10 minute read
ON FARM
A 90% rate calved within six weeks is currently being achieved by a Leicestershire-based farming couple who started out as new entrants in the late 1990s. Wendy Short reports.
Fertility and carbon footprint areas of focus
Gaynor and Kieran Wellwood operate a 10-month grazing regime for their 320-cow herd and try to match milk solids production to cow weight on their New Zealand-type system at Saltby Dairy, Melton Mowbray.
A breakdown of fertility performance gures shows the high calved in six weeks gure is made up of 90% calved during the period, with 78% for heifers in the rst three weeks, says Gaynor. e o cial calving period runs from February 14 until May 10.
Gaynor says: “It is very important for the business to maintain a tight block-calving period, as it simpli es management and allows the herd to be fed as one.
“ e designated limit is 12 weeks and any females which calve in the last three weeks of the block are sold as fresh calvers.
“We also have personal reasons for aiming for a tight calving block. Our children work overseas and it suits us to have a non-milking period in January as we can y out to visit them.”
Replacements are selected from cows with high milk solids gures, a good breeding record and a clean bill of health. e fertility year begins ve weeks pre-mating, when they are tail painted. Checked three or four times daily, the few individuals which show no signs of bulling are checked and treated by the farm vet before the planned start of mating. e vet will also examine any animals which have not been served within the rst three weeks of the mating period.
Gaynor says: “In our opinion, the secret to maintaining a tight calving period is to use only easy-calving bulls; our calving assistance gure is 2%.
“Cows which calve without incident recover rapidly and are far more likely to get in-calf without
Gaynor and Kieran Wellwood.
Farm facts
The tight calving period helps to simplify the management of the calves. rThe yield average from the 320 KiwiCross females, which carry New Zealand Holstein Friesian and Jersey bloodlines, is 6,300kg at 4.57% butterfat and 3.66% protein rThe herd is milked twice a day in a 24:48 herringbone rGaynor and Kieran are assisted by two full-time employees, while agricultural and veterinary students help out at calving time rGaynor also works part-time as an independent dairy consultant
Cows are turned out during the day from February 20 and will stay out until mid-November.
issues in the following year. We also remove cows which are persistently prone to lameness and/or mastitis, as they will have reduced fertility.”
Longevity is another desirable trait, says Gaynor. “ e current average is 4.6 lactations, although the aim is for ve. ere are economic reasons for this target, but we are also aware that we need to minimise our carbon footprint and longevity is an element of the rating system.
Auditing
“Our milk buyer, Arla, has helped us with carbon auditing and the results were encouraging, although there is always room for improvement.”
e ideal cow weighs 500-525kg and is expected to produce its weight in milk solids on an annual basis.
Gaynor says: “In our best year we achieved 6,000kg of milk from 300kg of concentrate per cow. However, in our worst year we had to feed 900kg/cow to get the same result.
“A lot depends on the weather and its e ect on grass growth. Over the past couple of years, grass performance has been held back by the cold spring, but conditions were be er this season.”
Grass surplus to grazing is made into baled silage. e forage is supplemented with clamp silage that is bought-in by the tonne, while concentrates are fed in the parlour according to grazing conditions.
Fresh calvers start on 3kg/head/ day, dropping down to 1-2kg at peak grass production.
It is essential that only top quality silage is fed to milking cows to optimise performance, Gaynor says.
Meanwhile, dry cows and youngstock are o ered baled haylage. e business operates DIY arti cial insemination and has ‘dabbled’ in the use of sexed semen, but the results to date have not matched the traditional product. e lower end of the herd is inseminated with the Hereford and their beef calves are sold privately,
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along with the dairy bull calves, at two or three weeks old.
Speakes Slipstream, LuckAt-Last Inspired, Busy Brook MGH Mordor and Drysdales Sovereign are among the latest bulls which have been selected from the KiwiCross portfolio.
Gaynor also picks out Crossans Critical, a sire which has had a positive in uence on performance, conformation and health traits.
Cows are usually fully housed in the cubicles by mid-November, a er which they are milked for four weeks and dried o . If the weather is favourable, they will be turned out during the day from February 20 onward. Rainfall in the area is relatively low at 575mm, but the clay soil is prone to poaching.
Troughs
e average paddock size is two hectares (4.9 acres), with each containing two troughs mounted on concrete pads.
Cows enter the paddocks at about 2,700-2,800kg dry ma er (DM) per ha (1,125-1,166kg DM/ acre) and are removed at 1,500/kg DM/ha (607kg DM/acre).
Gaynor says: “Cows graze for only a few hours a day in the early turnout period. During that time they will eat two-thirds of their DM requirement from grazed grass; as fresh calvers their intake potential is relatively low.
“ e average stocking rate over the year is 2.8 livestock units per hectare, which includes the youngstock kept on the grazing platform.” e farm has an annual grass reseeding target of 10% and uses a mix of perennial ryegrasses, Timothy and white clover.
Fertiliser goes on to the land post-grazing and paddocks are also given a mid-season sulphur application. Residuals are controlled by pre or post-mowing where necessary.
e couple, who were born in Cheshire, started out as dairy farm workers in the mid-1980s. ey took on their rst dairy farm tenancy in 1998, when they were awarded a county council tenancy on 14ha (37 acres) near Plymouth.
Move
Progressing with Devon County Farms, they moved their 60 crossbred cows to a 51ha (127-acre) unit in 2003. e Wellwoods had the good fortune to take over a unit with excellent infrastructure when they moved again in 2011, this time to the 138ha (341-acre) Saltby Dairy on a Farm Business Tenancy. e site has a slurry lagoon, two se lement ponds and an irrigation lake, although the extended grazing season keeps slurry production to a minimum.
A number of milk producers have switched to block calving and Gaynor thinks there is room for a variety of production systems within the UK industry.
Having reached optimum cow numbers, the Wellwoods will continue to try and improve performance gures.
Gaynor says: “ e key to maintaining a high standard of herd fertility is to breed the right cow for the system and focus on a ention to detail at all times.
“One future aim is to try and enhance the herd’s performance e ciency, while at the same time continuing to work towards minimising the farm’s carbon footprint.”
Saltby Dairy has a slurry lagoon, two settlement ponds and an irrigation lake. The top end of the herd, judged on milk solids figures, fertility and health, is inseminated with conventional semen to produce heifer replacements.
GAYNOR WELLWOOD
The UK is ready to get mineral nutrition right
By Isabelle England, Ruminant Nutritionist, Trouw Nutrition GB
The UK, alongside other countries, are feeding minerals to dairy cows at levels outside of an optimised and responsible mineral strategy.
Generally, the approach has been to supply higher levels of minerals to avoid deficiency problems, yet this can work to unnecessarily increase costs and impact the environment through excretion. A responsible approach ensures diets contain an optimum balance to support performance and farm profitability, while minimising consequences on the animal and environment.
Recently revised mineral requirements for dairy cows by NASEM 2021 have not only adjusted requirements, but now also acknowledge how the dairy cow may utilise different mineral sources. This means now is the optimum time to consider not only the amount, but also the source of minerals in diets.
As an example, UK dairy cow diets currently exceed the revised copper requirement by around 170% when taking into account an average mineral containing 2000mg/kg copper sulphate fed at 150g/h/d alongside compound and forages. Similarly, zinc requirements have also been reduced for dairy cows. Currently, supplementation of zinc oxide alongside what is supplied from background in the ration means UK dairy farmers could be oversupplying by an average of 145%. However, manganese requirements have increased by 55% yet the UK still oversupplies manganese by an average of three times the updated requirement. Evidently, there is room for a more optimised mineral balance and while copper sulphate, zinc oxide and manganese oxide are the typical sources of these minerals in dairy cow supplements, their efficiency due to being an inorganic source is limited.
The majority of minerals oversupplied in supplements are in the form of inorganic minerals which have low bioavailability, meaning less is available for use by the animal. Sulphates are highly reactive in both the rumen and feed, impacting feed palatability, are susceptible to antagonism and harm rumen microbes due to their antimicrobial effects as demonstrated by their use in footbaths. Impacts on rumen microbes limits rumen fermentation and the overall effectiveness of a diet in terms of both animal performance and cost. Meanwhile, oxides are not a consistent source of mineral as a result of their origin and therefore can never be accurately balanced, increasing the risk of deficiency or toxicity. The solution to concisely and responsibly meet the updated requirements through a better and more reliable source, are Hydroxy Trace Minerals (IntelliBond). IntelliBond minerals are more bioavailable, meaning less is more, and enables farms to reduce their mineral usage in a cost neutral way alongside improved animal performance and reduced environmental concern.
Look at your mineral labels closely
Accurately reviewing your mineral labels means not only considering the total amounts, but also sources used and feed rates. Higher total levels do not always equal quality. Studies have shown that 1000mg/kg copper IntelliBond offers the same bioavailable level as 2000mg/kg copper sulphate, with the added benefits of: • More for less • Palatability • Ration digestion • Sustainability • Improved quality
Over the next 4 issues, we will explore the benefits to challenging the supply and source of minerals to enable UK dairy farmers to be at the forefront of a responsible mineral strategy and optimising their profitability on farm. In the meantime, if you want to start to take action now reach out to us at
