Farmers see the benefits of grass based dairy management in Scotland and Cumbria

Editorial Department • Published 10 Sep 2010 09:00 0 Comments

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Derrylin/Kinawley dairy farmers, Alan Willis, Abraham Veitch and George Graham enjoying a lighter moment on their visit to the farm of Mr. Richard Thompson near Penrith.

A group of 38 dairy farmers from Fermanagh and West Tyrone have been seeing the progressive farm management of dairy farms in South-west Scotland and north-west England.

During a three study tour to Cumbria, organised by local dairying development adviser, Alan Warnock and generously sponsored by the Vaughan Trust, it included visits to five leading commercial dairy farms, two of which were at Dumfries with the remainder in North Cumbria.

All five host farmers - three of which had spring-calving herds expressed a firm commitment to producing milk from grass. They believed this represented the best system for maximising farm profit. The visiting farmers were particularly impressed with the free draining nature of the soil type on the farms visited and the scale of operation.

The first farm visited was the 400 hectare Linns farm at Dumfries belonging to Michael Kyle. Michael had sold a 108 hectare farm near Omagh in 2006 and purchased this much larger drier farm which had been traditionally managed with mixed arable, beef and sheep enterprises. The development which has been carried out on this farm has been exceptional with the construction of 10km of hardcore lanes, a large woodchip corral, and an 80 unit rotary milking parlour. Stock numbers have increased from the 300 cows and 100 heifers Michael brought with him from Omagh to the present number - 650 cows and 400 dairy heifers. Grassland improvement is ongoing with soil fertility being improved by the application of lime and phosphate fertiliser and 260 hectares reseeded The system of milk production is very much grass based with spring-calving cows grazed for 10 months and then out-wintered on kale or fodder beet or on the wood-chip corral when they are dried off. The cows are cross-bred Jersey/Friesian as they are well suited to this system with their smaller size, good feet and improved fertility. Compact calving is being achieved with 85% of the cows calving within 6 weeks and 75% of the heifers calving over a 3 week period. Milk is supplied to the Caledonian Cheese Company in Stranraer and is paid for on a compositional quality basis. Investment in machinery is kept to a minimum by the extensive use of contractors for most farm operations. The only machinery owned are two quads and one small tractor.

Richard Thompson farms 235 hectares of which 100 hectares is rented. As well as growing cereals and fodder beet he runs a winter calving herd of 244 mainly Holstein cows. There is a strong emphasis on using grass as the main feed for the dairy cows and this is reflected in the herd performance. An average milk yield of 6917 litres/cow with a compositional quality of 4.35% butterfat and 3.47% protein is being produced from a concentrate usage of 1.7 tonnes/cow. In recent years an increasing number of heifers have been mated to Jersey semen. Richard believes that the higher milk compositional quality and shorter calving index of the cross-bred heifers more than compensates for the lower milk yield.

Robert and Jackie Craig run a dairy herd of 340 spring calving cows and 200 dairy heifers on their 157-hectare farm including 29 hectares which are rented. Production is mainly from grazed grass with the New Zealand bred Friesian/Holstein cows turned out in early March and housed in late October/early November. The staff employed are a full-time workman, a part-time workman and a weekend relief milker. Over the past 15 years their farm business has grown steadily with an increase in asset value from £600,000 to £4,500,000. Developments over the past three years have included the purchase of a neighbouring 52 hectare farm, the purchase of a retirement house for Robert’s parents and a farm bungalow to house an employee, and the construction of a three million gallon slurry lagoon. A major setback occurred last year when the dairy company Dairy Farmers of Britain which Robert was supplying went into administration with the loss to him of £60,000 milk revenue and £55,000 capital investment. At present an extension is being carried out to Robert and Jackie’s farmhouse and they have plans to develop and rent out accommodation on the purchased farm.

Gordon and Margaret Tweedie farm 168 hectares including 112 hectares rented. They run a herd of 323 spring calving cows of which 70% are Friesian and 30% pedigree registered Jerseys. No cross-breeding is practised. Gordon has been using semen from New Zealand sires since 1985. Unfortunately his highly rated dairy herd had to be slaughtered due to the Foot and Mouth epidemic in 2002, but he has since restocked. In addition to replacement heifers pure Friesian and Jersey bulls are reared and sold for crossbreeding and as sweeper bulls. Of special interest on the farm as well as the grassland management and livestock were two underpasses, and a new milking parlour which was built separate from the existing farmyard but convenient to the grazing fields.

The final farm visit of the trip was to the 260 hectare farm of Robert Kirkwood at Mouswald Grange, Dumfries. Although Robert runs a high yield herd of all year calving Holstein cows he is firmly committed to a forage based system of milk production. A key factor is the excellent management of high quality grass and clover leys backed up by other fodder crops including kale, fodderbeet and maize. Red clover has been introduced into silage swards to reduce fertiliser input and bought in feed protein. There was great interest in the two robotic milking machines which were installed last winter for the high yielding group of cows. These are grazed separately from the remainder of the herd which are still milked twice daily in the existing herringbone milking parlour. So far Robert has experienced an increase in milk yield and reduced mastitis problems with the robotic milking system.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 09 Sep 10

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