NET ZERO

The theme for this year’s Gold Cup Open Day, hosted by the 2020 winners – the Torrance family, Albyns Farm, Essex – was ‘the road to net zero’. Sarah Alderton finds out more.

The Torrances are milking 685 cows with just over 500 followers and are breeding for lifetime production and feed e ciency. ey are yielding 13,100 litres on three times a day milking with 58 100-tonne cows in the herd.

All heifers are genomically tested at birth and anything with a Pro table Lifetime Index (£PLI) under 485 is served straight to beef. eir top £PLI animal currently stands at 811. eir breeding outlook changed in the late 2000s when they joined a discussion group and switched to breeding smaller, more functional cows which were easier to maintain. eir continual selection of £PLI for the last eight years instead of the Holstein Index has resulted in longer living, healthier animals, explained Liam Healy, GB genetic service manager for Genus.

At the same time, the family also invested in a sand-based 360-cow shed and slurry system, which was replicated two years later with a dry-cow shed, eradicating the need for antibiotic dry cow therapy. ey have not used intramammary antibiotics in 24 months, opting only for teat sealants at drying o . eir success lies with breeding a herd ranked in the top 1% on £PLI managed in a system that allows cows to exhibit their genetic potential.

Open day

Speaking at the open day, Christine Pedersen from e Dairy Group, said: “ e things that make a pro table herd are the things that also help reduce emissions.

“John is breeding a herd in the top 1% on £PLI and health, welfare and fertility go hand in hand.

“He is achieving a pregnancy rate of 29%, which shows you can have high-performing cows and good fertility.”

Ms Pedersen explained how, unlike many milk producers, Mr Torrance had moved away from targeting milk from forage, with only 30% of the milking cow ration made up of grass.

She explained: “When John looked at the opportunity costs for growing grass compared to wheat, forage was expensive. Instead, he uses multiple co-products, which in turn, is also helping reduce his carbon footprint.”

Milking cows are fed a maintenance (M) +45 litre ration total mix ration and later in lactation move onto a M+40 litre ration and M +35 litre ration. Maize makes up the majority of the ration (21-22kg a head a day), with three co-products also included – brewer’s grains (5-10kg/head/day), potato chips (4.5-7kg/head/day) and citrus pulp (4-6.5kg/head/day).

Straights are also included. e target is to aim for a dry ma er intake of 26kg/head/day containing 16% protein.

Co-product feeding helps reduce the carbon footprint of the farm, which currently stands at less than 900g of CO2 equivalent per kg of fat and protein corrected milk produced.

Emily Keep, UK head nutritionist at Duynie UK, said co-products o ered a solution to reduce feed costs and carbon footprint and remove soya from the diet.

“Co-products replace crops grown on land with products harvested from the surplus in the human food chain. is reduces the land required per kg of milk and meat in any livestock enterprise.

Carbon

“You can not get net zero without addressing feed carbon. Co-products are virtually all very low carbon plant-based products, as the primary product used in the human food chain takes responsibility for the carbon.

“John is using co-products to reduce his reliance on wheat; on top of that, they are highly palatable and nutritious, so help drive intakes.”

Ge ing cows eating and digesting their food relies on well thought-out accommodation in this housed herd. Ideally, cows should eat or lie down for more than 20 hours a day.

Cows at Albyns Farm are housed on 5in-deep sand beds, each 3.9 feet (1.2 metres) wide and 8.2 (2.5m) long, with a fallen curb at the back of each cubicle and a gradient of between 1-2% on the oor. is allows muck to drain easily to the centre of the building, helping keep cows clean.

Tim McKendrick from e Dairy Group explained how sand was the most ‘forgiving’ bedding for cows.

“Cows are most comfortable on sand and are not fearful of it as they have grip when standing.

“You can see that the cows always lie straight on this farm, which is what you want.” e passageways have a parallel groove imprinted to prevent slipping and rubber mats at the feed fence. is herd’s outcomes are a testament to the Torrance family’s building design and management.

Mr McKendrick added: “ e best way to measure if a housing design is successful is by the outcomes, such as mastitis rates, mobility, fertility and somatic cell counts.”

Mr Torrance and his team are constantly monitoring cow performance through Cow Manager and assessing their body condition every month. is ensures cows dry o and maintain the target body condition score through the dry period and into lactation.

Entries for the 2022 Gold Cup are now open.

Dairy farm taking steps to net zero

rEntries for the 2022 Gold Cup are now open. Visit rabdf.co.uk/ gold-cup-comp