Marsh Farm Feature

LOW INPUT, HIGH PERFORMING FLECKVIEHS THE ‘PERFECT’ DAIRY BREED

AT MARSH FARM, SOMERSET

One of the original instigators of the breed in the UK, The Review features Tom & Em Voizey who milk 120 Fleckvieh cows and run the Dancing Hill pedigree herd at Marsh Farm, Hardington Marsh, Yeovil, Somerset.

Tom and Em Voizey have a pretty comprehensive wish list when it comes to productivity within their Dancing Hill herd of pedigree Fleckviehs. With a focus on selection traits, excellent locomotion, longevity and components, it’s no surprise it was love at first sight when they were introduced to the Fleckvieh breed.

However, in 2007 it was MRIs being milked at Marsh Farm and with a new parlour being built, the couple visited Holland to source more MRI cows. But on arrival, they were disappointed by the number available for sale and so were taken to see a herd of Fleckviehs. It was here the love of the world’s second largest dairy breed began for the Voizey family.

Tom and Em are now milking 120 Fleckvieh cows with followers bringing the total head to 150. The 330-acre farm is owned with the couple farming in a partnership with Tom’s Mum, Rosalie. Being in their first transition year following a change in the partnership, the family sold 60 head last October and 50 early this year to create a more manageable number.

As Tom was one of the first instigators of the breed in the UK, the early genetic decisions of the herd were based on careful selection criteria with the foundations he was creating forming not just part of his own herd, but the nucleus of a new national herd.

Early sires used included a German bull, Hutera who exhibited great structure, left high udders and was a really modern bull of his time. He certainly shaped the foundation of the herd,” explains Tom.

As with any successful dairy herd, cow families play a vital role in the herd’s success and three particularly strong ones form the heart of the herd. “The Santana family is all about type; while the France family is so highly thought of that members of this family were often selected as demonstration animals at technical events such as The Livestock Event to promote the breed. Then there’s the Precious family, which originates from an embryo out of the dam of the noted Hutera sire,” adds Tom.

Tom strongly believes the fact the breed is not a fashion lead show cow, there are many breeding options to consider, the focus of which are all very heavily weighted towards commercial attributes, particularly production.

Production and constituents are key to the herd with the milk having been sold to Barbers Cheese at Shepton Mallet for the last 10 years on a solids-based contract. The herd is currently averaging 8000 litres at 4.2% fat and 3.65% protein.

The herd is milked twice a day by Tom with the help of some flexible cover. Olivia aged 10 and Josh aged seven show a very keen interest in the herd with Olivia ably assisting Em with the calf rearing.

AI is used extensively in the herd due with up to five or six bulls on selection at any one time. The bottom third of the herd is mated to a beef sire with a Limousin sweeper bull used after AI. “This is another bonus of the breed in that the beef calf has an added value and isn’t just a poorer quality by-product. Our beef calves are sold at 30 days through Frome Livestock Market with prices up to £450 reached,” adds Tom.

The process of choosing female replacements is strict and they come from the herd's best families. "We used to import semen ourselves, but now we use GGI Spermex, a marketing distribution arm of seven AI centres. This gives us a really excellent choice of genomic and progeny tested bulls”.

The small genetic pool for the MRI was looking to become a challenge for Tom and Emma but this is not a problem with the Fleckviehs. “The worldwide population of the breed provides a wide selection of genetics, demonstrated by the Fleckviehs having the lowest level of inbreeding of any dairy breed along with a really progressive breeding programme in Germany that we can access,” he adds.

The herd is all year round calving with a predominant focus on an autumn block which suits the family well and the cows graze seven months of the year. “Cows are fed a forage-based diet, all grass and TMR for which we grow 30-40 acres for crimping along with rape, topped up in the parlour. We use a strip grazing system, supplemented with minerals,” adds Tom.

Herd health is a massive part of the management at Dancing Hill with the herd vaccinated for IBR, Salmonella, BVD and Lepto. Johne’s monitoring has been in place for up to seven years with a zero tolerance within the herd. The scourge of TB is a constant worry, but luckily the herd has never been shut down.

Looking ahead at agriculture globally, Tom feels positive despite agriculture taking a knocking in recent times. Looking on a bigger scale he feels the global warming debate has been hijacked by the vegan agenda, but as the facts such as using clover to fix nitrogen begin to surface among other positive PR, the industry should work together to promote this. “The debate is slowly beginning to change, creating more positive opinion and we need to reinforce this to the general public,” explains Tom.

Tom and Emma are both massive advocates of the breed and take any opportunity to promote Fleckvieh wherever possible.

Being dual purpose the breed offers income from more than just the milk, maximising income from culls and the male progeny…

"The balanced breeding programme over decades has resulted in very high levels of fitness with the resulting lower antibiotic usage. Despite being the world’s 2nd largest dairy breed they have the lowest level of inbreeding meaning a good spread of bloodlines going forward. The versatility of Fleckvieh is very much seen in how they perform well on all systems from grazing to housed,” says Tom.

So, when asked to find a negative, Tom is naturally hard pushed. “I accept that perfection doesn’t exist, but for me the Fleckvieh is the closest I’ve found!”