as part of research trip for the Cumbria Dairy Monitor Farm Business Group.
When: Monday 27th June 2011
**This trip has been re-arranged (from the 16th) due to clashing with a local dispersal sale**
TWENTY TWO farmers contributed to this business group meeting discussion, led by DairyCo cow mobility and lameness specialist Jo Speed.
Jo explained the DairyCo Mobility Scoring system and the value of having someone who is not directly working with the herd on a day-to-day basis scoring the cows regularly (say ever three months), as well as the farmer or herdsperson assessing mobility of the herd weekly and informally on a day to day basis as cows come into or out of the parlour.
Spot lameness early and cut out the cost
The importance of picking up the foot of a cow showing very early signs of lameness and treating it within 24 hours was brought home by the national research which has shown that a cow going fully lame (Score 3 of a range 0-3) costs on average £330.00 in the treatments and loss of milk and fertility during the time it takes to achieve a full recovery.
DairyCo’s Mobility Scoring video explains more below:
Foot trimming at Hesket Farm
Catching and treating cows at an earlier stage (Score 1 and 2), significantly reduces the costs and loss of production.
At Hesket Farm in February, when lameness was at its highest, due to poor weather conditions, approximately 48% of the herd were assessed at Score 2 or 3. It is difficult to give a target, as the industry doesn’t have an average, but the target should be less than 5% of herd score 3.
Early detection and trimming very important
Key message: The meeting demonstrated the value of early detection and trimming, suggesting that research showed that cows identified, and trimmed at score 2, recover quicker (50% in 2 weeks), whereas those cows treated at score 3 see only 75% recover in 4-6 weeks and a proportion of these require further treatment.
This research from Bristol validates the benefit of early detection and prompt treatment.
Mark Blease, cattle foot-trimmer from Carnforth who is a Category 1 National Association of Cattle Foot Trimmers member (i.e. he is Dutch trained and continually assessed), demonstrated the foot-trimming techniques and tools that farmers need to be able to do basic foot maintenance and how to treat some of the most common foot problems.
He also covered the maintenance of tools and hoof knives, and the hoof and wound protection materials that are available.
Cow comfort
Discussing mats
Foot-bathing, cow housing and slurry management were discussed and the farmers present reported how they had lifted and increased the length of their cubicles over the years for bigger cows and better cow comfort.
Discussing cubicles
Matt and Sue Bland are in the process of furnishing a new building at Hesket Farm with higher cubicles and thicker cow mattresses.
Changes inplemented at Hesket Farm to combat lameness
Victor Oudhuis, of Paragon Vets, and Matt outlined some of the changes that had been made and would be made over the next few months at Hesket Farm to monitor and improve cow mobility over the period of the monitor farm project. These are:
• Weekly mobility scoring by Matt or farm staff
• 3 monthly mobility scoring by vet
• Routine trims at drying off, 60 days into lactation and if lame at Score 2.
• Use 5% formalin footbath 3 times per week for milkers and once per week for dry cows.
• Pressure hosing feet once every 2 weeks before footbath to remove crusts.
• Increase automatic slurry scrapers to hourly.
• Scrape the feed passage for the dry cows daily.
• Repair broken concrete in end passages.
• In the cubicles – move the head rail forwards, fit brisket boards to all and increase cubicle bedding – all to increase cow lying times.
• Set up straw yard pens for ‘special needs’ cows requiring more comfort (lame cows, pendulous udders)
• Use of deep sand bed cubicles for fresh- calved cows.
Carlisle firm Mathers Ltd brought along a DeLaval automatic self-cleaning and re-filling footbath, which is designed to try to overcome the problem of cows soiling the footbath fluid.
There will be an update on progress in improving cow mobility at the Monitor Farm Open Day, which is planned for October 11th.
In September 2010, Matt and Sue tested out their business plan for expansion as part of a DairyCo Planning for Profit course, with Jimmy Goldie, senior dairy consultant for the SAC.
In January and February 2011, Jimmy facilitated two meetings on-farm, with a ‘business group’ of over 30 farmers, to determine what would be the best way to:
1) Make better use of the grass silage and wholecrop grown on the farm, bearing in mind the quality and quantity of feeds and the housing and feeding facilities available.
2) Make better use of grazed grass for 300 cows in the coming season, bearing in mind the grazing limitations (wet ground, sward quality, fences, tracks and water troughs).
The next meeting planned for 2011 will be on Friday May 6th looking at Lameness and Mobility Improvement at Hesket Farm.
Further info will be available nearer the time. Contact farm facilitator Kate Gascoyne Tel: 01768 881 462
THE Bland family at Hesket Farm have identified Grazed Grass as an opportunity to decrease feed costs.
This meeting will be using DairyCo’s Grass+ as a basis to plan a grazing routine for the farm to maximise home grown forage and grazing but still maintain high production from the cows.
Where: Hesket Farm, Dacre, Penrith CA11 0LU
When: February 22nd 11am to 2pm
Discussions will be led by Jimmy Goldie, Senior Dairy and Nutrition Consultant from the Scottish Agricultural College’s Dairy Centre at Crichton Royal, Dumfries. Grass is the main feed input on all Cumbrian Dairy farms and anyone who attends will be encouraged to participate in making plans for the monitor farm.
To book your place contact Kate Gascoyne at the Farmer Network.
Sue and Matt Bland with their two year old daughter Lucy and SAC's Jimmy Goldie (right)
MATT and Sue Bland have opened up their farm gates to help them pursue their commitment to milk production in the Lake District National Park.
As one of the six RDPE Northwest Livestock Programme monitor farms in Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire, they have agreed to regular farmer business meetings at their unit Hesket Farm, Dacre near Penrith, with input from both experts and farmers on how to improve their farm’s profitability.
Hesket Farm hosted a business meeting on Thursday (January 20) organised by Cumbria Farmer Network for the programme with SAC senior dairy and nutrition consultant Jimmy Goldie, based at Crichton Royal, Dumfries.
In preparation for the retirement from the business of Matt’s parents John and Margaret, the couple are making changes to their commercial milking herd.
They are planning to expand cow numbers over the next 12 months from 160 to 300 Holsteins, building a new 98 cubicle shed for high yielders alongside the existing cubicle building.
The new cubicle shed under construction.
“If the dairy job picks up we can go back to bulling the cows with the Holstein but this way we can keep our options open,” said Matt. “Previously, we have had to over winter our herd replacements on another farm because of lack of space here.”
Hesket Farm runs to 400 acres of mixed soil type, running from 600ft to 1,200ft above sea level. Winter and spring cereals and beans are grown on 62 acres for wholecrop.
Soil type near to the farm buildings is mainly heavy clay and although there is usually plenty of grass it cannot be grazed.
Recent developments have included the installation three years ago of a new milking parlour and computerised feeding system and shedding gates.
A new building for separate dry cow housing has improved the health and performance of the early lactation cows.
The dry cows at Hesket Farm.
New cubicles and mattresses, breast boards and head rails have been fitted to improve lying times, cleanliness of udders and reduce digital dermatitis.
Lameness and mastitis are key problems to be tackled in the farm’s animal health and welfare plan, in turn having an impact on fertility and performance.
The use of Genus RMS fertility management service and routine weekly vet visits are improving cow health and fertility.
Currently the 135 cows in milk are averaging 8,100 litres at 4.28 per cent butterfat and 3.38 protein. Cell counts are running between 170 to 200.
The herd’s calving interval is 400 days with 60 days to first service and a 26 per cent replacement rate.
Nutrition – Jimmy Goldie
Jimmy asked for feedback from the group on what they had seen and measured on the farm, specifically, on the silage quality and quantities, TMR feeds and feeding set-up and condition scores of cows at different stages of lactation.
The cows are fed a TMR diet and topped up in the parlour. The ration for the milkers consists of 1st cut grass silage 25kg, beans wholecrop 4kg, brewers grains 4kg, soda grain 5kg, blend 2.5kg, Megalac 0.4kg, straw 1.0kg, molasses 1.0kg
Jimmy Goldie, right, discussing silage quality at the meeting.
It was recommended topping up the energy content of the diet for the dry cows in the last two weeks before calving.
Roughly calculated, approximately 50 per cent of the total ration (including the blend fed in the parlour) is forage. To feed the extra cows an excellent second cut of silage will have to be made in 2011.
Lameness and mobility scoring
An area of priority was to identify the causes of the lameness in the herd as the lame cows are not maintaining condition and will not be profitable.
It was suggested by the group that cows are mobility scoring every month by a vet from the Paragon practice to be followed-up the next day by the foot trimmer.
The scores and diagnoses then looked at to see if they correlate with ongoing problem cows, or stages of lactation, and cows with recurrent cases should be culled.
Observations should also be made on sleepers, slats and steps near feed troughs to identify problem areas.
Cubicle comfort may be an issue if cows are not lying down long enough – 11am is the best time to see how many cows lying at one time – shows which cubicles they favour.
Hello and welcome to the blog for Cumbria’s dairy monitor farm, I’m Kate Gascoyne, the facilitator working with monitor farmers Matt and Sue Bland at Hesket Farm, Dacre, Nr Penrith.
