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Young farmer shaping her family business
Pages 10-12 ON FARM FEATURE
MILK PRICES Pages 68-70
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Contacts
Editor Katie Jones 07786 856 439 katie.jones@agriconnect.com
Dairy Farmer, Unit 4, Fulwood Business Park, Caxton Road, Preston, Lancashire PR2 9NZ
Origination by Farmers Guardian, Unit 4, Fulwood Business Park, Caxton Road, Preston, Lancashire PR2 9NZ. Printed by Warners Midlands, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH. No responsibility can be accepted by Dairy Farmer for the opinions expressed by contributors.
a word from the editor
Idon’t quite know where to start this month; the weather, milk prices, milk contract legislation or the new Government?
We’re still only weeks in for Sir Keir Starmer’s new team, and we are still trying to glean information about what a Labour Government will mean for farming.
As Phil Latham comments in his Dairy Ma er’s opinion piece (see pages 14-15), talk is cheap, and we now need to wait and see what Labour actually does now it holds the power.
e new Defra Secretary Steve Reed has outlined his ve key priorities and, while it is heartening to see food security at the core of these, actions will speak louder than words.
A er years of waiting, new dairy legislation, in the form of the Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024, has nally come into
force. e transparency and increased accountability this legislation brings is a huge step in improving fairness across the supply chain.
Farmers should be able to deal with their buyers with a high degree of trust and, while it is disappointing that regulation was even needed in the rst place for this to happen, this should now give dairy farmers some con dence going forward.
Milk prices
ere has been a urry of milk price rises of late, but market analysts are suggesting that any more price rises may slow down as we head further into summer and early autumn. For more on this, see pages 68-69.
And nally onto this summer’s weather. Well probably the least said about that the be er at the moment.
Unions hail start of dairy contracts
New dairy legislation which aims to protect farmers across the supply chain has come into force following more than a decade of campaigning by farming groups.
The Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024 will now apply to all new contracts made for the purchase of milk from a producer.
The NFU said it is hoped the new rules would establish ‘transparency and accountability’ across the dairy supply chain by stopping contract changes being
imposed without agreement.
According to Defra, there will also be a system in place to enable farmers to verify the calculation of variable prices.
NFU Dairy Board chair Paul Tompkins said it marked a ‘significant step’ in a long road of campaigning to improve fairness across the supply chain.
He said: “The NFU has long been campaigning for fairer, more transparent contracts to aid trust and collaboration across the supply chain and prevent some of the worse abuses of power one-sided contract terms allowed.
Arla to cease production at Melton Mowbray site
JArla has ceased production at one of its sites in Leicestershire which has been making dairy products, such as Stilton cheese, for more than 200 years.
The farmer-led creamery confirmed it would be stopping production at its Tuxford and Tebbutt Creamery site, Melton Mowbray, at the end of June, with about 60 jobs at risk.
Back in January, Arla said it was conducting a ‘strategic operational review’ of the site in order to return a ‘fair price’ for its 2,000
UK farmers, following a ‘decline’ in the cheese market.
However, Fran Ball, vice-president of production at Arla Foods, announced a proposal had been made to cease production at the Melton Mowbray creamery.
Ms Ball said: “We have spoken to colleagues who are affected by these proposals and we are now entering in to a period of consultation with those colleagues.
“Our priority right now is to support our colleagues impacted during this challenging period.”
“Any new contract o ered to a producer must be compliant with the new regulations. is means, among other things, it must o er a clear, transparent price or pricing schedule.
“Con dence in your dairy contract and con dence in those you are doing business with is vital when it comes to long-term business planning and certainty for the future.”
e regulations also include an enforcement regime, which
allows Secretary of State Steve Reed to impose substantial nancial penalties to entities which make breaches.
Transition period
ere will be a transition period of 12 months for existing agreements. All such contracts will need to be compliant with the regulations by July 9, 2025.
Sco ish Dairy Hub and NFU Scotland milk policy manager Tracey Roan said
Any new contract offered to a producer must be compliant with the new regulations.
the change had followed a consistent campaign by the unions of ‘calling out unfair practices in the dairy supply chain’.
Ms Roan said: “A signi cant proportion of the calls that all UK farming union dairy teams receive are from farmers with issues which ultimately relate back to their milk contract.
“It has taken a great deal of work from a dedicated team within NFUS to help drive this over the line.”
Campaign to inform about milk’s benefits
J‘Milk Every Moment’, a new campaign designed to highlight the numerous benefits of milk to young students involved in sports, has been launched by AHDB.
In collaboration with British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS), the campaign will provide students with information on the role milk can play in a healthy, balanced diet.
The partnership aims to reintroduce these young students to the natural goodness of milk through relevant, interesting and entertaining content.
The campaign underscores milk’s affordability and it being a natural source of seven essential vitamins and minerals, aiming to capture market share from high sugar energy drinks and milk alternatives.
The campaign will be featured on BUCS social media channels, including Instagram and TikTok, plus emails, microsite and in-person events.
The BUCS Rugby Union National Championships will now be known as The Milk Cup.
Organic farmer fears over regen and lack of public awareness
Frustration at a lack of industry cohesion, public awareness and Government support, coupled with anger at the growing number of regenerative farms, were the key messages dominating day two of this year’s National Organic Conference.
Following presentations from organic specialists, including regen agriculture consultant Neils Corfield, Trinity AgTech customer success manager Oliver Rubinstein and AHDB cereals and oilseeds knowledge and transfer manager Henny Lowth, two testy sessions on marketing and sector resilience followed.
These prompted one delegate to ask why he had paid more than £72 to attend the event, which was held on the Kingsclere Estate, Hampshire, and is run by Tim May.
Much of the discussion centred
Adrian Carne said the challenges the organic sector was facing were multiple.
on ‘the threat of regeneration’ and how organic farmers can compete alongside a burgeoning regen sector, which delegates claimed had an easier route to market via retailers’ attempts at ‘greenwashing’.
Adrian Carne, Yeo Valley director and chair of the recently
Defra team appointed
JCalls from the farming industry for continuity in the Defra team from the new Labour Government were answered with the appointment of Defra Secretary Steve Reed and Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner.
Mr Reed is MP for Streatham and Croydon North and is believed to be a close ally of the Prime Minister, serving as Shadow Defra Secretary since September last year.
Mr Reed has vowed to restore the party’s connection with the countryside with his five priorities, including supporting farmers to ‘boost Britain’s food security’ with farmer confidence low. Other key priorities included cleaning up Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas.
Joining his team is long-serving
Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner as Farming Minister. Mr Zeichner has spoken in many debates on food security and wider environmental issues, including challenging the former Government’s target on air and water quality.
Under-Secretary
Emma Hardy has taken on the role of Under-Secretary of State. The Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice MP was formerly a Shadow Defra Minister overseeing flooding, oceans and coastal communities.
Animal welfare champion and president of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, Baroness Hayman of Ullock, has also joined the department and will serve as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.
formed UK Organic – a Community Interest Company which aims to serve as the sector’s marketing agency to ‘drive a unified message and create renewed consumer interest’ - also revealed that after day one of the event, he was no longer sure what organic farmers wanted.
He said: “I have been in the sector since 2001 and I am here to help, but it would be really helpful if you could let me know
what you wanted, as to be honest I am really confused as to where you want your sector or your herd or your community to go.”
Lack of support
Mr Carne said the challenges the sector was facing were multiple, including a lack of support from Defra, which had contributed to the problems by ‘paying farmers not to produce food’.
New Gov must make ‘food and farming priorities’ clear
JWhile there is recognition in Labour’s manifesto that food security is national security, NFU president Tom Bradshaw has highlighted improving business confidence was critical.
Mr Bradshaw, who met with Steve Reed on his first full day in office, said a ‘fit-for-purpose’ seasonal workers scheme, supply chain fairness, effective import control, investment in infrastructure and flexibility in planning were vital to drive the sector forward.
He said his members wanted to see the new Government’s
commitment to food security ‘by being alert to the risk and impact of disease, particularly bovine TB’.
Chris Dodds, executive secretary of the Livestock Auctioneers’ Association, said he was ‘uncomfortable’ with Labour’s lack of pre-election policy and ‘chatter’ around the badger cull and a rise in taxes.
Tenant Farmers Association chair Robert Martin said he was worried too much farmland was being lost to ‘vanity projects’, such as rewilding, and said that a ‘land sharing approach’ between agriculture and nature must be adopted.
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DAIRYTalk
Claire Eastham
Claire Eastham farms with her husband Martyn in Dorset, where they milk 120 spring calving cows. After gaining knowledge and experience working for other businesses, the couple started their own dairy farming journey in 2015 by taking on a share farming agreement before progressing to their current county council farm.
“ No-one on their death bed said: ‘I am glad I did all that milking’
Ihave recently been helping to chair the British Grassland Society Summer walks across Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex. I cannot help but think that activities like this are just the tonic most farmers need.
After what has been a tough 12 months due to the weather, being able to challenge each other, share advice, meet a host of inspirational farmers and just walk has been incredibly uplifting.
There seems to be a taboo in farming about time off: an idea that we should all be working all of the time, and that we are not successful or hardworking if we are not. Maybe that should be turned on its head, because to me success is getting off the farm. Working smarter not harder should give us time to spend with our families and do the things we enjoy, and if doing a study tour so we feel that we can call it ‘working’ is the way to ease into it, then so be it.
All of the host farmers have a work-life balance, with one calling himself ‘lazy’, yet in reality he has worked hard to take that title in building a business that works for him and not the other way around. No one on their death bed said: ‘I am glad I did all that milking’.
Many of the host farmers have built a system that suits both the farm and themselves, are working alongside nature, naming species in diverse swards for commercial use, or have species-rich grasslands with lower stocking rates as the butterflies fluttered around en masse.
Data drives the businesses. They all meet challenges head on, get themselves and their teams through them and regroup and – most importantly – learn for the next season. These incremental changes are pushing their businesses and their ideologies forward.
Grass growth
Here on the farm, we have put in a little buffer feed as grass growth rates started to decline. After conversations with a neighbour we were also concerned about low milk ureas and protein in the diet limiting production, so we switched to a high protein cake which has lifted both. Thankfully it rained last night and there is more forecast, so hopefully the grass will now bounce back.
With a wet spring, the farm seems to have very noticeably reverted to old weed grasses, so we will be looking to push on with reseeding this autumn, which
often gives us a better working window. During spring, we can see soils very wet one week and like concrete the next. This phraseology angered a gentleman in a WhatApp group once, though to this day I am certain he has never farmed on heavy clay – we are, after all, in ‘the marsh’.
Soil
The soil organic matters are about 8%; we run an all-grass system with diverse root structures, and try wherever possible not to plough.
Our meadow fields down the road do have high organic matter, sitting at about 20% – this has been checked by several soil scientists and does feel like peat. This ground holds moisture like a sponge and is certainly where we need to get to.
Serving is going well, with all cattle served within six weeks and few repeats monitored by observation. We will shortly start PD testing within the milk samples, hopefully resulting in less stress for both man and cow plus fewer false results.
We carried a couple of empty cows this year (not very commercial, I know) and then found beautiful Hereford calves with mums at the end of the block. So hopefully this might result in fewer surprises.
Our six-monthly bovine TB testing is next week, so fingers crossed, but it does seem to be getting worse again – let us see what policies our new Labour Government brings.
DAIRY TALK
Ben Yates
Ben Yates manages Mells Park Estate, Somerset, where he oversees a 400-cow unit and manages the 405-hectare (1,000-acre) estate. Along with his wife and two sons, Ben has his own small herd of pedigree Holsteins under the Wowcow prefix. He joined the Holstein UK Board of Trustees in 2021.
“ I’m proud to see my love of showing dairy cattle has rubbed off on them both, and we enjoyed some success along the way
At long last we are enjoying some warm, dry weather here in Somerset. We have been lucky enough to grab some weather windows to do our first and second cuts on our Italian lays, and our first cut on everything else.
The first cut SAM3s have performed, as well as our five-year lays in their second year; let’s see what the rest of the year brings.
We are at the point in our breeding season where we are just starting to dry off the herd, and with this all cows are having their feet trimmed pre drying off.
Fairly quickly we will be down to just 150 cows left milking, with two-thirds of the herd dried off by the last week of July – the calm before the storm.
It has been a welcome relief to have received several milk price increases through the spring from our milk buyers, Barber’s.
Last month I carried out our sustainability audit of the farm in conjunction with Barber’s, it raised some interesting points. We have seen a reduction in our electricity usage by increasing the water supply to the plate cooler. However, unfortunately, we haven’t produced as much from the solar panels this year due to the poor start of the year. This is our second year doing this, and it is starting to give us some recommendations to consider.
Time for celebration
As I write this I’m about to attend the Holstein UK Celebration and AGM in my neighbouring county of Wiltshire. We will be visiting four Holstein UK members’ herds, and I’m sure we will see some great cows and different set-ups.
The AGM will see Nick Helyer of the Clampitt herd take on the role of Holstein UK’s president for the next year. When Nick was serving as a Holstein UK trustee he was very involved in the establishment of the Cattle Information Service, so he has a great understanding of the businesses.
It was a pleasure to sit on the committee to select the winner of this year’s Sue Cope Bursary for Holstein Young Breeder’s members. It was fantastic to have such a high standard of applicants from our young members, with the bursary only in its second year.
Congratulations to Cameron McGregor of the Scotland Club who was chosen as the winner and
will put the grant towards purchasing a clipping crush, with which he’ll be able to pass on his knowledge of clipping to younger members.
May saw the boy’s rugby season come to a close, finishing off with the end-of-season presentation. I was chuffed to see my eldest boy, Oscar, be awarded most improved player of the year in his under-14s team.
This coincided nicely to free up time for some showing at our local shows. We took a small team of our own Wowcow Holsteins to the North Somerset Show and the Royal Bath and West Show.
The lads did a lot of the preparation themselves with their Christmas present of the clipping crush being in full use and both clipping their own handling calves.
Saying that, showing has become very much a family affair for us, and I’m proud to see my love of showing dairy cattle has rubbed off on them both, and we enjoyed some success along the way.
Running a housed dairy herd can be expensive but by maximising every cubicle place a Welsh family farm is protecting its profit margins. Debbie James reports.
Young farmer shapes the family business
Every cow in the pedigree Deri herd at Derimoelion near Carmarthen must earn her place.
In return for good nutrition, a comfortable environment and superb stockmanship, the 500 Holsteins are expected to be productive and healthy.
“Maximising every cubicle, not keeping anything that is not performing, that makes the biggest di erence to pro t margins,” says Frances Evans, who runs the herd with her parents, Robert and Diane.
“If she is a fresh cow, I expect her to be producing 50-60 litres a day. I do not want that cubicle place taken by a ‘do not breed from’ cow that is giving 20.”
Frances has brought fresh ideas and energy to the business since
returning to the farm in 2017 a er a year spent studying animal science at Cornell University in New York.
It was a course that delved into the intricacies of dairy herd management.
“It was really, really zoned-in to the functions of a dairy cow to extreme levels – reproduction, production, herd health, dairy herd management. It was an exceptional course,” Frances says.
Universities
She suggests UK universities are ‘missing a trick” by not o ering something similar.
“I had looked at UK universities for courses that specialised in dairy herd management, but there was nothing.”
e ‘Dairy Fellows’ course at Cornell came with an opportunity
to visit dairy farms that were in nancial di culty, to ‘troubleshoot’ and come up with potential solutions – on how to reduce youngstock mortality rate for example. e principles learned from the process have been valuable as Frances has helped shape the business at Derimoelion.
ese range from milking protocols to nutrition.
She says: “Yes a nutritionist
Maize is being grown for the first time on-farm (pictured here in mid-June).
costs money, but it is an investment as we cannot be specialists in everything. Sometimes you have to outsource to a professional who really understands the ins and outs of that subject.
“You have to make the most of the people you have around you.”
e Evans’ farm about 303 hectares (750 acres) with 222ha (550 acres) owned and the remainder rented through farm business
Frances Evans says her cows need to produce 50 to 60 litres of milk a day to maximise efficiency at her family’s farm.
tenancies or short-term agreements. e pedigree herd is the beating heart of their system.
A wealth of digital data captured on collars that track heats and rumination and eating in real-time is deployed to inform daily herd management decisions.
e herd is yielding an impressive average milk yield of 13,000 litres a cow a year from a total mixed ration (TMR) of maize and grass silages, wheat, ground maize, maize distillers, soya hulls, rape meal and
minerals. Multi-cut grass silage provides high quality forage in the diet – up to ve cuts a year with the rst taken in mid-April.
Maize is also an important component in the ration in driving milk production.
“We have been feeding more maize in the diet recently and we have seen a massive improvement in yield, we have never sold more milk than we do now,” says Frances.
Although maize is being grown on the farm for the rst time in 24
THE MONO CALF BUILDING
years, this is due to circumstance more than a permanent shi in strategy.
Weeks of heavy rain meant there was no opportunity to get winter wheat planted so maize will occupy that land. It will be wholecropped together with home-grown triticale.
Sexed semen is used on cows and heifers for three cycles. is is followed by Aberdeen-Angus genetics, via insemination for the cows, while a stock bull runs with the heifers.
Aberdeen-Angus cross calves
are sold on contract to Blade Farming. Sexed semen has helped the business capitalise on selling surplus breeding heifers as an additional source of income.
e Evans’ have not gone down the route of genomics, preferring to instead use well proven sires.
“I will not lie, I do not like milking ugly cows,” says Frances.
“I do not know what we would do di erently with genomics, perhaps we might breed for certain traits that we liked, but in my opinion, a bull
The herd is giving an average milk yield of 13,000 litres/cow a year.
AberdeenAngus cross calves are sold on contract.
ON FARM
with good type and conformation is be er than any genomic bull.
“Personally, I do not think genomics has yet proved itself on meeting conformation type and pro table cows, but I hope one day I can be proved wrong.”
For her, the perfect cow is one which she does not notice.
“If a cow goes under the radar, gets on with her day-to-day job, that is the best cow,” she says.
Milking is three times a day and done by a team of six sta .
Having good milking protocols is another management tool gleaned from across the Atlantic.
“We do not expect our milkers to be stockmen, we want them to stick to the protocols, strip the fore-milk at every milking and wipe and dip,” says Frances.
Developing sta is down to ‘really good training’ from day one, she adds.
“We almost prefer to take on employees that have not milked before as there is always a risk that
they will have picked up bad habits and will not stick to our routine.” ere are bi-weekly sta meetings for team-building and to iron out issues.
“It gives us a chance to crush any problems that are brewing, to deal with issues in a calm manner,” says Frances.
Although it does the job, she sees the parlour, a 20/40 herringbone installed in 2002, as one of the weaknesses in the system, but replacing it will need to wait with major investment needed in slurry storage to comply with new Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) regulations.
e parlour has a throughput of 100 cows an hour, but rather than seeing its limitations, Frances concentrates on its potential.
“ ere is still another 10 hours in every 24 hours when it could be running,” she points out.
“I learned in America the value in maxing out the parlour. We will probably upgrade to milk meters before we put in a new parlour.”
‘Green’ bedding, made by separating water from slurry to produce material with a very high dry ma er content, is used in the cubicles.
It is a system that has been in place for eight years and has worked exceptionally well.
Because the Evans family see it as a low-cost form of bedding it is used in abundance to provide a comfortable bed for cows.
ey trialled mixing it with lime to soak up excess moisture, but found it was unnecessary and an extra cost.
“We did not see any di erence, because we can get the solids dry enough straight from the machine,” says Frances.
Lagoon
It is a means of reducing slurry volume too, but far short of what would be needed to free up capacity to meet the ve months’ storage requirement of the new rules for the control of water pollution.
A planning application has been submi ed for a new lagoon.
Although the Welsh Government has made £20m available to help farmers with the investments needed to become compliant, Frances says it falls signi cantly short of what is required for a Wales-wide policy.
It is the NVZ policy and many other issues pu ing farm businesses under pressure that galvanised Frances to embrace opportunities to engage with politicians.
As a member of the group, ‘Digon yw Digon’, which translates
as ‘Enough is Enough’, she and other farmers are trying to enact change. On one occasion they met Mark Drakeford and Lesley Grifths, then First Minister and Rural A airs Minister, respectively.
She says: “I am very passionate about ge ing involved in these meetings. As farmers, we are the ones living and breathing farming, how can politicians fathom what people are going through when they are so disconnected from our industry?”
Frances owes her work ethic to her parents and is grateful to them for instilling that in her.
“I think one of the most valuable lessons you can teach your kids is how to work hard,” she says.
Although there are times when she sees the appeal in a nine-to- ve job, she is very con dent that she made the right decision by choosing to farm.
“I love my cows, I love being my own boss. ere is a saying that to be successful you really must fall in love with your job and I really do love my job.”
rAll-year-round calving
rCalving interval of 395 days
r600 youngstock
rAge at first calving is 24 months
r30% replacement rate
rSomatic cell count stands at 160,000 cells/ml
rBactoscan 19 Farm facts
Green bedding is made by separating water from slurry.
Principles Frances Evans learned at Cornell University have helped hone the dairy business.
Frances says she is aiming to breed cows that ‘go under the radar’.
DAIRYMatters
‘The heckling is over, it’s time to deliver the
promised change’
Phil Latham, a dairy farmer from Cheshire, reflects on the General Election result and what a Labour Government might mean for farmers.
The 87 words mentioned in the Labour manifesto aren’t enough for us to understand the detail of the party’s policies.
I am heartened by Steve Reed’s five priorities, including the ongoing commitment to Defra’s bovine TB policy and to nature recovery, as they are both costly and will require Government investment, as the market doesn’t support either.
This is quite a positive step from when Labour claimed to want a science-based policy in 2015.
At the NFU Conference that year, I asked Huw Irranca-Davies, then Shadow Defra Minister, if he’d support culling if the Government’s chief vet said the evidence supported the cull and he said ‘No’.
I am also aware that senior members of the party, including the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner have played to their urban gallery regarding the badger cull, framing the debate with Wind in the Willows images and blocking
me in 2017 during a row on Twitter, when I pointed out that she didn’t have an informed opinion.
It is a worry that we may lose the hard-earned gains for bTB, but then again, we were heading that way for a while under the Tories. Life in power will be different than life in opposition. When you sit on the opposition benches you are unburdened by the consequences of your decisions, you won’t get your way, you can promise easy answers to complex problems and dismiss the efforts of the incumbent party as pathetic.
Self-inflicted corrupt cuts
I don’t think Labour so much won as the Tories lost. The Tories had been committing political suicide for some time, death by a thousand self-inflicted corrupt cuts, and there’s always a hand in the till moment.
Whether it’s been PPE or betting, the optics suggest they have been enriching themselves and forgetting the trials and tribulations of the less fortunate.
I think they mistook Boris Johnson’s majority as a vote for his popularity when in truth it was the rejection of Jeremy Corbyn’s brand of socialism. Boris squandered his majority and, while still popular with some, he was so despicable as a leader that his own party resigned in record numbers.
The right wing has to reflect now on why it was rejected so comprehensively. There’s a choice to be made to improve its electability, move further right or return to the centre.
Personally, I feel the party has been held hostage long enough by European Research Group types, and I think it’s compromised them, made them mean, unrelatable, with far too much in common with what was the British National Party.
Phil Latham
“ I don’t think Labour so much won as the Tories lost. The Tories had been committing political suicide for some time
And speaking of those accused of bigotry and xenophobia, we are now nally going to see Nigel Farage in action a er his successful eighth a empt to be an MP. Clacton may have never had it so good, but I doubt it.
Here’s a populist, like so many others selling snake oil to the disa ected. He was horri ed that people might challenge the Brexit referendum with a second con rmatory vote.
It seemed quite reasonable at the time for people to get a vote on the actual Brexit deal, not the false prospectus on which he sold it.
Farage said that was undemocratic.
For all his faults, he has ve seats and 14% of the voters supporting him, and while rst past the post may have suited, now he’d like to push for proportional representation, challenging the 2011 referendum result which voted against just that – oh the irony!
I cannot understand farmers voting for a limited company pushing for less legal migration when our businesses are largely sustained by migrant workers.
We cannot just invade France and drop o
those picked up in the Channel, it’s just pub talk, appealing but simplistic nonsense. Just who is going to cut the meat up in aba oirs if Eastern European labour isn’t an option?
We all know that what politicians promise to get elected and what they deliver are very di erent. When circumstances change, I change my mind. Isn’t that what they say?
Now that Labour are in power, we will see if the rhetoric translates into reality. e heckling is over, it’s time to deliver the promised ‘change’.
Tax changes
Labour will need money and that means tax changes – Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief – and how will Inheritance Tax changes impact farming succession? Only time will tell.
Irrespective of the politics, farmers need condence to invest and society needs a ordable food. Talk – and there’s been plenty – is cheap, so we shall have to judge Sir Keir Starmer’s success by his actions.
Sir Keir Starmer and his cabinet round the table at Downing Street.
VET’S VIEW
The second most commonly diagnosed infectious cause of abortion within UK dairy herds is the parasitic disease neosporosis.
Typically causing late-term pregnancy losses, at five to six months of gestation, cows will often suffer from metritis and reproductive issues following abortions, with many cows culled due to the cost of getting back in-calf.
Vet Dr Rob Hall, of LLM Farm Vets, says cattle will become infected with neospora via two main routes of infection, either from dog to cow or cow to calf.
He says dogs are initially infected with the disease after ingesting neospora-infected bovine tissues in the form of an aborted calf or placenta.
The parasite will then reproduce and is excreted in the dog’s faeces, which is later ingested by cattle.
In the case where a cow becomes infected with neospora and does not abort, the disease will be passed from cow to calf, which results in a much slower spread of infection through the herd, says Dr Hall.
When looking at the role of dogs in the spread of neospora, Dr Hall says there is a large mis-
Vet Dr Rob Hall, of LLM Farm Vets, discusses the cost of abortions caused by neosporosis and best practice for controlling and preventing the disease. Katie Fallon reports.
Mitigating the risk of neospora
conception that dogs are responsible every time a cow has an abortion because of neospora.
He says: “In reality, I think the vast majority of cases are actually direct spread from a cow to a calf.”
In a UK study from 2003, 74 domestic dogs owned by the general public and 120 farm dogs were blood sampled for neospora antibodies.
Dr Hall says results found only 2.7% of dogs owned by the general public had been exposed
to neospora, compared to 42.5% of farm dogs.
He says: “For a dog to become infected, it has to eat placenta or calf tissues which contains neospora caninum, and your general public’s dog is unlikely to come into contact with that.
Young farm dogs
“So, effectively, neospora does not come from the general public’s dogs walking on public footpaths, it is from young farm dogs which have eaten aborted material.”
Dr Hall says the risk of neospora infection is considerably higher in hunt kennels due to the nature of their diet. Therefore, farms which have active hunt packs coming on their land are at greater risk of infection.
Dogs which are infected with neospora will probably always have
I think the vast majority of cases are actually direct spread from a cow to a calf
DR ROB HALL
the disease, says Dr Hall, but will not continue to shed it in their faeces.
Dr Hall says: “Really it is only a problem when a new dog is brought on to the farm, as when they are first infected, they will shed the parasite in their muck.
“Somehow that muck gets chucked into the mixer wagon and fed to the cows and then you can get really big problems.”
Dr Hall says in the case of an ‘abortion storm’, where multiple abortions happen over a short space of time, typically in 10% of at risk cows over a period of 12 weeks, it is likely to be the result of an infected dog on-farm.
Cow to calf spread, however, is more underlying, resulting in less frequent abortions over a longer period of time.
In this case, farms are likely to have had the disease on-farm for a while, says Dr Hall.
He says that cow to cow spread is what keeps neosporosis in a herd, as the disease is spread from cows to their offspring, which will then abort in a couple of years’ time.
Neospora infections will not always cause abortions in cows, says Dr Hall, particularly when cows are not in-calf when infected.
VET’S VIEW
He says: “If a cow becomes infected in early to mid-pregnancy, she may become immune.
“Whereas, if she became infected when pregnant, the parasite will go straight to the placenta and the cow will have an over-dramatic immune response resulting in an abortion.
“ is immune response may be delayed, hence why we o en see pregnancy loss ve or six months into gestation.”
Dr Hall says about 50% of ospring from a neospora-positive dam will be infected, with infected heifers three-and-a-half times more likely to abort during their rst pregnancy.
Immune
He says: “Once they have aborted, they may become a li le more immune, but are still three times more likely than an uninfected cow to lose their pregnancy.
“A lot of farmers might take the chance on that and keep cows and their o spring, but the problem is, if you keep her and keep ve of her o spring, you end up with a lot of pregnancy losses and stillborn calves every year. When you start looking you will nd a lot of the herd will be infected with neospora.” erefore, Dr Hall says the only
way to tackle the disease is to test the whole herd, either through milk recording samples or blood tests to know which cow families have neospora antibodies, indicating historic infection.
Following that, all infected cows should then be bred to beef so no infected animals are kept as herd replacements.
Dr Hall says removing neospora from an endemically infected herd can be a slow process, taking 10-15 years, but numbers of abortions will reduce year on year.
For farms which do not currently carry the disease, Dr Hall advises ensuring dogs cannot access feed sources, including silage elds, grazed grass and feed bunkers.
He says: “If a li le bit of dog muck accidentally gets on a heap of silage which gets dropped into the mixer wagon, it can be really infectious if that young dog happens to have recently become infected.”
Biosecurity is particularly important to preventing neospora from arriving on-farm, says Dr Hall, who advises managing cleansings and aborted calves to prevent young dogs from scavenging and preventing hunt packs from crossing grassland.
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WARRANTY
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The only way to tackle neospora is to test the whole herd, either through milk recording samples or blood tests to know which cow families have neospora antibodies.
WORLD DAIRYING SOUTH AFRICA
Dairy farming in South Africa comes with its own set of unique challenges, but despite this Paul and Sarah Reynolds are focused on expansion. Chris McCullough reports.
Mixed farm’s plans to increase cow numbers
Expanding a dairy farm anywhere these days comes with a number of physical, nancial and mental challenges, but for many farmers it is the only route to survival.
And for Paul and Sarah Reynolds, expansion of cow numbers is the ultimate goal.
e couple can trace their roots back to the British colonists known as the 1820 Se lers. ey now run Olivar Farm, near Ixopo District, in Southern Natal.
e farm extends to 917 hectares (2,266 acres) and is home to 350 cows, with a goal to take numbers up to 600.
e farm’s history can be traced back to the late 1930s when the dairy was established with a herd of 60 cows.
Nowadays the dairy herd is run alongside the growing of arable crops, citrus fruit orchards and forest for timber.
e herd, mainly Holstein Friesian, is milked twice-a-day
through a DeLaval 30-point swingover herringbone parlour.
Mr Reynolds says: “Our cows are currently producing about 15 litres per cow as a year-round average, though it has been as high as 20 litres per cow.”
He explains all the cows and followers are kept outdoors on ‘pasture camps’.
He says: “We rotationally graze our irrigated grazing platform with our milkers all year round.
“ e milking herd is split into two milking groups with the best cows in the A herd grazing rst and the B herd following them.”
Pasture makes up the bulk of the ration, but additional silage is fed in winter and a concentrate ration is fed in the parlour.
Mr Reynolds says: “ e concentrate ration is fed to yield and this is managed with the parlour so ware.
“Extra hay and reject citrus fruit are also fed to the cows in winter. Silage is fed out of tyre feeders in the elds. Aside from a computerised parlour, we run a relatively simple system here on our farm.” ere are about 300 follower
heifers of various ages from calves to in-calf heifers and 30 to 50 dry cows. ese graze on the dryland pastures and are fed silage in winter.
Mr Reynolds says he is breeding the herd for bu erfat at the moment, but not at the expense of milk
Paul Reynolds
Olivar Farm currently has 350 cows, mainly Holstein Friesians, but is looking to raise this to 600.
Dry cows graze on the dry pastures until they calve and rejoin the main herd.
quantity, with longevity and health indexes also important.
He says: “Heifers are bred once with arti cial insemination and then we use a couple of bulls to clean up.”
Paul and Sarah have 43 workers on the farm looking a er the dairy herd, citrus fruit orchards and the forest. ese workers are supplied by two local tribal chiefs.
Expanding the herd is the main goal they are pursuing, but there are a few challenges unique to
South African farming systems which could stand in their way.
Mr Reynolds says: “I would like to grow the herd to around 500 to 600 cows, milking on our existing platform and then possibly add additional irrigated area.
“ en I would x our citrus trees to keep the diversity and the timber sector will just keep plodding along.”
He says there are a number of problems associated with farming in South Africa, with
tickborne diseases in particular a huge issue.
He says: “Creative use of dipping ingredients is helping us keep our cows relatively tick free. We have also discovered a liver tonic that is helping our cows improve their immunity and renewing their livers, which makes for healthier cows. Our water quality has also been an issue for us, but we have found aerating the water has helped immeasurably with that.” e is also another major problem and Paul and Sarah have had, incidents of maize and copper wiring from irrigation pumps being stolen.
Mr Reynolds says: “Security is something we have to keep working at, though a good relationship with sta who live on our farm helps immensely in this regard.
“Our Government does not support farmers in any way. It is not something we think about as we just get on with it ourselves. ere are li le or no import tari s here, as in many other countries, or farmer subsidies, which hurts us too.”
Farm facts
rThe farmland comprises 110ha (272 acres) of irrigated pasture for the dairy herd; 100ha (247 acres) of arable land to grow maize for the cows; 45ha (111 acres) of dryland Kikuyu pasture; 150ha (371 acres) of forest for timber; 27ha (67 acres) of citrus fruit orchards, some veld (open grassland) for grazing heifers and some leased to neighbours for beef animals
rThe herd is producing an average daily yield of 15 litres per cow with herd yields at 4% butterfat and 3.6% protein
rMilk is sold to processor Clover SA at about 7 South African Rand per litre (31ppl)
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Milking is twice-a-day and the farm employs 43 workers.
ANIMAL HEALTH
The use of bovine osteopathy, gaining traction in France, to treat a range of health issues in dairy cows could help improve production and performance. Katie Fallon reports.
Atreatment which is increasing in popularity among French dairy farms, bovine osteopathy is a holistic medicine, which looks at the body as one system and aims to resolve tension, blockages or disorder and re-establish the ow of movement.
David de Gaalon, director at the French School of Animal Osteopathy, Caen, France, says the use of osteopathy to treat down cows, lameness and reproductive health across dairy farms in France is increasing.
He says: “France is probably the pioneer as far as osteopathy in animals goes. Bovine osteopathy has only been around for 10 to 15 years and the demand is developing the most of any other domain.
“We have had so much of a positive response from farmers here, that we do not have enough practitioners yet to keep up with the demand.”
A non-invasive medicine, osteopathy involves a complete examination of the whole animal, including a static examination, and an examination of the animal’s locomotion and pelvic area.
Techniques
Mr de Gaalon explains there are di erent techniques used in osteopathy including structural, functional and cranial.
He says: “Cows are very responsive to cranial methods and very responsive in general to osteopathy.”
Mr de Gaalon says physiologically speaking, the life conditions of a dairy cow are not optimal, due to environmental constraints including walking on hard oors, which can cause tension, lameness and structural head and neck issues.
“A cow that is in pain or uncomfortable is a cow that is going to produce less milk. A cow that is having a problem with a blockage at some level, will present with less milk production and quality,” he says.
In a recent research project, the
How osteopathy could improve dairy cow health
team at the French School of Animal Osteopathy and research centre Lab to Field in Dijon, France, looked at the e ects of osteopathic treatment on the performance of dairy cows.
e project which looked at 100 Holstein cows, found that cows which had osteopath treatment produced more milk during the two weeks a er treatment, than those which did not.
Cows which received treatment had an average yield of 30.6kg compared to those which did not receive treatment which had an average yield of 29.8kg.
e largest di erence in yields was seen in cows which had more than one lactation, producing an average of 1.3kg more each day, than those which were not treated.
As well as having positive e ects
on production, Mr de Gaalon says one increasingly common area where osteopaths tend to intervene is in the case of a down cow.
He says: “It is very o en something that vets are unable to treat and, in cases where there is no fracture, we see a good number of cases resolved with osteopathic treatment.
“Sometimes the vet will advise euthanasia, which is a huge lossnancially. In many cases, with two to three osteopath treatments they are able to regain the animal they would have lost.”
Lameness, dermatitis, digestive issues and reproductive health are other areas where osteopathic treatment can be successful, he says.
He explains treatment can help stimulate the nervous system and immune system which can help to
regulate heat cycles in cows with fertility issues.
He says: “It is not massages. People o en think an osteopath will just massage and make the animal feel be er and more relaxed, but a practitioner uses very strategic techniques with proven principles anchored in osteopathic philosophy.”
Mr de Gaalon says the French School of Animal Osteopathy has several farms in North Normandy regularly using the treatment.
He says: “We have osteopaths working full time for them and they have signi cantly reduced their need for medical intervention. I think it is a very sustainable method that is very much in line with where we are going in farming. It has its place, but I would not say it is necessarily in direct competition with vets.”
A French study found that cows which received osteopath treatment produced more milk during the two weeks after treatment, than those which did not.
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GROUNDSWELL
The green credentials of dairy farming and the role of trees for shade and browsing were discussed at seminars at this year’s Groundswell event. Jonathan Wheeler reports.
Trees could be dairy farming’s secret weapon against rising temperatures.
Vet Claire Whi le said temperatures which regularly hit 35degC could be expected to a ect animal’s fertility, feed intake and their ability to resist disease.
For the 90% of cows which still graze, she suggested more trees and large hedges could help maintain a more suitable living environment and also give ca le the opportunity to graze them.
And multi-species leys could provide more nutrition than straight grass, as well as improving soil structure, which would help keep the soil cooler.
Dr Lindsay Whistance, of the Organic Research Centre, said trees could ‘weather-proof’ farms against either extremes of temperature.
In hot conditions, their ability to trap moisture and keep the ground cooler is an asset; in winter they can keep it warmer by 6degC.
She quoted Irish research which suggested they could extend the grazing season by up to 15 weeks.
She said: “Animal health is so much more than avoidance of disease. It is about animals being able to show the behaviour pa erns they want to show.
“And a clean coat enables animals
Can milk be green?
JThe question ‘Can milk be green?’ drew a firm ‘yes’ from those addressing a Groundswell seminar considering the issue.
Tom White, of Yeo Valley, provided a succinct assessment.
He said: “Grass-based dairy systems deliver a variety of green impacts and have been doing so for some time. Green dairy systems provide natural, healthy food and aid air and water quality, as well as delivering carbon capture,
Vet Claire Whittle suggested more trees and large hedges could help maintain a more suitable living environment for cows which graze.
Trees to the rescue
to be er regulate their body temperature. Animals su er from heat stress much earlier than we at rst thought.
“ ey will be looking for shelter and shade and, if they nd it, they can maintain normal behaviour pa erns. It is up to us to build a more resilient landscape for them.”
Cumbrian farmer James Robinson’s approach centres on hedges; he explained he is rejuvenating them and planting them.
He said his farm’s internal hedges were cut and laid on a 25-year rota-
animal welfare and supporting the rural population.”
Such systems, he added, also prioritised home-grown food; maintaining permanent cover and living roots in the ground, which are key elements of regenerative farming.
Several farmers on the panel explained how they manage their units in support of those aims.
Will Mayor, who runs Yeo Valley Organic’s farm at Blagdon, Somerset, said he used multi-species leys to feed
tion and he cuts them less frequently and never uses a ail cu er.
He said he worked with the Woodland Trust to plan new hedges – including those installed to join up existing systems and those lled with species known to have a medicinal e ect for grazing animals.
Plantings include roundels –broadly circular coppices designed around a single, central tree – which present grazing opportunities as well as shelter and shade.
He said he was also planting strategically, aiming to create a
cows while simultaneously sequestrating carbon.
He said his ambition was to use 100% home-produced feed by developing rotations and crop mixtures, such as using lupins to replace soya.
Mr Mayor said: “One commitment we have made is never to plant a mono-culture on the farm again.”
He added he was applying similar principles to the cows, aiming to breed resilient animals which suit the system.
line of trees beside the beck which runs through the farm.
And planting at the farm boundary is designed to create a bu er zone between their animals and those of neighbours, as TB is now found in the area.
Resilience
Peter Leeson, of the Cumbrian Wildlife Trust, said farmers could improve their farm’s resilience with some judicious tree and hedge planting and maintenance.
He said: “ ere are some ‘quick wins’ to be had with hedgerows and with fast-growing species such as alder. Oaks take time.
“Be practical and think what you can achieve early on.”
He said farmers might also want to consider establishing species which have mycorrhizal synergy.
Mr Leeson said other factors to consider when planning plantings were the topography of the farm and from which direction the most damaging winds blow.
And while hedge grazing is bene cial, he added it needed to be managed sensibly.
He said: “All native species are browsable. But do not browse them all the time or they may disappear.”
Dry matter intake is reduced in periods of heat stress, so it’s important to maintain your cow’s nutrient intake.
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Excess production of carbon dioxide in silage clamps is a sign that hard-earned silage feed value is being lost. But how could an additive help?
Why using a silage additive on maize makes so much sense
Carbon dioxide (CO2): we cannot see it, but we hear a lot about it these days, says Volac silage scientist Dr Mark Leggett.
It is a greenhouse gas produced when we burn fuel in our vehicles.
However, in much the same way that CO2 and other gases are produced when fuel is burned to release energy to power an engine, so too are they produced when the unwanted microorganisms that are inevitably present on forage control your silage fermentation, he says. Except in this case, the energy released by the breakdown of dry matter (DM) to CO2 is used by these unwanted microbes to grow in the clamp, he points out.
Dr Leggett says: “The question is: do you want the hard-earned energy in the maize crops you have carefully grown used to produce milk? Or are
you prepared for a significant proportion of it to be wasted by these bad microbes before the silage even reaches the cow?
“Maize plants can be high in unwanted microbes – bacteria, yeasts and moulds – for example on dying leaves and on rotting tassels that collect in leaf joints. These microbes are ready to start turning DM into CO2 as soon as the crop is harvested. So tackling them quickly is key.”
Stolen energy
Typically, losses in maize silage caused by these unwanted microbes can be equivalent to one in every 10 trailer loads of DM originally ensiled, or two out of every 10 trailer loads if management is poor, which could include not using an additive, says Dr Leggett. Where spoilage occurs around the vulnerable top and shoulders of clamps, half of the DM
How the Ecocool additive achieves dual-acting maize silage preservation
Ecocool applies two strains of specially selected beneficial bacteria.
In theory, there is enough feed value in one hectare of fresh forage maize to support about 30,000 litres* of milk production, says Dr Mark Leggett; the key is to minimise how much of this is lost when turning it into silage.
* Assuming animal maintenance needs have already been met
in these areas can go to waste, he adds.
He says: “What is crucial to realise is that these unwanted microbes feed on sugars and starches first. So the DM that remains in the clamp will be of lower feed value, and therefore less able to support milk production.
“Theoretically, there is enough energy in one hectare of fresh forage maize, before ensiling, to support the production of maybe 30,000 litres of milk, assuming animal maintenance needs have already been met.
Lactobacillus plantarum (MTD/1)
To produce an efficient, rapid fermentation
Lactobacillus buchneri PJB/1
To target yeast and mould growth, and so reduce heating and spoilage
“Even if just 10% of that is lost in the clamp, that is 3,000 litres of lost milk production for each ha of maize grown [1,200 litres/acre]. If 20% is lost, that is 6,000 litres/ha [2,400 litres/acre].
“If maize costs you about £1,730/ ha [£700/acre] to produce, assuming a yield of 42 tonnes per ha [17 t/acre], treating with a quality additive would only work out at a small percentage of that cost. So it is minimal. Yet it puts you in much better control of how well the silage turns out.”
Dr Mark Leggett
How dry matter losses occur in maize silage
When harvesting maize, Dr Leggett advocates using a dual-acting additive for the best protection.
This is because maize can suffer from two types of dry matter (DM) losses, he says –one type is caused when the unwanted microbes on the crop at harvest are active during the silage fermentation in the absence of air; and the other type occurs when air is present, often during feed-out.
Dr Leggett says: “In both cases, carbon dioxide [CO2] is produced as these unwanted microbes consume DM.
“The difference is, it is obvious when yeasts and moulds are feeding on DM once the clamp is opened, because the silage heats up in a process called aerobic spoilage.
“However, more subtle DM losses occur due to the unwanted bacteria. These ferment
maize but do so inefficiently. And, because this process does not cause significant heating, and the CO2 produced cannot be seen, you do not know these losses are occurring.
“By applying an additive containing only good bacteria specially selected to carry out an efficient fermentation, such as Lactobacillus plantarum MTD/1, which is the bacterium in Ecosyl and Ecocool additives, you stack the odds in your favour for a better preservation.
“Unlike bad bacteria, Lactobacillus plantarum MTD/1 does not convert sugar to CO2 Instead it converts it only to lactic acid.
“This has two key benefits. Firstly, lactic acid is excellent at preserving forage against the growth of the unwanted bacteria.
“Secondly, in the conversion
of sugar to lactic acid there is no loss in DM and no production of CO2
Ecocool
“While Ecosyl contains only Lactobacillus plantarum MTD/1, in Ecocool, MTD/1 is combined with a second beneficial bacterium, called Lactobacillus buchneri PJB/1, hence its dual-acting effects.”
Lactobacillus buchneri PJB/1 is highly relevant for maize, says Dr Leggett, because it produces controlled amounts of acetic acid. This inhibits the unwanted yeasts that start the process of silage heating when it is exposed to air, he says, and which in turn can allow moulds to start growing.
He says: “Moulds are important to prevent because not only do they further reduce silage nutritional value, but also silage palatability, and moulds
also cause mycotoxins.
“You can see Ecocool working because in trials it has been shown to keep silage cool and stable on exposure to air for more than 10 days. It has also been shown to reduce yeast levels by 99.999%.
“Of course an additive is only one part of effective maize conservation, but it is nevertheless an important way of protecting the significant investment that has gone into growing the crop.
“With the drive to farm sustainably and keep on top of bought-in feed costs, minimising DM and nutrient losses and wastage when making maize silage is key.”
Source: Volac
Speakers at the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers’ Down To Earth event highlighted how reducing a dairy’s carbon footprint was a win-win for the environment and profitability. Dairy Farmer reports.
High-output dairies can reduce carbon footprint
Farmers should view carbon audits as a tool to improve business and environmental resilience rather than a stick to beat them with, said AHDB environment adviser Prof John Gilliland.
“It is not good enough to go on a journey; we have to tell our story with transparency and integrity,” he warned delegates at the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers’ regenerative farming event Down To Earth, held at Grosvenor Farms, Cheshire, at the beginning of July.
He urged all farmers to carry out carbon audits and understand how much carbon they were emi ing and storing so facts could be clearly articulated in public debate.
“Do not put your head in the sand on this one. Embrace the win-wins. is is about economic resilience as well as environmental resilience,” he said.
is has been clearly demonstrated at Grosvenor Farms. ey boast one of the lowest carbon emissions within the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group milk pool, having reduced emissions by 40% over the past 10 years while simultaneously improving pro ts.
The average across the supermarket’s 323 farms is 1,158g of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per litre of milk. At Grosvenor, this has been lowered to 939g of CO2e/litre.
ey currently milk 2,600 cows at the 2,334-hectare (5,767-acre) farm and boast milk yields of 12,324 litres per cow at 3.8% protein and 4.54% bu erfat – the equivalent of 32 million litres annually.
Although scale plays a factor in helping to dilute emissions, manag-
ing director Mark Roach said what they do is applicable at any scale.
“ ere is room for all sizes of farms in the sector; it is about how well run they are and if they have the right strategy. On a smaller scale, you can wrap your arms around the business much more tightly,” he said.
Circular system
ey run a circular farming system, with the arable unit utilising straw and manure from the dairy to feed the soil. Crops are then fed back to stock.
Charlie Steer, arable manager at Grosvenor, said: “It allows us to maintain soil organic ma ers and soil health. We have not bought any manufactured phosphorus and potassium for 15 years and we apply nutrients using low-emission technology, be it injection or dribble bars.”
About 12-15% of the total area is now in environmental agreements under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship scheme.
Edward Earnshaw, of Just Farm, who specialises in helping farmers access Government grants, told the
audience that ‘SFI was a brilliant spectrum of greys’, but said the high number of scheme revisions made by Defra showed the Government was making it more accessible for farmers.
He urged dairy farmers to assess their options to make up for the shortfall in Basic Payment Scheme.
“ e single biggest thing about the schemes is to take action, even if that means making a decision not to enter,” he said.
Mr Earnshaw said some good options worth considering that did not require a change in farming practice included not grazing intensive silage ground over winter – worth £115/ ha (£46/acre) – and also that £45/ ha (£18/acre) could be claimed for using no insecticide, which he said presented an opportunity for maize crops.
Meanwhile, Dr Anna Sutcli e, ruminant technical manager at AB Dairy, explained how making good-quality forage was critical to lowering emissions.
She said: “Improving forage digestibility lowers enteric and manure methane and drives yield, which lowers greenhouse gas intensity.”
She revealed that emissions associated with feed could be cut by 50% by removing any origin soya products and replacing them with rape, protected rape and co-products.
Grosvenor has been making good use of co-products and has also been trialling the methane inhibitor Bovaer.
It is fed at 1.5g per cow a day and has reduced methane emissions by 31% – the equivalent of 1.3 tonnes CO2e per cow annually.
Adrian Packington, of Bovaer, admi ed it was costly but said there was scope for it to be paid for ‘further up the supply chain’ to help reduce scope three emissions.
Carbon narrative
However, Prof Gilliland reminded delegates that the narrative around carbon must not solely focus on gross emissions, and supermarkets and farmers must look at the full picture when carrying out audits.
“If we are going to win storytelling with the public [the debate must become] multi-dimensional, and we must [also] measure carbon stocks on farms,” he said.
At Grosvenor Farms, carbon emissions are one of the lowest in the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group milk pool at 939g of carbon dioxide equivalent per litre.
PICTURE : Ruth Downing
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Speakers at this year’s British Mastitis Conference, held at Sixways Stadium, Worcester, focused on the latest research and disease insight news. Jonathan Wheeler reports.
Mastitis control proves to be worth the money
Ge ing control of mastitis is worth hard cash for Cumbrian farmer Jonny Slack.
He runs 520 spring-calving cows and followers on 283 hectares (700 acres) at Dolphenby Farm in the Eden Valley, Penrith. e farm is mainly light soil types and farmed on a Farm Business Tenancy.
In recent years he has more than halved cell counts, and greatly reduced clinical cases, especially in his heifer group where there was previously a major issue.
With his milk buyer o ering a 0.5ppl bonus for meeting strict mastitis cell count protocols, that is worth £15,000/year on the three million litres of milk the farm produces.
Data analysis showed just how damaging mastitis was to the herd.
In January 2019 he recorded 37 clinical cases per 100 cows, with nearly half of those cases being in heifers.
Transformed
By 2023 those gures had been transformed, with just seven clinical cases per 100 cows and none among heifers. e high level in heifers was a ributed to them being out-wintered before entering the herd. at meant they o en returned to the same pasture several times, which le them vulnerable to becoming dirty and being exposed to higher infection risks.
Mr Slack said he had no easy solutions.
“Our buildings did not have any spare room and I did not want to ship them out somewhere else to be reared. Erecting a new building was not an option either.”
In the end he opted for teat sealing out-wintered heifers which he said was an added expense and workload. However, he said this was paying dividends, as the huge reductions in mastitis show.
He added he worked on the basis that the disease costs between £250-£300 per case in terms of vet and medicine fees and lost milk.
Reducing incidence from 37 cows per 100 to seven per 100 was a signi cant improvement, and Mr Slack said across a 520cow herd it meant a bill that previously topped £40,000 had been cut to under £10,000.
Cut the chlorine to reap benefits
JChlorine-free dairy parlour cleaning is feasible and effective, said David Gleeson, of Teagasc.
Irish farms went ‘chlorinefree’ from January 2021 due to concerns that the chemical might cause residues in butter and baby milk formula.
These dairy products are major businesses and export earners, with Ireland responsible for 13% of the world’s supply of baby milk formula.
Mr Gleeson said the withdrawal of chlorine as a cleaning agent revealed how reliant the sector had been on the product, and the extent to which it had been used to mask poor cleaning practices,
notably the limited use of hot water.
Surveys have also suggested that some 40% of dairy farmers never cleaned the parlour’s vacuum line and that plate coolers were neither cleaned effectively or frequently enough.
Failure to cool milk sufficiently or quickly enough after milking was also an issue.
While the withdrawal of chlorine caused problems, Mr Gleeson pointed to the benefits.
“It has had a positive impact on related residue levels in bulk tanks and in finished products.
“Chlorine-free cleaning practices have a positive impact on milk quality when implemented correctly.”
Adding extra mastitis control measures has paid dividends at Dolphenby farm, Cumbria.
Hygiene is top of the agenda
JHygiene levels on dairy farms using milking robots need to be better than those on conventional units to achieve the same results, said Shropshire-based vet and consultant Tom Greenham.
He said this was because cows milked by robots all go through the same cleaning operation, and while this was sufficient for cleaner cows, there was a risk it was insufficient for dirtier ones.
He added there were two potential solutions, and the first was an increase in the intensity and length of the cleaning process for all animals to improve teat disinfection.
However, he said this may still leave high bacterial loads on soiled teats.
The more sustainable
solution, he added, was to address hygiene levels around the unit.
He said: “It is a consistent finding that cleanliness and bactoscan performance is worse in robotically-milked herds, when cows really need to be cleaner.
“In a conventional setting if a cow comes in dirty, the milking staff will put extra effort into cleaning her; that does not happen in a milking robot.”
Future
And he said in future, farmers might be able to fit a sensor to identify dirty animals and raise the level of cleaning applied.
He said: “At the moment that average cleaning process is leaving a lot of bugs on the teats of some animals.”
Unit design plays a key role in helping animals stay cleaner, he
added, with matching the size of cows to the cubicles being crucial and ensuring heifers had appropriate accommodation.
“If you have a 180cm cubicle and a small cow it will tend to dung on the back of the bed.
“When they are standing, a cow’s backside needs to be above the passage so they dung there, and it can be cleaned.”
For that reason, he also advocated having a number of smaller stalls suitable and reserved for heifers.
Mr Greenham also said robots can tend to ‘over diagnose’.
He added: “If a group of 50 cows has a 20% mastitis rate that would be one mastitis case roughly every 18 days. But machines might issue three or four mastitis alerts every day.”
He said this could result in staff ignoring the warnings and
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missing suspected cases that they would identify if doing the job manually.
The huge volume of data robots generate could be regarded as strength and weakness, he added, quoting Albert Einstein’s comment that ‘not everything that can be counted counts’.
After a very difficult year, farmers have been weighing up options to make up the forage gap.
Managing maize silage
One outcome of the very poor weather over the last year has been a larger area of land drilled with maize after autumn-sown cereal crops failed or were not even drilled.
This is according to Peter Smith, silage expert with Volac, who is concerned that some land used for growing maize might be marginal, with the quality of crops reflecting poorer growing conditions.
He says: “Looking ahead to this winter, the price of cereals and blends is likely to be high, so making the best quality maize and grass silage will be even more important this year.
“Maize is often harvested late and this
leads to large fermentation losses. The leaves and other parts of the plant will harbour increased numbers of microbes and composting bacteria, resulting in contamination which adversely affects fermentation. Ideally maize should be harvested when it is still green and before it starts to die off. It is always better to harvest it a little early if the weather is good rather than wait and be delayed by a change in the weather.”
There is a common misconception that the main loss in the quality of maize silage is due to heating, and while this does occur, poor fermentation is the principal cause.
Mr Smith says: “Heating results in high
dry matter losses and reduced palatability, but if the clamp is managed well and the maize is properly compacted, especially on the top and around the sides, this can often be avoided.
“Using a combination additive, such as Ecocool, will boost fermentation because it is very effective at reducing the yeast count to help reduce heating. It provides desirable bacteria for a more efficient fermentation retaining more of the energy to feed the animal.
“It is advisable to fill the clamp in layers of no more than 150mm thickness rather than a wedge and roll the maize well, especially along the shoulders.
“Use side sheets and cling film on top and place plenty of weight on the top of the sheet. Even if there is surplus maize in the clamp after harvest, it should be treated as a valuable asset as if it is another long winter, forage stocks could be low and prices for forage will be high.”
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Tom Greenham
Forage analysis, diet fine-tuning and performance monitoring are needed this winter. Dairy Farmer reports.
Wet winter results in challenging first cuts
The impact of the wet winter and spring are likely to be felt into the coming winter feeding season, according to Trouw Nutrition who have announced the results of the rst 500 grass silage samples analysed this year.
“ e combination of the mild winter and wet conditions has had an impact on the growing and harvesting season and consequently the quality of silages,” says Nacia Bonnick, ruminant technical support co-ordinator at Trouw Nutrition.
“In many parts of the country, rst cuts were signi cantly delayed.”
She says that the winter climate has had two main consequences for rst cuts. e mild winter extended the growing season resulting in higher covers of older, overwintered grass in the spring.
Ideally this material would have been removed before rst cut. en the prolonged wet spring conditions impacted the application of slurry and fertiliser and delayed the timing of rst cuts with implications for quality.
“Results from the pre-cut grass samples we analysed indicated the optimal cu ing date would have been mid-April through to the rst week of May based on a range of factors including neutral detergent bre [NDF], but eld conditions prevented many farmers from taking cuts this early.
“ e delayed harvest has resulted in a higher proportion of poorer quality material in clamps which tends to be more brous and less digestible,” says Ms Bonnick.
e average early rst cut this year is 33.7% dry ma er which is higher than last year’s crops which were
30.9%. Average ‘D’ value is lower at 68.6% re ecting the age of ensiled material. Consequently metabolisable energy content which is directly related to digestibility has decreased marginally to 11.0MJ/kg of DM.
NDF is higher than usual at 46.7%. is, combined with very high lignin levels, at 38g/kg DM, means forages will ferment more slowly in the rumen when fed which will have implications for supplementation and intakes.
Supplementation
Crude protein levels are slightly depressed at 14.4%, partly due to the inability to get on elds with fertiliser. As ever there is a range in energy contents but the average is tending towards the lower side.
“Overall forages will need careful supplementation to get the most milk from forage, control purchased feed costs and reduce the carbon footprint per litre,” Ms Bonnick says.
To compensate for the lower digestibility, she says rations may need to include ground cereals and rumen energy sources to promote
digestibility and intakes. Less digestible forages can impact on rumen throughput leading to slower fermentation and depressed intakes. First cuts should promote good rumen health which may make it easier to supplement forages with rapidly fermentable energy sources.
“It will be essential to supplement and balance both total fermentable protein and carbohydrates, both of which are lower than last year. is will ensure good rumen function and e ciency and microbial protein yield.
“ e lower fermentable protein levels combined with lower fermentable carbohydrates mean that the supply of digestible intestinal protein will be severely impacted.
“It will not just be a case of increasing the crude protein in the diet, but balancing the supply of energy and protein in the rumen to optimise the production of microbial protein, while supplying the appropriate levels of bypass protein.
“Alongside supplementation of rumen fermentable carbohydrates and protein we would expect bypass protein supplementation will be re-
quired to support milk production. e obvious choice may be soya, but this should be considered in terms of carbon footprint and cost. Other good sources of protein could include rapeseed meal, protected rape and distillers.”
Ms Bonnick stresses that averages are only a guide. What is important is the silage actually being fed and she urges farmers to analyse clamps regularly to understand the quality of the forage being fed and allow accurate and coste ective supplementation.
“Clamps should be analysed at least monthly throughout the winter and the diet ne-tuned to make the best use of forages. Where practical, and depending how other cuts develop during the season, it may be bene cial to feed a mix of grass silage cuts from di erent clamps.
“ en pay close a ention to feed management, ensuring rations are well mixed and regularly pushed up to encourage higher intakes but monitor feed rejections closely and revise the diet accordingly if intakes are less than expected.”
A delay to first cut silage has resulted in a higher proportion of poorer quality material in clamps.
IT HAS REVOLUTIONISED THE WAY WE APPROACH HERD HEALTH
Peter Cheek is farm manager at Godminster Farm, a 445 ha mixed organic farm in Somerset, with 300 crossbred dairy cows, famed for its award-winning cheese.
“After struggling with rising clinical mastitis, we started using the natural bedding conditioner, EazyBed PRO, to improve cow health and comfort.
“As an organic farm, EazyBed PRO aligns perfectly with what we’re aiming to achieve, because it is made up of natural bacteria and enzymes.
“We’ve found that since using the bedding conditioner and improving our dry cow management, we’ve drastically reduced our antibiotic use and our somatic cell count (SCC) has improved, especially over the winter.
“Before using EazyBed PRO, our SCC sat around 300400, whereas now it’s decreased to 200, with some recordings as low as 181.
“Other benefits include that the application is straightforward - it only has to be applied once a week. It’s easy to use and has revolutionised the way we approach herd health.
“At Godminster Farm, enhancing productivity and optimising cow health through the use of natural products like EazyBed PRO is vital to our success and sustainability.”
“EazyBed PRO only has to be applied once a week.”
Use the natural strength of bacteria and enzymes to:
n Absorb excess moisture in bedding
n Reduce the risk of high somatic cell count
n Maintain udder health
n Reduce NH3 in buildings by up to 50%
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GRASSLAND
With a changing climate on the horizon, combined with a reduction in artificial fertiliser applications, grass swards are going to require greater resilience to extreme weather events and reduced inputs going forward.
In response to this, Barenbrug and the team at the AgriFood and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) grass breeding programme, based at Loughgall, Co Armagh, are looking ahead to the needs of the UK’s livestock farmers in 2050.
And with a timescale of between 15 to 20 years to breed a new grass variety, understanding the industry’s future needs is key to the success of grass varieties being developed today.
Gillian Young, grass breeder at AFBI, says the traits that Barenbrug and AFBI are currently looking for are not too dissimilar to what has been looked for in the past, in terms of increasing nutrient efficiency and productivity under reduced nutrients.
However, she says the additional traits of drought resistance and compatibility with legumes and mixed species is of increasing importance.
One of the main targets of the grass breeding programme at AFBI Loughgall is to look at
Resilience to drought and reduced fertiliser applications will be key traits for perennial ryegrass varieties in 2050. Katie Fallon reports.
Grass breeding for the future
nutrient efficiency, drought, and persistence through the root of the plant, says Dr Young.
Roots
She says over the last 100 years grass breeding has been focused on what happens above ground, but AFBI is now running projects which look at traits such as root depth, root volume, area and nitrogen cycling.
“If you can improve that, you should improve nutrient
Grass breeding process
JDr Young says that at the start of the grass breeding process two existing varieties will be selected for crossing based on their traits, such as yield, digestibility and root depth.
Once the plants have crossed through open cross pollination and flowered, they will enter a half-sib breeding programme, where the progeny from the first plants will cross
again to produce a half-sibling.
Dr Young says: “This allows us to really look at the genetics that are underneath the crosses and multiply up the seed that we need.”
From there, 1,000 individual plants will be sown, where they will be walked and assessed, with the best plants selected over a two-year period.
By the fourth year of the process, the top 10% of plants
The drought we are going to have here is going to be very different from that on the continent
DR GILLIAN YOUNG
deficiency, resistance to drought and potentially waterlogging,” she says.
Dr Young says she is currently looking at the type of drought the UK will experience in 2050.
“The drought we are going to have here is going to be very different from that on the continent, where they are going to be looking at their varieties to simply survive,” she says.
Instead, she says the UK will be looking at shorter periods of
will be crossed, with the seeds harvested and sown into performance trials to assess yield.
Yield trials
These plants will then be followed across a two-year period, with the best material identified in the yield trials and crossed to make a potential variety.
Dr Young says: “At this point,
drought, where continued grass growth is required.
“Modelling shows us that there are various parts of the world that are going to produce more grass in the future, and Northern Ireland is one of them,” she adds.
“Scotland, England and parts of Wales are also going to potentially be producing more grass in the future, and it is about what we do with that grass: how we harness it and how we improve it to survive the extremes that are going to come along with it.”
Resilient
To ensure farmers have grass varieties which are resilient to future challenges, including reduced inputs, Dr Young says breeding ryegrasses which are compatible with legumes to maintain yields is key.
She says: “I look to replace the N application with a well-managed perennial
we will start testing them on-site for a three-year period, looking at yield, digestibility, persistence and re-heading.”
Following this, testing information and results are provided to Barenbrug, which chooses the varieties to be taken forward for national testing and seed multiplication, so the product can be made commercially available.
GRASSLAND
ryegrass and white clover sward, so that we can get the N we need at hopefully a similar level as what I would like to be pu ing on.”
Clover cover
She says that research in Ireland has shown it is possible to manage swards to retain a 30% clover cover, which is required
Key traits
JGlobal research director at Barenbrug, Piet Arts, says grass and crop breeders across the world are all looking at resilience to drought and reduced inputs as key traits for future grass varieties.
He says: “The agricultural system that we have had for the last 50 years has to change, so that means less irrigation, less fertiliser and less pesticides. That is what everyone is working on.”
Mr Arts says that while multispecies swards, including clover and legumes, will be a large part of the industry achieving greater resilience in grass leys, perennial ryegrass will remain the key grass breed for the UK.
Compatibility
When making breeding decisions for multi-species mixes, Mr Arts says the compatibility of clover and legumes with other grass species is a key consideration.
He says: “We have to look at how well grass varieties work with white clover. Clover is hard to manage; if you cut the grass too short the clover will take over because it gets more light, but if you graze it longer then the clover will have problems competing for light and will be outcompeted.”
Therefore, it is not only the genetics and composition of future grass varieties which are crucial to performance, but also establishment and
to maintain yields with reduced fertiliser applications.
“Perennial ryegrass requires N, and it needs to be fed to maintain and grow properly, but that does not mean that it does not have a place in a sustainable sward moving forward – it just needs to get its N from somewhere else,” says Dr Young.
management. Mr Arts says establishment of these swards will be one of the main challenges to come for both farmers and grass breeders.
White clover is an aggressive grass species which can out compete ryegrass, and red clover lacks persistency, so Mr Arts says breeding clover varieties which are easier to manage and grow well in companionship with ryegrass is crucial for future grassland performance.
He says: “Nitrogen can be replaced with clover, but it requires a bit more management and is more complicated. You still want to get yields from your land, so if you can maintain yield with 30% less fertiliser, that is a gain.”
To trial and test the performance of grass breeds in multiple environments and seasons, the breeding process takes time and is
Dr Young says breeding ryegrasses which are compatible with legumes to maintain yields is key.
a long process, says Mr Arts.
He says Barenbrug has been working with the development of genomic technology for the last 10 years, which he believes is almost ready to speed up the breeding process.
Gene editing
While gene editing is not a technology currently available in grass breeding across the UK and Europe, Mr Arts predicts that 12 to 15 years from now the first gene-edited ryegrass could be commercially
available on the market.
Dr Young says: “As a research community, we are definitely looking at genomic tools to speed up progress and also potentially gene editing, which is something that could be harnessed, but there are legal reasons why we do not do that here at this programme.
“But it is always on the horizon, and I think things like gene editing could improve the ryegrass yields significantly faster than what we are doing already.”
Piet Arts
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15% LESS METHANE INGESTED CONSUMED EMITTED
Achieving optimal efficiency in the calf pre-weaning period is a key factor when looking to reduce heifer rearing costs and improve herd sustainability. Katie Fallon reports.
Pre-weaning is key to sustainable rearing
At a recent open day held at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) Hillsborough site, dairy youngstock research scientist, Gillian Scoley, discussed making the most of the pre-weaning period to meet key life stage targets. Rearing replacement heifers is a signi cant cost to any dairy business, representing about 20% of the total production costs within a dairy enterprise. Recent benchmarking data from the College of Agriculture,
Food and Rural Enterprise has showed the average cost of rearing a heifer to the point of calving is £2,156, with a £1,134 di erence between the top and bo om 25% of recorded herds.
Consequently, Ms Scoley said achieving a calving age of 24 months is a key e iciency target for the dairy herd, with each day over 24 months costing £2.87 per day in rearing costs.
Research carried out across 120 dairy farms in Northern Ireland showed the average age of rst calving was 27.7 months, which equated to an extra £324
of rearing costs per heifer. Ms Scoley said this not only results in greater rearing costs, but heifers entering the herd later and taking longer to recoup costs.
Performance targets
To achieve the target age of rst calving, Ms Scoley said there were several performance targets which needed to be met within the weaning period, the most important being age at breeding, which she advised should be 14 months.
She said: “ is means we need to reach around 50-55%
mature bodyweight by 14 months, and to do that calves need to be gaining around 0.7kg to 0.8kg per day from birth.”
To achieve this, calf environment and diet were key and Ms Scoley advised calves required an average temperature of between 10degC and 15degC within the rst few weeks of life.
At that temperature, Ms Scoley said a 45kg calf would need 500g of milk replacer for maintenance alone, with anything over 500g used for growth. She added colder temperatures would result in the calf needing
Maintaining optimal temperature and humidity are key factors when looking to achieve a first calving age of 24 months.
more energy to keep warm and regulate its temperature, rather than making gains in growth and weight. She also advised the calf environment should have a relative humidity of less than 80%, with clean bedding and shed ventilation key to achieving this.
Optimal temperatures
To understand what calves were experiencing on-farm, the Optihouse project was launched, with environmental measures, calf weights and hygiene assessments undertaken across 66 dairy farms in Northern Ireland.
Ms Scoley said: “ e average temperature on-farm was 9.5degC and they were at that temperature for more than 50% of the time. When we looked at relative humidity, the average was around 82% and again, they were in this environment for more than 50% of the time, so before we even start, we have
calves in a cold, damp environment for more than 50% of their time.”
When looking at the diet being fed on-farm, the study found that 50% of farms were feeding 750g of milk replacer or less per day.
Ms Scoley said: “In an ideal environment that is giving us about 250g of milk replacer for growth, but we are not in an ideal environment, we are already below that.”
e same level of feeding was replicated in a UK study which found that 50% of farms were feeding six litres of milk replacer or less per day. Ms Scoley said this highlighted an opportunity for farms to feed more milk replacer and utilise it for growth.
e study also found that 86% of calf diets did not contain enough energy for calves to achieve 0.8kg per day of growth. And a er modelling the data, results showed calves which
Achieving a calving age of 24 months is a key efficiency target for the dairy herd
GILLIAN SCOLEY
were spending more than 50% of their time in below target conditions were losing out on 70g per day of potential growth.
“If we are feeding a calf and expecting 800g of growth, if we take those two factors alone, we could be missing out on a potential 140g of growth. So very quickly instead of 0.8kg per day you are down to 0.66kg per day.”
Looking at this on a practical level, Ms Scoley said a calf that
is gaining 0.8kg per day can double its birthweight in 50 days, whereas it will take 60 days for a calf which is growing at 0.66kg per day.
Reduced rearing costs
She added that on an average 180-cow dairy herd in Northern Ireland with an average replacement rate of 26%, if the age at rst calving dropped from 27.7 months to 24 months, a saving of around £15,000 in rearing costs could be achieved, based on the additional £342 per heifer for age at rst calving at 27.7 months.
“If we can get heifers to calve down at 24 months, we are reducing the non-productive period and if we reduce that it is also reducing the carbon footprint associated with it. So it is good for your pocket, the environment and overall sustainability of the herd,” Ms Scoley said.
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NEW ZEALAND VET’S VIEW
In his latest article, New Zealand vet Rory Dean talks about Fonterra’s plans to reduce farm emissions and also details the work he does helping to keep exotic diseases at bay.
‘It is undoubtedly an ambitious target, but with pragmatic thinking behind it’
Visiting the local town of Dargaville recently with my ancee Mel, it was fantastic to bump into so many of my farming clients out and about.
Spring calving predominates in the Kaipara region and so most of the herds are now dry.
Dry-o seems to have gone very well so far and most cows should be able to make condition score 5 (DairyNZ scale) in time for calving.
is is a pleasant feeling as a vet, knowing much of the under performance and animal health issues of poor body reserves will likely be avoided.
is will, at least in part, be down to a couple of promising global dairy trade auctions.
ese have in turn led to suitable farmgate prices being forecast by the main dairy co-operative Fonterra.
As Mel and I progressed down the street, I became aware that the farmers, in their clean clothes, were only too happy to be talking about their recent trip to Fiji, or the Gold Coast rather than the usual discussions of pasture covers and the weather.
It was a happy occasion; we were both glad (and not at all jealous) that many of these solid
community characters were taking some time o farm to enjoy themselves.
Fonterra, the main milk buying co-operative, is pushing boldly ahead with its plans to reduce on-farm emissions intensity by 30% by 2030.
In my opinion, this is a fantastic approach. Emissions intensity relates to the kg of emissions produced per kg of milk solids produced, rather than absolute emissions.
An absolute emissions approach o en leads to the
reduction of cow numbers and declining rural communities.
While this has been seen elsewhere in the world, New Zealand felt the e ect of this radical idea with sheep and beef country being converted into vast pine monocultures as part of ‘carbon farming’.
With this new approach from Fonterra, driven by large buyers such as Nestle, it encourages farmers to improve e ciencies on farm, maximise production from each cow in a sustainable manner, sequester carbon where
possible on marginal land, and consider novel technologies. It is undoubtedly an ambitious target, but with pragmatic thinking behind it.
At a meeting held by Fonterra recently in Whangarei, it was great to see the positivity from farmers ge ing behind this programme – of course there were critics also – and I really enjoyed learning how my role may evolve into advising farmers how to feed cows be er and reduce waste.
e immensely powerful, detailed calculators that work in the
Co-operative Fonterra is pushing ahead with its bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand.
PICTURE : Mark Meredith
background have aws, but they are being constantly tweaked and updated so that we can accurately benchmark e ciency and emissions intensity between farmers.
On the veterinary side, there is increasing concern around the spread of highly pathogenic avian in uenza and how it could impact New Zealand.
Two farms across the ditch (Australia) were found to have ‘bird u’ recently, increasing awareness over here.
While the right course of action has undoubtedly been carried out by the Victoria authorities, it is a terrible shame for those farmers who have had thousands of birds culled.
As an aside from Kaipara Farm Vets, I’m part of a team of vets that provide rapid response should a veterinarian in the eld be concerned about exotic disease.
While this ‘initial investigating
veterinarian’ scheme is typically just a case of keeping up to date with the recent veterinary news, a ending refresher training and most importantly, keeping my phone on, there is increased anxiety currently around exotic disease.
I’ve found myself checking and double checking my initial investigating vet kit to ensure all is there should I get called out, and worriedly reading over notes gained from courses.
Proud
I feel very proud to be a small cog in the well-oiled machine that provides preparedness for exotic disease, the role certainly keeps me on my toes.
e team at Kaipara Farm Vets are doing very well indeed.
To celebrate the end of another season, we had a clay pigeon shoot, which was a great day full of laughs and some healthy competition.
NEW ZEALAND VET’S VIEW
Rory Dean
Our host, a farming friend, even o ered some quality coaching to our team. A er it was all done, we agreed that instead of any money changing hands, a donation would be made to RYALT, a rural literacy charity –what a great outcome.
We have a new team member, Dutch locum vet Femke, arriving shortly for the calving season.
We look forward to her arrival as it should take the pressure of some of the current team mem-
Rory Dean
JRory is a self-employed, large animal veterinarian based in Northland, New Zealand, originally hailing from Dumfries and Galloway. He is a member of the Dairy Cattle Vets committee and also an initial investigating veterinarian (exotic disease) for the Ministry for Primary Industries.
bers who are stolidly gra ing away.
Our gang is full of hidden talents – Paddy is a top dressage coach and judge; Sophie represents Northland at golf – what will Femke bring?
Disappearing is my hidden talent, one I am about to utilise as I head o for a few days into the cold, mobile reception-free Kaimanawa ranges to spook deer and curse – I’ve been told this is called hunting.
YOUNGSTOCK REARING
This special feature focuses on key areas of heifer rearing to help dairy producers meet their own herd’s target for age at first calving and improve long-term efficiencies.
44 NON-NEGOTIABLES
Feeding and weaning protocols on Staffordshire farm
Athirst for knowledge and a youngstock management policy built on a year-on-year drive for continual improvement is reaping dividends for the Worsey family.
First-generation farmers
Graham and Justine Worsey, together with their son Tom and daughter Jess, operate a split block-calving system on their 161-hectare (399-acre) tenanted holding, Rough Grounds Farm, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
e relatively low input dairy farm business focus is on producing as much milk as possible from its 270-cow herd and 100ha (247-acre) grazing platform.
Graham says: “Our goal is to produce 6,500 litres of high-quality milk per cow, with 5,000 litres coming from forage. Currently, we are managing 4,584 litres from forage.
Outdoor grazing
“Our 270 Jersey, Shorthorn, Friesian and cross-bred cows now calve in equally split spring and autumn blocks, and our aim is to graze the herd outside for as many days as possible.
“I am passionate about making the most of all the forage we can grow on the farm.”
Animal health and welfare is
Our
heifer calves represent the future of our milking herd
JUSTINE WORSEY
48 THE DAM What needs to happen before a calf is born?
54 INVESTMENT
Minimising rearing costs for the milking cows of the future
Focusing on continuous improvement
at the heart of everything the Worseys do, with Justine and Jess equally commi ed to keeping the farm’s youngstock in prime condition and on track to meet desired target growth rates.
Justine says: “Our heifer calves represent the future of our milking herd, so we are always looking for ways to improve.”
Justine and Jess have made great strides in recent years, demonstrably improving both calf health
and nutrition to achieve more consistent growth rates.
Input from the farm’s veterinary surgeon Beckie Harrison, of Peak eld Farm Vets, has been particularly helpful – as has involvement in the vet practice’s ‘Healthy Heifer Club’, as well as investment in new calf weighing scales and early life calf vaccination against pneumonia.
Jess says: “We have learned a lot from Beckie and the other farmers
in the club. e way we manage the calves has changed a lot in the last few years and we are delighted with the progress we are making.”
Problem
For example, pneumonia always used to be a problem in autumnborn calves around Christmas, but vaccination against the main viral causes of the disease when calves are under a week old is now paying o . Jess says: “We only tended to
The calf shed at Rough Grounds Farm, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
see obvious clinical signs of pneumonia, such as runny noses, coughing and high temperatures when the calves were a bit older and the weather went colder in December.
“But since Beckie started using ultrasound to scan young calf lungs, it became clear to us that the calves were probably under infection challenge much earlier in life because she was seeing lung damage in calves as young as three weeks of age.
“ at is when we became convinced they needed vaccinating against pneumonia as early as possible in life.”
Indeed, since early life pneumonia vaccination was introduced for autumn-born calves in 2023 –and then spring-born calves in 2024 – ultrasound scanning of calf lungs has already demonstrated a signi cant lung heath improvement.
Growth rates
Improved growth rates were also seen in autumn 2023-born calves, compared with those born in spring, and Jess, Justine and Beckie have high hopes for a further improvement in growth rates this year.
When Beckie scans the calves using the thoracic ultrasound scanning technique, she looks for patches of lung consolidation, which indicates damage most likely caused by pneumonia infection.
Beckie says: “Each calf scanned receives a score on a scale of zero to three, with a zero being no lung abnormalities detected and a three suggesting extensive consolidation across multiple lung lobes.
“Any calf recorded as a two or a three is treated appropriately; regardless of whether it shows the typical clinical signs of pneumonia.
“Calves receiving a score of one are closely monitored. Although it may seem like we are increasing antibiotic usage by treating calves which are not showing clinical signs, the evidence shows that calf lungs can be substantially damaged days or weeks before the animal shows any signs of disease.
“By ge ing treatment in early, we are maximising the chances of treatment success, which in the long-term avoids the need for repeat treatments.”
First scan
Jess says when Beckie rst scanned the farm’s unvaccinated spring 2023-born calves during
FOR GROWTH HEALTHIER FUTURE.
Jess (left) and Justine Worsey.
YOUNGSTOCK REARING
March that year, they were shocked that so many young calves had damaged lungs.
Jess says: “ ey did not look ill, but out of a batch of 40 calves, only two recorded zero lung consolidation, so we ended up treating the majority.
“ is spring [2024], we scanned 36 vaccinated calves at the same stage of life and only ve of them were prescribed appropriate treatment.
“None of the calves recorded a score of three. In our view, that is a strong endorsement of the value of early life vaccination against this costly and debilitating disease.”
An intranasal vaccine is now administered by the Worseys to both spring- and autumn-born calves, which can be given from the day of birth onwards – particularly useful practically because calves can be vaccinated at the same time as other early life management tasks,
such as colostrum administration, navel dipping and eartagging.
e vaccine reduces the clinical signs of respiratory disease and viral shedding from infection with bovine respiratory syncytial virus and parain uenza-3 virus.
Calves born at Rough Grounds Farm are treated equally in the rst 21 days of life, whether they are female heifer replacements destined to join the adult milking herd or beef calves sold o the farm at three weeks of age.
Colostrum
Justine says: “Newborns receive their rst colostrum feed typically within 30 minutes of being born, even if it is the middle of the night.
“All the colostrum fed is tested for quality with a refractometer and any not up to scratch is discarded.
“Calves get up to three litres within the rst hour of life and another feed within 24 hours, then
Understanding what you cannot see
JWhen it comes to understanding the impact of calf pneumonia, visibly sick calves may only be the tip of the iceberg.
Studies have shown that only 11-16% of pneumonia among a batch of calves is clinically visible.
Anywhere between 23% and 67% could be subclinical and therefore invisible to the naked eye, yet calf health and lifetime performance potential are still being compromised.
Modern ultrasound scanning techniques now allow vets to see what you cannot see with the naked eye.
Thoracic ultrasound scanning (TUS) uses high frequency sound waves to capture live images of internal body organs. TUS of calf lungs can be used in a variety of ways to help youngstock rearers improve productivity:
rUsed in conjunction with an audit tool, TUS can identify
move on to transition milk. Beckie also blood tests one- to seven-dayold calves periodically to assess their antibody status and the e ectiveness of our colostrum feeding.”
Calves are kept in individual pens for the rst two days of life before moving into the calf rearing house, containing low den shelters hemmed in by straw.
Here they are kept in groups of 12, jacketed during cold weather and fed reconstituted, high-energy calf milk – mixed in a large trolley-based feeder –via a 13-teat feeder.
Jess says: “ at way we always know there will be a spare teat if all the calves want to feed at the same time. We feed them twice a day – three litres in the morning and four litres in the a ernoon.
opportunities to improve on farm disease management protocols by highlighting when and where pneumonia-induced lung damage is taking place; for example, if lung damage is being detected in very young calves, improved colostrum feeding protocols and earlier life vaccination could be considered; alternatively, if increased levels of lung damage are found in particular pens/ sheds/groups, then possible remedial management actions can be discussed
rTUS can help identify the severity of any subclinical lung damage and allow you to segment healthy calves to keep for rearing as adult herd replacements
rIf buying-in calves from different sources, TUS can help identify ‘healthy’ from ‘diseased’ animals, allowing separation and treatment of those affected
rIn the event of a pneumonia outbreak, TUS can help identify animals from which to take
diagnostic samples, which will improve the accuracy of disease identification
TUS scores
0
No abnormalities, meaning only a healthy pleural surface or isolated comet tails within an image field could be seen
1 Comet tails on the pleural surface that were multiple and B-lines without significant lung consolidation were observed
2
One or more locations of lung damage; greater than or equal to 1cm
3
Extensive consolidation (greater than or equal to 6cm in one or more locations), abscessation without the lung parenchyma seen as encapsulated fluid filled space, or significant pleural effusion
“ e milk powder is mixed at the rate of 135g per litre of water.” e growing youngstock remain in groups of 12 right up until weaning at 10 weeks of age, with milk being gradually withdrawn from eight weeks of age.
Weigh scale
Calf growth is now monitored with a new weigh scale and calves are weighed at birth and at weaning.
Jess says: “We used to monitor growth with a belly weigh band, but found measurements inconsistent and very much dependent on the location of the band. e weigh scales are far more accurate.”
e Worseys joined the AHDB Strategic Dairy Farm network in November 2023 and are keen to implement even more system improvements.
Justine says: “We enjoy what we do and learning new things, which never stops. We always try to do something di erent every year to improve, and we are all looking forward to sharing insights with other farmers and picking up even more management tips.”
Thoracic ultrasound scanning.
Georgina Thomas
Young Animal Feed Technical Sales
Europe & Central Asia
Trouw Nutrition
Manager,
Dan Lova farms at New Grange in a 50:50 partnership with John Furnival on a 526-hectare (1,300-acre) rented unit in Eccleshall, Sta ordshire. e herd, which has a yield average of 5,600kg at 4.7% bu erfat and 3.6% protein, is managed on a grass-based system, with an extended grazing period which runs from late January until late November.
Maximising the future performance of replacement heifers starts with strict management protocols during the rst 36 hours of the calf’s life, says Mr Lova . e herd is calved from midFebruary to mid-April.
Mr Lova says: “Newborn calves are taken to what we call the ‘reception centre’ immediately a er their birth. Our newly calved cows are not milked straight away and instead they are held until the parlour has been thoroughly cleaned a er milking. ey will be the rst in line.
“ e aim is to handle colostrum in an environment which is as close to sterile as possible. A er use, the equipment is soaked in a solution of steriliser, and on removal it is sprayed with peracetic acid, before being le to dry.
Johne’s risk
“ ere is a Johne’s risk with feeding cow colostrum rather than powder; the infection rate is currently at 4% and the disease is closely monitored. Nevertheless, we feel that the risk it is outweighed by the bene ts to calf health.”
Non-negotiabl
A high standard of colostrum management and a slow weaning process are two ‘non-negotiable’ elements of calf rearing for Staffordshire-based Dan Lovatt, who milks 1,000 Jersey cross Friesian spring calvers across two sites. Wendy Short reports.
Each calf will receive fresh or thawed colostrum which has been tested using a Brix refractometer, with a threshold score of 23%. It will be fed by stomach tube for the rst feed.
“ e rule of thumb is to feed colostrum to 10% of the calf’s bodyweight, and each will receive four feeds within the rst 36 hours,” says Mr Lova .
“Some of the Jersey cross calves
are small, only weighing about 20kg at birth, so the liquid volumes are low compared with a Holstein calf’s requirements.
“At this stage, calves are kept in groups of about a dozen, according to birth date. ey are trained to use a teat feeder in the reception centre and will be moved onto powdered milk replacer.
“On transfer to the rearing unit,
the calves are fed via a modi ed trolley system which holds 1,000 litres of milk replacer and the hose is ed with a ow-metered dispenser.
Feed rate
“ e machine is parked at the end of the building and the hose is used to ll up the 15-teat feeders in the morning and a ernoon, with the milk powder fed at a constant rate of 150g/litre right through to weaning.
“In the past, we have experimented with increasing the milk powder concentration as the calves develop, but this system seems to work best.”
Calf weaning has been found to be more successful if the process is unhurried, says Mr Lova .
He says: “ e calves start o with a 2.2-litre allocation in the morning and a ernoon, moving up to 2.5 litres. By week ve and six, they are receiving 900g of milk solids/day,
Dan and Natalie Lovatt with their daughter Pippa.
Cows are milked in a 44:88 swing-over herringbone parlour.
PICTURES : John Eveson
es of calf rearing
YOUNGSTOCK REARING
plus creep feed and good-quality barley straw.
“ e milk allowance is cut back in week seven, and over the following week the concentrate element is switched to a rearing nut. e groups will be fully weaned by 10-12 weeks, by which time the milk allocation will have been reduced to just two litres of milk per day.” e calves are fully turned out as soon as the weather permits, with their diet supplemented with concentrate feed, o ered initially on an ad-lib basis. e amount is cut over a three-week period, to ease them into an all-grass diet.
Calf health su ered a setback last year following a positive bovine TB test result, but the herd is now clear and the li ing of restrictions came in time for this year’s calving season, says Mr Lova .
He says: “Pneumonia had never been a major problem in the calf house until the farm was put under bTB restrictions. is prevented the sale of beef cross-bred calves, and the direct result was overstocking in the calf house. I believe this factor was directly linked to a sharp increase in the number of calf pneumonia cases for that particular year.
“ e calf stocking rate is back to normal at 2.5-3sq.m/head because calf sales have resumed, but it had risen to 1.2-1.5sq.m/head due to lack of space.
“At the height of the disease outbreak, 20% of the calves were
Vet’s view
JThe farm’s vet, Jenny Bellini of LLM Farm Vets, points to a number of positive measures which help to maximise calf performance on the unit.
Ms Bellini says: “Last year we had a team meeting where we discussed every aspect of calf rearing and protocols were agreed, so that everyone followed the same procedure.
“The calves have deep straw beds overlaying a layer of woodchip, which goes a long way towards keeping the surface
Cross-bred cows have an extended grazing period from late January to late November.
having to be treated. Calf losses are normally rare, but the number went up slightly a er the infection, despite our best e orts.”
A pneumonia vaccination programme was introduced for calves at seven to 10 days old for 2024.
Vaccination
Mr Lova says: “While vaccination has come at a cost, our previous experience made us aware of its bene ts as a preventative measure.
“As well as being a welfare issue and causing a check in growth rates, treating sick calves takes up a lot of time, and that also has to be taken into account when weighing up a fairly major investment like blanket vaccination.”
e ventilation of the calf house came under scrutiny during the pneumonia outbreak, he adds.
dry, and the unit has switched to a milk powder with a high percentage of dairy protein.”
Hygiene
She adds that an ‘exceptional’ level of hygiene is achieved throughout the calf rearing period.
“The colostrum has been submitted for bacteriology testing and showed a high standard of cleanliness.
“In addition, hygiene swabbing has been carried
“ e building is open and airy, with Yorkshire boarding to improve air ow, but some of the boards were removed during the infection outbreak to increase ventilation,” he says.
“ e installation of positive pressure ventilation was considered, but it was rejected at the time because of the expense; it would have cost about £16,000. However, it has not been discounted and it would be a step in the right direction, despite the stocking rate issue having been recti ed.”
Mr Lova teamed up with Mr Furnival in 2011 and they run the unit in a 50:50 partnership. e overriding principle is to keep the system as simple as possible.
“I spent some time contractmilking in New Zealand and was impressed with the grazing system and the reliance on grass to keep costs down. e goal is for a 100%
out on the equipment, including the dump buckets, teat feeders and stomach tubes.
“The aim is to have a figure of below 100 RLU [reflective light units]. It was a one-off test, to make sure that the colostrum handling system was working, and the farm passed with flying colours,” she says.
Blood samples have been taken from a selection of calves under seven days old, to check for antibody absorption.
The results showed that 80%
grass-based diet, supplemented only when it is absolutely necessary. at has been achieved in some years, but the 2023 droughts meant that some ground maize and brewers’ grains had to be fed,” says Mr Lova .
“We are fortunate because the land covers a range of soil types from sandy loam to peat and clay, so there is plenty of exibility.”
He adds that heifer calf rearing is a fundamental aspect of the business.
He says: “My wife, Natalie, was back in charge of the calves this year a er being absent for 2023 due to being pregnant. Having one person with a high level of expertise overseeing the routine is extremely helpful. It maintains performance consistency by making sure that the correct rearing protocols are implemented, although running the farm is very much a team e ort.”
of the group had good or excellent passive transfer.
“A high level of bacteria will outcompete the valuable antibodies and restrict the calf’s absorption rate. We often talk about colostrum quality, but cleanliness is sometimes overlooked. The entire farm team engages with calf health management at New Grange and their ability to get the basics right is the key to their calf rearing success,” says Ms Bellini.
An all-encompassing approach which starts before a heifer is even born has helped Stowell Farms reduce their average age at first calving by two months in the last three years. Aly Balsom reports.
Start with the dam to maximise lifelong heifer performance
The target age for calving heifers is 23 months at Stowell Farms in Pewsey, Wiltshire. eir heifers currently calve at an average 24.2 months, but this gure is higher due to the purchase of 62 in-calf heifers to facilitate herd expansion last year.
e farm is one of Mole Valley Farmers’ Focus Farms and herd manager Chris Gowen believes it is a no-brainer to grow heifers so they are big enough to calve at 24 months or under.
He says: “It is a quicker return on investment so you do not have to feed them as long.”
Calving at 24 months versus 30 months has also been shown to increase total milk yields by 40% across the rst ve years of life, explains the farm’s nutritionist, Mole Valley Farmers’ technical and sustainability manager Dr Ma Wi .
He says: “Milk production –together with cow welfare – is a driving force at Stowell, where cows are currently averaging 11,700 litres a cow a year.
“Ge ing heifers to calve in younger is a key component in hi ing these top levels of production, as well as maximising cow comfort, providing a smooth transition and a well-balanced diet with plenty of quality forage.”
Farm manager Neil Ridgway calculates that reducing age at rst calving from 26 to 24 months, together with the recent move to a robotic milking system, focused on cow comfort, should mean cows last twoand-a-half lactations longer. is will ultimately lead to a more pro table, sustainable system.
Heifer growth rates have been optimised by focusing on the dry period, providing quality colostrum, investing in early growth and supplementing at grass.
Mr Gowen and Mr Ridgway believe heifer performance starts with how her dam is managed during the dry period, as this will impact on the quality of the colostrum fed to her calf.
Dry period
Mr Gowen says: “It is about calf health, colostrum quality, having the right length of gestation versus the dry cow period and knowing your cows; particularly the older cows that need longer on transition.”
Dr Wi adds that the team’s focus on providing a consistent,
low-stress environment around calving is fundamental to ge ing cows and calves o to a good start.
“Feed is pushed up regularly, fans are used to reduce heat stress and we place a real emphasis on delivering a consistent diet designed to promote rumen health and support liver function,” he says.
All cows are vaccinated against rotavirus, coronavirus and e.coli (K99), to raise the level of antibodies to these scour pathogens in their colostrum. is in turn helps bolster
Left to right: Mole Valley Farmers’ Dr Matt Witt, farm manager Neil Ridgway and herd manager Chris Gowen.
calf immunity. About 5-10% of the herd deemed at risk of extreme negative energy balance are given a Kexxtone boluses (monensin) to prevent ketosis and subsequent disease. is is based on
factors such as days dry, body condition and whether they are carrying twins.
With some cows yielding 17,000 litres a year, Mr Ridgway believes it ‘makes sense to invest’ to ensure
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a smooth transition, which will ultimately impact on the calf born.
To ensure transfer of immunity from the dam, all calves receive four litres of quality colostrum within four
hours of birth, regardless of what time they are born.
e team operates a night shi rota, with cameras allowing close monitoring of calving cows. Colostrum must test over 24% using a
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At Stowell Farms, heifers are currently calved in at 24 months, with the aim to reduce that to 23 months.
YOUNGSTOCK REARING
refractometer to be given as the rst feed.
Mr Gowen says: “Colostrum is the biggest part of the heifer story, it is liquid gold. We have seen a big improvement since we started testing three years ago in terms of scours and mortality.”
Colostrum is harvested using a mobile milking unit. A calf will be fed its dam’s colostrum if it meets quality standards and the calf is born during the day. ose that calve at night are fed frozen, quality colostrum
as their rst feed, but will get their second feed from their dam. e aim is to provide three doses of colostrum in 24 hours.
Keeping calves in individual ISO Boxes for the rst 24 hours allows close management and calves to be tagged, including a BVD Tag and Test, navel dipped and genomically tested.
e business is also about to invest in an on-farm lateral ow testing system which allows calf immunoglobulin levels to be established on day two of life using a pin prick on the nose.
Farm facts – dairy overview
r12 Lely A5 Astronaut milking robots
r780 Holsteins in herd
r11,700 litres a cow a year at 4.01% fat and 3.21% protein
rSupplying Arla, Aldi
r3.2 average daily visits to the robot
After week one, heifers are moved onto automatic milk feeders.
r3,400 litres per cow per year milk from forage –aiming for 4,000 litres
r24.2 months average age at first calving
r16 heifers required per month for replacements and to produce a surplus of quality heifers for sale
Mr Ridgway says: “If the immunoglobulins are low, we can put more colostrum into them and give them more TLC. A er 48 hours, the absorption window closes.
“Raising immunoglobuns levels between hour 38 and 48 could be the di erence between 1,000 litres in lactation.”
A er 24 hours, calves move into individual hutches for seven days and receive ve litres of calf milk replacer at 150g/litre, twice daily, plus an 18% crude protein, quality calf compound.
Early growth
To hit target average growth rates of 800g/day, a er week one heifers are moved to the farm’s rearing unit where they are managed on automatic milk feeders.
Feeding rates are built up to 900g of calf milk replacer per day, and an 18% crude protein calf compound, straw and fresh water provided.
Animals are weighed at each shed change prior to weaning to monitor growth.
Mr Ridgway says this pre-weaning stage is vital: “If you get the rst 24 hours wrong, you get the next eight weeks wrong, and if you get the eight weeks wrong, you are pu ing the heifer on a poor footing for the rest of her life.”
e sheds have recently been updated to improve drainage and lighting, as well as ventilation using positive pressure tubing.
Stock is managed by youngstock manager Nick Strong.
Heifers are turned out at six to seven months of age and kept in the same groups to avoid added stress which can negatively impact on growth. ey are grazed on quality herbal leys and silage a ermaths and receive 1.5kg of a low carbon footprint, no soya, no palm, 21% crude protein calf concentrate with biotin. is is fed until service to ensure growth rates are maintained.
Heifers are brought inside one month before service and put on a total mixed ration.
Service decisions are then made based on genomic data. Once in-calf they will be grazed on downland leys.
ey then move to the main unit two months pre-calving and are placed on a high bre maintenance diet before moving to a bespoke transition diet, 25 days before calving, designed by Dr Wi . A er calving, heifers are managed in a low stocked, dedicated group.
Chris Gowen
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• 2 ml single dose intramuscular injection
• Administered to the dam 12-3 weeks before calving
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GENOMICS HOLDS THE KEY TO BREEDING THE BEST REPLACE
YOUNGSTOCK IN FOCUS
ENSURING QUALITY IN HEALTH, GENETICS & NUTRITION
Achieving the highest possible outcomes for your livestock starts with the care and attention which goes into youngstock. In this feature, Neogen, Trouw Nutrition and Virbac have teamed up to explain best practice when it comes to health, hygiene, genetics and nutrition.
Rearing heifer replacements is one of the largest costs for a dairy farmer, accounting for about 20% of production costs. This means selecting the best animals to maximise the return on this investment is fundamental to herd performance.
Genomic data allows farmers to identify the heritable genetic traits they are looking for in their female replacements with a high degree of accuracy, according to Rob Horn, Neogen’s technical sales specialist.
Assessment
He says: “Historically, farmers would select their heifer replacements by assessing them visually, but this has been shown to be only 1% accurate. Using data from parent averages is more precise, but using genomic data will increase accuracy to about 70%.”
Taking tissue samples from calves for genomic analysis is quick and easy, Mr Horn says.
“Ear notch tissue samples can be taken easily, using a specialised applicator, from calves when they are just a couple of days old.
“These samples are sent to
our laboratory by post where they are then sequenced.
“Many perceive genomics as complex, whereas in reality it does not have to be. The single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] sequence provides detailed genetic information.
“The individual’s results can then be evaluated by comparison with all other results on the UK database, allowing the animal’s likely future performance to be accurately predicted.”
Many farmers do not view the use of genomics as a necessity currently, but Mr Horn believes that as the push for reduced costs and improved performance continues, it will increasingly be seen as a ‘vital tool in improving efficiency’, irrespective of farm size.
He says: “The range of traits included in the genomic results gives farm businesses the opportunity to select breeding females according to their own specific requirements. In 2023, 25% of females entering the UK dairy herd were genomically tested; this figure is predicted to be 35% by 2025.
“We are already seeing a significant return on investment where farmers are using genomic bulls. Every point increase in profitable lifetime index for a bull results in £1.58 additional profit per cow1.”
Since genomic testing first bec-
WHY TEST FOR BVD?
● BVD is estimated to cost UK agriculture between £25 million and £61m each year2
● BVD can cause low conception rates, embryo death, abortion and result in weak or premature calves
● Persistently infected (PI)
calves can survive in the herd for several years undetected and, if allowed to breed, can produce another PI calf – these animals will be responsible for most infections on-farm
● Testing for BVD is easy, quick and inexpensive
ame commercially available more than 10 years ago, the amount of data collected and evaluated and the range of traits available has increased significantly. This brings many advantages to the industry, Mr Horn says.
“Genomic data collected across the UK is evaluated by AHDB and is now available for Jerseys, Ayrshires and Guernseys, as well as Holsteins.
“Farmers can also choose to select for a range of traits which will be scored based on the animal’s SNP sequence.
“Each farm is different and will wish to focus on specific traits for herd replacements, but popular ones are fertility, milk yield and, increasingly, longevity.
“New traits are added to genomic testing results and with a greater industry focus on environmental sustainability, traits such as Feed Advantage, are very relevant to producers.
Feed conversion
“Feed Advantage helps dairy producers identify bulls with the greatest tendency to transmit good feed conversion on to their daughters. It is expressed as a Predicted Transmitting Ability in kilograms of dry matter intake saved during each lactation.
“The most efficient cows consume as much as 400kg
WHY USE GENOMICS?
● Selecting replacements on the basis of visual assessment is typically 1% accurate
● Assessing parental averages to making breeding decisions is up to 33%
● Using the results from genomic testing increases
less in one lactation compared with the least efficient cows, meaning for the same level of production there is substantial scope for cutting feed use.
“EnviroCow is another trait prioritised by many farmers, as it focuses on the environmental credentials of an animal, incorporating cow lifespan, milk production, fertility and the Feed Advantage index.
“Bulls scoring highly for this trait are more likely to transmit genes to their daughters so they produce the least greenhouse gas emissions in their lifetimes for each kilogram of solidscorrected milk they produce.”
Testing
Genomic testing is offered by a range of providers, but Neogen is an independent company which does not market cattle genetics, so it is not promoting any particular individual or group of sires.
This offers many advantages to the farmer, says Mr Horn.
“Farmers who use our service own their data so they can share it with their vet or breeding consultant,” he says.
“We present the data as a dashboard which is easy to use and includes a customer index tool which allows the farmer to weight the traits they are most interested in for their herd replacements.
accuracy to about 70% l Genomic data not only ranks an animal for a range of important traits, but it also allows for the evaluation of heritability for each trait, thus measuring how likely they are to be passed onto future generations
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“The dashboard can present the results either as a table or as graphs, allowing for genetic progress across the herd to be tracked and which enables any issues to be pinpointed.
“The results of genomic testing not only inform breeding decisions, but are also a management tool.
“Herd genetic progress should show an upward trend from generation to generation and these figures should be reflected in actual performance. Where this is not the case, it may indicate possible herd management issues, which could be worthy of further investigation.”
Customers have access to technical support from experts at Neogen, who can help farmers to fully understand the dashboard so they can use it to their best advantage when selecting which heifers will be replacements, or those which will be served to beef
or when choosing suitable sires.
Mr Horn points to Neogen’s combined genomics and BVD testing service which allows heifers testing positive for BVD to be identified within two weeks.
He says: “BVD testing at this young age provides the assurance that a heifer is free from a disease which will seriously compromise an animal’s immunity and lead to significant financial losses.
“Furthermore, samples from animals which test positive for BVD can be removed from the genomics testing process, saving cost.”
Decisions
The power of genomics to enable farmers to make decisions which will have significant positive impacts on herd performance in the short-, medium- and longterm should not be underestimated, Mr Horn says.
VALUABLE INSIGHT
“It is a myth that making improvements based on genomic information takes many years. A calf can be tested at two days old and the genomic data is available within six weeks.
Profitability
“This data will indicate how profitable the animal is likely to be within the herd, so at this point the decision can be made to, for example, serve the heifer to beef if she scores poorly, or if her genomic profile suggests she will perform well, she can be served with sexed semen.
“It costs £1,800 to rear a heifer to the point where she enters her first lactation irrespective of her lifetime profitability, so informed breeding decisions can instantly improve the bottom line.”
l The combined expertise of Neogen, Trouw Nutrition and Virbac provides valuable insight into best practices for health, genetics and nutrition. By implementing these strategies, farmers can improve the quality and performance of their herds while promoting better animal welfare. Investing in youngstock through preventative care, genetic evaluation and high-quality nutrition is a key factor in achieving successful livestock production.
Focus on management and nutrition from pre-birth to first calving is key to maximising lifetime performance of dairy heifers. Dairy Farmer reports.
Investing in the milking cows of the future
Rearing heifers from birth to rst calving is one of the highest costs on a dairy farm, accounting for about 20% of production costs. Producers are understandably keen to reduce these costs, but it is also one of the areas which is most crucial to get right.
KW Feeds ruminant technical manager Charlo e Ward says: “Heifer calves are the future of the herd and heifer growth, nutrition and management should be a year-round priority.
“Dairy heifers should be the best genetics on the farm and
should be reared to enable them to realise their genetic potential, with management and nutrition in place to support that.”
Research
According to research carried out at the Royal Veterinary College, funded by AHDB, calving at 24 months rather than 26 months reduces average rearing costs by 16%.
Or, in other terms, there is an increase in the cost of rearing a heifer of £2.87 per day for every day increase in age at rst calving over 24 months.
Ms Ward says: “As well as bene ting production performance and reducing overall costs, lowering age at rst calving is also a major step farmers can take to help lower greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions from their farm.
“ e sooner she is producing milk the be er, as she will start to pay her rearing costs back sooner, and earlier milk production will help o set GHG emissions.
“Depending on genetics and genomic strategy, a farm would also be able to lower their replacement rate by lowering calving age, so there will also be fewer heifers on-farm,
which is a major cost saving whichever way you look at it.”
AHDB gures also show that heifers calving at 22-24 months also have be er fertility, higher milk yields and the highest survival rate over the rst ve years in the herd.
A recent survey carried out by KW Feeds looked at producers’ top priorities for youngstock rearing, with health concerns leading the way with 42% of respondents, followed by growth and body weight gain at 34% and age at rst calving the third priority at 24%.
And most respondents (56%) said their target was to calve heifers at 24 months, with a further 26% stating 22-23 months as their target. ese three areas all dovetail, in particular a focus on weight for age targets is needed to achieve an age at rst calving of 22-24 months. Heifers need to be 90% of their mature weight by the time they calve. is is important to ensure they have the frame size needed to cope with the demands of lactation.
Ms Ward says: “It is therefore crucial to focus on management and nutrition throughout the rst two years of that animal’s life.
Calves born from cows fed the choline supplement 21-days pre-partum were born lighter, improving calving ease.
“Anything which challenges the growth or immune system of that animal will have an impact in terms of fertility, age at rst calving and lifetime milk production – including longevity and peak milk yield.”
Ms Ward says the results of the survey were ‘encouraging’, showing farmers understand the importance of good heifer management and nutrition, and have set targets they are wanting to achieve.
However, as the UK average age at rst calving still sits closer to 28 months, Ms Ward says there is still more focus needed.
Focus
She says: “ is focus needs to start before the calf is even born as we can in fact make a di erence in-utero.
A ention to detail pre-birth through good dry cow management and nutrition will help to ensure we are rearing healthy and productive calves.
“Research from the University of Florida has, for example, investigated the additional bene ts to calves born to cows which have been supplemented with a highly concentrated form of rumenprotected choline.”
While it has been demonstrated that choline supports the cow’s liver to process and metabolise fat during transition, this study looked at benets to the calf by supplementation pre-partum.
Calves born from cows fed the choline supplement 21-days pre-partum were born lighter, improving calving ease, but also had a higher average daily liveweight gain, meaning they were 13kg heavier at 12 months and 36kg heavier post-calving.
When looking at colostrum, the study also found with choline supplementation, more colostrum was produced at rst milk, with higher immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels.
IgG are the complex proteins the calf needs to get from her mother at the very early stages of life to provide immunity. ese growth and health bene ts resulted in higher milk yields in the calves at rst lactation, averaging 2.2 litres per head per day over the control group.
Ms Ward says: “Following this through, it has been found that calves born from cows with supplementation also started eating earlier.
AHDB figures show that heifers calving at 22-24 months also have better fertility, higher milk yields and the highest survival rate over the first five years in the herd.
“Calves convert feed into growth most e ciently when young, so if we can get calves o to a ying start as soon as possible, consuming milk replacer and starter feed earlier, the more we can capitalise on this highly e cient period and reach those weight for age targets to calve earlier.”
Colostrum
Pu ing extra e ort into colostrum feeding and management, using a good quality milk replacer and encouraging early intakes of calf starter, can also mean less ‘catchup’ growth is necessary when calves nally go out to grass. ere is also reduced risk of excess fat deposition trying to catch up and a greater likelihood of hi ing target weights to calve at 22-24 months.
Ms Ward says: “It brings back to us the message that investment in good management and nutrition for dairy heifers is vital to minimise rearing costs, meet targets, maximise lifetime performance and reduce carbon footprints on-farm. And this starts before the calf is even born.”
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•
HOUSING & SLURRY
This special housing and slurry feature looks at the latest in roofing design and focuses on slurry separators and trailing shoe spreading.
Farming 85 hectares (210 acres) at Lawton Hall Farm, near Stoke-on-Trent, the Fernihough family has a mixed herd of 140 milkers that are housed all-year-round along with 120 followers.
e farm has an on-site steel slurry tower which is linked to a reception pit via a separator. is reduces the volume being stored and provides a more homogenous slurry for grass and maize application.
Callum Fernihough says: “It is a screw press-style separator. We have been using separation for over 20 years. It is a good way to help the quantity and quality of our slurry.”
He immediately refers to how the farm has struggled with application equipment, saying that despite separating slurry to make it easier to
60 SHED ROOF
Innovative technology for new build
The 2025 splash plate ban has worried some and inspired others and Callum Fernihough has chosen to make best use of slurry by using a trailing shoe applicator. Dairy Farmer reports.
Accurate application lowers N reliance
apply his previous trailing shoe was prone to faults. “ e macerator in our appli-
64
GREEN BEDDING
The value of separated slurry
cator does not have to work as hard as some and it should be straightforward to spread as our land is not particularly uneven or hilly. However, the last trailing shoe we had did not seem to follow the ground evenly and the rubber boots were prone to spli ing regularly,
so we chose a Vogelsang UniSpread in April 2022,” he says. e UniSpread is a 7.5-metre model which is ample for the way the Fernihough family has set-up their grass leys, some of which are small parcels that can be tricky to access.
Good investment
e UniSpread quali ed for a Farming Equipment and Technology (FETF) grant and Mr Fernihough describes it as ‘a good investment’.
He says: “We have also invested in a grassland subsoiler this year to go over our tramlines in our grass leys between each cut of silage. is helps to remove the build-up of compaction caused by our forage wagon and will hopefully encourage faster grass regrowth.”
He suggests it is easier to use, mount and maintain, with simple well-located greasing points and a strong four-point linkage. However, the main bene t has been in the shoe design.
“We want to use a trailing shoe because it protects the leaf
Callum Fernihough has chosen to use a trailing shoe applicator for slurry.
Separation
of the plant. It also enables the slurry to be absorbed into the soil and taken up faster by the plant because it can be applied in a more uniform way. On our previous machine the rubber boots only opened when ground pressure was exerted, but this constant pinching of the boot caused them to split,” he says. And he adds the previous trailing shoe was particularly troublesome in wet and so ground conditions.
The screw press separator at Lawton Hall Farm reduces volumes and increases quality of the slurry being stored.
“Our windows are ge ing tighter; we are in an NVZ and we o en have to apply slurry on land that is so . Because the previous machine relied solely on ground pressure to operate, it would dig in until it found su cient contact to set the shoe in place. On the wet land this o en meant the shoe would get embedded in the soil and cause damage to the ley,” he says.
e UniSpread is a lighter weight design and despite being 1.5m wider than the farm’s previous trailing shoe, it is easier for the Valtra T194 to manage in the areas of the farm where
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HOUSING & SLURRY
a local contractor is unable to apply umbilically.
“We operate a multi-cut system and aim for ve cuts each year. About 50 acres is inaccessible to our contractors so we use the UniSpread to cover this. It also gives us the exibility to take every opportunity to manage our storage levels and enhance the nutrient value of our soils,” he says.
Splash plate use
While he appreciates that the use of splash plates is continuing until the end of 2024, he is full of praise for being more accurate with slurry.
“We use very li le nitrogen now we can apply our slurry more accurately and e ciently. We are only using around 30 units per acre,” he says. e farm has analysed its slurry and discovered it holds 11-12 units of nitrogen per 1,000 gallons and has therefore chosen to apply it at a rate of 3,000 gallons per acre.
“We have been aerating the soil to improve absorption and the UniSpread shoe design is such that it parts the grass to
ll the slits in the ground. It is working very well and saving us a lot on bought-in fertiliser since prices went up, which has been a big help,” he says.
He aims to make at least three applications each year and says that a er each the recovery of the grass has been much faster since using the trailing shoe and aerating the soil.
“A er ve days the regrowth has covered the tramlines made in the grass during application. With the old system we would leave smear marks and in wet conditions the trailing shoe could leave the grass looking messy, which inevitably reduced yield, forage quality and increased the risk of soil contamination in the next cut,” he says.
He has also improved the e ciency of his tractor operation and is able to work faster, while being more precise.
“I have compared like-forlike and because the UniSpread is lighter, the tractor can run at a forward speed of 4kmh at around 1,100rpm with a pto speed of around 320rpm. Due to the reduced pto speed, we are seeing massive improvements in
tractor fuel consumption, too.” he adds.
Some, like Mr Fernihough, have reacted positively to the demand for slurry application changes. With covered storage, a separator and precision application equipment he is making the most of his slurry while also making the farm compliant with forthcoming legislation.
“We have bene ted from grants, and we hope to do so again by improving our storage.
e UniSpread is an example of how a farm like ours can operate like bigger farms and contractors, by investing in the right equipment to do a be er job,” he says.
The UniSpread’s design has meant Callum Fernihough can use less nitrogen, saving on fertiliser costs.
Clean Air Strategy
JThe 2025 splash plate ban seeks to reduce ammonia (NH3) emissions in the UK, around 88% of which come from agriculture. Nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, is released into the atmosphere through open storage of organic manure, but also through the use of splash plates, especially on warm or windy days.
The initial ban will be followed by further regulation in 2027 that will require all slurry to be covered.
The UniSpread has an improved trailing shoe design that reduces splitting.
When converting beef housing to a brand new dairy unit, Robert Patton did his research to find the technology and infrastructure suitable for his needs. Chris McCullough reports.
Taking the time to research technology and equipment
ollowing two years of construction and investment of £1 million, milking has recently commenced at Robert Pa on’s new dairy unit at Old Mill Dairies at Ballycarry, Co Antrim. e dairy unit comprises a new 126-space cubicle shed with transparent roof sheeting and a
robotic milking and feeding system.
Mr Pa on says that when planning the new unit, he wanted to make it as comfortable as possible for the cows, but he also wanted to ensure it was easy to operate using minimal labour resources.
Mr Pa on grew up on a beef and sheep farm and, a er leaving
school, he came back home to the farm and set up Old Mill Saddlery business on the farm, supplying equine equipment.
He says: “Now I have a son doing his nal school exams, who is also interested in farming.
“As it was becoming increasingly di cult to make money from suckler cow beef production, we took the decision to start the dairy unit.”
A5 robotic units. Cows currently average 3.7 milkings each per day.
Mr Pa on says: “ e herd I purchased had been a totally closed herd with all breeding done internally and no ca le bought in.”
e new shed uses the slurry tanks from the old beef housing and measures 44m by 30m.
Spaces
It contains 126 cubicle spaces, with Cowcoon-Flex cubicles and ma resses supplied by Wilson Agriculture.
e herd of 90 Holstein cows, which were bought as one lot from a local dairy farmer who was exiting the industry, are milked via two Lely Astronaut
However, he adds, as a herd used to parlour milking, the move to Old Mill Dairies did create its own logistical challenges, ge ing them used to robotic milking in the new barn, although he adds they se led easier than he had rst imagined.
Mr Pa on also added a Lely Vector robotic feeding system, with associated ingredients kitchen, a Lely Cosmix P out of parlour feeder, and a Lely Discovery barn cleaner to the new unit.
Two 39-metre by 10m silos store the silage required to feed the cows that are kept indoors all year round.
All the main construction
The construction spans 44 metres by 30m and is fitted with Heatguard transparent roof sheeting to give the cows plenty of light.
HOUSING & SLURRY
work was carried out by McKinty Construction from nearby Larne.
Mr Patton says: “I took my time over the past three to four years to research everything required to build the dairy. Everything had to be right, even the slats are specially grooved to give the cows better grip when walking.”
He says one of the most important decisions he made was the addition of the Heatguard
transparent roof sheeting supplied by Greenhill Systems, near Ballymena.
He says: “I wanted to create a barn environment as close to nature as possible, therefore using the transparent roof sheeting to allow more light in was a no-brainer.”
He explains that research has shown cows behave much better in terms of fertility and
eating in a well-lit environment provided via the transparent sheeting. Heat stress is also reduced, which should also increase yields and animal welfare.
Mr Patton says: “The extra light in our shed has played a major role in how quickly the cows have settled into their new home.
“Lely has been surprised how fast they have adapted to the robots, bearing in mind they came from a farm using a milking parlour. Some of those cows are five years old and really settled to the robot milking units within four days. The changeover was very easy indeed.”
Mr Patton aims to take cow numbers up to 130 with Holstein sexed semen used to breed heifer replacements.
He adds he is keen to consider the role of cross-breeding in the breeding programme in the future.
He says: “I went to Sweden and Denmark to look at cows and liked the ProCROSS cross-breeding app-
Farm facts
rOld Mill Dairies extends to 77 hectares (190 acres), with a further 8ha (20 acres) taken as short term rent
rCurrently, there are 90 cows milking, but that will extend to 130 cows once more have calved
rMilk is sold to Aurivo based in the Republic of Ireland
rCows are averaging 35kg of milk per day
rMr Patton employs one member of staff to look after the dairy herd
roach taken by VikingGenetics.”
Mr Patton says that herd health tests show the herd is disease free and he is keen to protect this status by keeping the herd closed going forwards.
Cows are milked an average of 3.7 times per day.
The new shed has 126 cubicles and plenty of space for the cows.
Robert Patton can check on the information from the Lely robotic milkers in the new farm office at the unit.
The unit incorporates a Lely Vector robotic feeder and ingredients kitchen system as part of its bid to reduce labour.
Robert Patton says the unit’s good ventilation and light helped the cows settle in to the new unit and to using robotic milking.
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HOUSING & SLURRY
For more than a decade after installing a separator, a dairy farm has been benefiting from a system that creates green bedding and a nutrient-rich liquid slurry. Dairy Farmer reports.
Before the installation of the farm’s rst separator, some 10 years ago, there had been issues with sand bedding, says farm consultant John Singleton.
He says: “Following years of bedding 310 cows on sand, the farm was looking at cost saving measures and a way to improve its slurry management. e sand had caused contractor’s pumps to fail and, with sand prices rising, a change of system was needed.
“Installing a separator and an innovative pumping system was the rst step to creating
Whole farm gains from green bedding system
green bedding and managing the farm’s slurry in a more ecient way,” adds Mr Singleton.
e slurry was scraped through slats in the shed to a reception pit nearby. From
the reception pit it was pumped 70 metres to a 40cu.m holding tank which fed the separator. A further pump fed the slurry to a separator positioned 3.6m (12 feet) above the holding tank.
material to more than 36%. is drier material has improved cow health and comfort, while also reducing cases of mastitis.
“ e small tank required clearing of stones and sediment every two months, but the system was providing a solid material with a dry ma er suitable for green bedding, and a liquid that was fed into a larger concrete lagoon located next to the reception tank.
“ is lagoon also accumulated sand and grit that formed a bank at one end up to 2 high. However, by emptying the store, a telehandler could be driven in to periodically remove the sediment,” says Mr Singleton
Final stage
e nal stage of the system saw the liquid from the second store pumped to a lagoon.
“From the lagoon we established that the contractor could pump the liquid slurry upwards of 1,500m because it had considerably less solid content. Following tests, we found that this liquid was extremely nutrient-rich. It was also easy to apply evenly and required far less pumping power, which saved time, money and prevented undue wear of equipment,” he adds.
A new Vogelsang XSplit separator replaced the original separator to increase the dry ma er content of the separated
Mr Singleton says: “To prevent the green bedding clumping, it is raked every day. However, the farm has found the draining properties to be similar to that of sand. Urine drains through it even though the farm prefers to have a very deep bed for the cows to lie on. Even so, we have found that some surfaces hold the material be er than others,” he says. ere are three cubicle bases including limestone, concrete, and concrete with mats.
Mr Singleton says: “ e limestone holds the green bedding more e ectively and cows compete for these cubicles. e concrete is slippery for the cows when standing, but when the
The farm is producing ample quantities of green bedding and separating a liquid that provides significant fertiliser savings
JOHN SINGLETON
John Singleton
Installing a separator was the first step to managing the farm’s slurry in a more efficient way.
farm added mats the combination made the green bedding material slip out of the cubicle.”
The green bedding material is treated with lime which has a knock-on benefit to soil health. Lime residues that pass through the separator are carried in the liquid slurry and are subsequently applied to the farm’s soil.
“Through regular soil and slurry tests we have identified that the slurry is providing sufficient nitrogen, but there is a need for sulphur and potash. The lime has also seen pH levels rise to almost 7, which is having a positive impact on the farm’s choice to introduce clovers to its grass leys,” says Mr Singleton.
Reduced reliance
Historically, the farm routinely bought three to four wagon loads of nitrogen fertiliser each year. However, as the separated slurry quality improved the reliance on nitrogen reduced,
which led to the farm not needing to purchase any additional nitrogen fertiliser for three years.
Now only 10 units of nitrogen with sulphur is used each year, with the slurry providing the nutrients needed to boost soil health and grass growth.
The system is not immune to complications, the worst being spells of dry weather.
“In contrast to most dairy farms that see rainwater as
added cost because it fills storage, the separation system relies on water to make the raw slurry easier to pump and separate,” says Mr Singleton.
“If it becomes thick, it costs more to pump both through the system and when spreading, but this is a relatively small drawback compared to the benefit of producing the green bedding material and having an easierto-handle liquid to apply.”
The farm has also mitigated
pumping costs by installing solar panels to provide the electricity needed to power the pumps.
“With 10,000 gallons of slurry going through the system each week, the farm is producing ample quantities of green bedding and separating a liquid that provides significant fertiliser savings. With the addition of solar energy it is also a low cost, future-proof, and sustainable system,” adds Mr Singleton.
Green bedding has shown to improve cow health and comfort, while also reducing cases of mastitis.
MACHINERY
Slurry separators are often viewed as a static piece of farm infrastructure, but could a mobile unit be a flexible, cost-effective solution for farmers willing to share an asset? James Huyton takes a look at the Vogelsang X-Split towable unit in action.
Portable slurry solution
Mounted on a tandem axel trailer, the Vogelsang X-Split is a 3,500kg towable unit, with the manufacturer offering the system both as a static and transportable set-up.
The unit could offer possibilities for contractors looking to offer slurry separation services alongside spreading.
Following separation, the more homogenous nature of slurry could also aid users looking to pump the liquid fraction through an umbilical system.
For the purposes of the working demonstration Vogelsang worked from a reception pit of the farm’s 1.36 million-litre
slurry tower. The demonstration farm offered the ideal solution of two slurry towers one containing unseparated slurry and one empty for the separated material to be transferred into.
However, the manufacturer was keen to point out a separator can work off a single slurry pit separating the material and returning the liquid fraction to the same tank.
Notably this will add extra processing time onto the system.
Capable of processing a claimed 50cu.m/hour, the X-Split separator was mounted onto the manufacturer’s lift frame pro gantry.
After considerable winter rainfall across the UK, separators could offer a solution to dairy farms look-
Offered both as a static and portable unit, the Vogelsang X-Split can process up to 50cu.m of material per hour.
An elastomer disc creates resistant pressure against the press screw, allowing plug formation without extra weights.
ing to increase e ciency. Even in a lower rainfall year, a 15-20% boost in storage capacity could bene t many farms, gains in storage capacity will all depend on the amount of solid material within the slurry to begin.
e system has been designed to be self-monitoring with four pressure sensors monitoring the ow of material.
Prospective buyers have three types of control modules to choose from depending on price point. Standard controls o er a push- bu on system with
operation at the machine. Buyers can specify pro controls with a touch screen terminal or expert controls with remote access, and monitoring systems via a mobile device. e expert control system also allows control of up to ve individual separators and control of a third party pump.
A threaded bar onto the drive sha of the auger unit allows pressure to be added or released to create the desired dry ma er content. With the X-Split separator capable of achieving a claimed 40% dry ma er con-
The system’s variable frequency drive, operates in conjunction with four pressure sensors to monitor material flow.
tent. Opening up opportunities for the use of green bedding on farms. e modular design of the separator unit allows the operator access to change and clean sieve liners if necessary. Two sieve options are available, 2mm as standard or 1mm can be optionally speci ed.
e elastomer rubber disc creates a self-forming plug of material up to 40% dry ma er, with no need for weights claims the manufacturer. Vogelsang also claims the sieve’s vertical slots design allows a more uniform material to exit the working head with fewer potential blockages.
Alkagrain® is rumen friendly, cereal grain, produced by simply mixing our unique, alkalising feed pellets (Home n’ Dry®) at a minimum application rate of 30kg/tonne, with ripe, fully mature, cereal grain and sheeting.
This can be done at harvest, or throughout the year. The grain can be rolled or bruised at the time of treating, or before feed-out.
The expert control system can be operated remotely through an app.
MILKprices
•
•
Arla milk price starts to perform
JWhile a good number of headline producer milk prices continue to increase over summer, what is noticeable is how the Arla Foods UK milk price is regaining momentum as it rises to a more competitive level on a monthly basis.
However, it will take some time to push up through the rankings of our 12-month rolling milk price league, with Arla’s price performance over the last year not being at a level to that which has been accustomed.
this price up to 40.01ppl, which is also moving up with the front-runners of non-aligned liquid milk prices.
Again, where the company’s organic milk price has lagged somewhat, this latest July increase of 1.63ppl takes our liquid standard up to 50.44ppl, with manufacturing increasing by 1.7ppl to 52.57ppl. e tightness in organic milk supply means Muller also increased its organic milk price for August by 1ppl taking our liquid standard price up to 52.5ppl.
Competitive
Running a month in arrears to most other milk prices, the co-op increased its July milk price by 1 euro cent per kg (0.84p/kg) for conventional milk supplies with organic increasing by 2c/kg (1.7p/kg).
is is the h increase to the company’s on-account milk price for 2024, pushing our manufacturing standard litre* up 0.81ppl to 41.70ppl, which takes the price very close to the pinnacle of our July manufacturing standard prices.
Year to date
Representing an increase of 5.6ppl for the year to date, the price is also 6.68ppl higher than the company’s price paid for the same month last year.
At the same time, the increase of 0.78ppl for our liquid standard litre* takes
However, the company decided to hold its conventional price on 39ppl for a second month. Having held its milk price for ve out of the eight months to date this year, this perhaps serves to re ect the company’s competitive price level at the start of the year. Its price hold may also have had the e ect of in uencing not too many other liquid milk prices to increase for the month.
Exceptions were Crediton Dairy, which increased by 0.5ppl to 40ppl, thereby matching the Freshways price, while Pembrokeshire Dairy, which has now been o cially opened, increased its price by 0.92ppl to what is an industry leading non-aligned milk price of 40.62ppl.
Milk price analyst
Stephen Bradley on the latest milk industry developments.
Cheesemakers remain competitive
JMilk buyers for cheese have continued to increase their milk prices for August, as Barber’s continues to lead the charge after increasing our manufacturing standard by 0.52ppl to 41.80ppl.
This is currently our top non-aligned manufacturing milk price, representing an increase of 5.66ppl for the year to date.
Its neighbour, Wyke Farms, has allowed a small gap to open up, having increased by 0.36ppl to 41.42ppl.
Saputo Dairy UK increased its Davidstow milk price by 0.75ppl to 40.75ppl, while in Yorkshire, its Wensleydale price for July was increased by 1.05ppl to 40.55ppl.
Belton Farm’s fifth price increase for this year pushed its price 0.75ppl up to 40.05ppl, while Leprino
Foods’ sixth increase for the year, of 1ppl, takes our price up to 40.50ppl, which also represents a total increase for the year to date by the mozzarella maker of 6.5ppl.
First Milk is refusing to be left behind, increasing its price by 0.7ppl to take our price up to 41ppl, with those suppliers in the Haverfordwest Tesco Cheese Group receiving the same level of increase to 42.50ppl.
The company has also increased its Dorset-based BV Dairy price by 0.52ppl to 40.25ppl, while on a liquid standard, the increase represents an uplift of 0.5pl to 40.25ppl.
Working a month in arrears, the same as Arla, the Fresh Milk Company (Lactalis) increased its July milk price by 0.79ppl to 40.32ppl.
Lower costs reduce Tesco milk price
JTesco has reduced its Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group milk price by 0.95ppl from August on the back of lower cost prices for feed, fuel and fertiliser, but feed in particular. The reduction takes our liquid standard price for our Muller supplier down to
40.87ppl (40.62ppl for our Arla supplier), following the 0.6ppl reduction for May and 0.69ppl increase for February, leaving the overall price movement 0.86ppl negative for the year to date, with the next potential price change coming in November.
* Our Liquid standard litre is 4% butterfat and 3.3% protein, for our Manufacturing 4.2% butterfat and 3.4% protein and, in both cases, Bactoscans of 30,000/ml and somatic cell counts of 200,000/ ml, with Thermodurics of 500/ml, one million litres/year on EODC (max vehicle accessibility), based on level supply and, therefore, before seasonality (but includes the winter premiums paid in Northern Ireland), as well as monthly profile adjustments, balancing charges, capital deductions or annual/part annual growth incentive schemes or supplements not directly linked to dairy market price movement.
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• Cuts small slots into the soil, resulting in better uptake of nutrients for the ground & growing crops 07970 541995 07921 129391 pbeslurryspike@yahoo.co.uk www.pbeslurry.co.uk
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MILK PRICES
‘B’ Price Indicators
Notes to table
Milk prices edge up, but
May’s o cial milk price, as quoted by Defra, is 37.92ppl at 4.15% fat and 3.37% protein, which is up 0.71ppl on last month.
When corrected for constituents back to a standard 4% fat, 3.3% protein standard litre, the price is about 37ppl.
Prices have increased further in July and August, with the average non-aligned standard litre price in July, weighted
according to processor milk volumes, at 38.8ppl. It will increase to over 39ppl for August, with six processors at or over 40ppl now.
No processor is paying over 41ppl on a standard litre, but many are on a manufacturing price.
Summer is rarely a good time for dairy commodity sales and that, plus the latest GDT result, may well put a lid on further farmgate price increases for the time being.
UK butter holds steady
JEuropean butter prices are currently varying between €6,500/tonne (£5,488/t) and €6,750/t (£5,698/t), with Dutch butter at €6,700/t (£5,655/t), having dropped €50 (£42) in the first week of July.
UK butter prices are holding firm at about £5,700/t, but are likely to follow the trend if the EU prices turn down.
Cream seems to have strengthened again, with prices rising over the £2.60/kg threshold. This is the highest price since
October 2022, and puts the cream income to a processor at nearly 15p.
The powder market remains desperate, and no one seems to want SMP.
The price remains about €2,300 (£1,9419) to €2,400 (£2,026), with the only real positive being that the Arla price did not fall on the GDT.
It means that in Europe, the butter and SMP prices convert into an AMPE price of about 1-1.5p less than the UK price.
Mild Cheddar is stable at £3,800, with mozzarella at £3,400.
Milk volumes rising
JEU and UK milk volumes are increasing relative to last year. This is likely to ease the concerns of buyers that milk will be short later in the year, and further quieten the market for the summer.
This will then more than likely put another cap on milk price increases, certainly for those at the top end of the milk price league table.
The latest figures put EU volumes up by nearly 1% on last year, and the latest data for the UK put milk volumes at 42.45
A lack of demand for dairy during the summer and the latest GDT result may put a lid on further farmgate price increases for the time being.
million litres per day – some 71,000 litres and 0.17% more than last year, but still down 0.5% on the long-term average.
GB milk volumes have averaged 34.7m litres per day, which is now level with last year, and down 1.2% on the long-term average. These differentials are unlikely to trouble buyers, and will thus have a moderating impact on sentiment.
The rate of decline after the flush is less than in previous years, but not by much.
PICTURE : Getty
may flatline from now on
AMPE and MCVE rise to 18-month high
JThe latest AMPE figure for June is 40.5p, which is up 3.4p on May. It is the first time it has crossed the 40p threshold since November 2022.
After an allowance for a processor margin and processing costs, the farmgate equivalent would be 36.5p.
MCVE is at 38.2p, which is its highest price since February 2023. It is up 1.8p on May, and the farmgate equivalent is between 34p and 35p.
GDT
tanks to put a lid on positive sentiment
JThe first GDT in July posted its biggest drop in a year, with the overall index down 6.9%.
Butter and AMF were both down over 10%, WMP was down 4.3%, and SMP down 6%.
There is no question that market sentiment will take a hit on the back of this, but for the UK it is not as bad as it looks.
Butter hit an all-time high at the previous auction, so it was inevitable at this one that butter prices would fall – but perhaps not as much as they did.
Although SMP also took a beating, Arla’s SMP actually increased, although not by much. It was Fonterra’s SMP –particularly in forward contracts
– that dropped a lot, and from a higher level. The average price across all commodities settled at USD$3,782 (£2,946), which is still higher than its early May level.
The commodities convert into
an approximate UK milk price equivalent of 33p, which is 4p down on the previous auction.
This includes a heavy weighting for WMP, which is not produced in the UK.
NEWProducts
This month’s new product section features a new teat dip for post-milking disinfection, a new dual function gate handle for electric fences and the latest John Deere 6M Series.
Double Barrel Dip launched
JG. Shepherd Animal Health has launched a new postmilking teat dip called Double Barrel Dip. The barrier dip prevents mastitis bacteria entering the teat after milking and is a non-drip formulation resulting in little waste. The two components are mixed together to activate the disinfectant on a daily basis, providing fresh active chlorine dioxide, which is regarded as a gold standard teat disinfectant.
Tested
The product has been tested on UK farms over the last year and is available as part of the Plasti-Save system of barrel re-use.
rMore information from 01772 972 225.
Got a new product?
JNew products are featured in each issue of Dairy Farmer. Please send details and pictures to Katie Fallon at katie.fallon@ agriconnect.com, or call 07815 003 227.
New milk cooling tank introduced
The rst milk cooling tank in the European market to use CO2 as refrigerant in standard cooling systems of the direct expansion cooling type, has been introduced by Wedholms.
e DFC 953 range of milk cooling tanks is available for robotic milking with one to eight robots, with capacity ranging from 3,200 litres to 30,000 litres, and is compatible with all robot milking machines.
Frequency control
e compressor of the DFC 953 range of milk cooling tanks operates with frequency control, running at the speed required by the process. A small batch with 20 litres of milk is refrigerated, just as e ectively as 200 litres, avoiding formation of ice in the tank.
e control system provides a wide range of options for ecient agitation and temperature control, as well as advanced alarm functions.
orough cleaning is provided by a spray head, designed to eliminate calcium deposits and bacteria growth across the inside of the tank with a powerful water jet.
rMore information from stefan.gavelin@wedholms.se
Dual function gate handle for electric fences
JA new dual function gate handle for electric fences, developed by Taragate in New Zealand, has been introduced to the UK by Dairy Spares.
Aptly named ‘Dead or Alive’, the gate handle is designed with two hooks at one end: a plastic hook (dead) and a metal hook (alive).
Users have the choice of
attaching the gate handle to an un-electrocuted fence or post using the plastic hook, or to continue the electric circuit using the metal hook.
The product retails at £4.35 plus VAT and is available through Dairy Spares stockists.
rMore information from 01948 667 676, or info@dairyspares.co.uk
NEW PRODUCTS
Carbon calculators to collaborate
JThe three major farm carbon calculators featured in the Defra report Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture, have announced a collaboration intended to harmonise the methodologies used in calculating the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture.
Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit, Cool Farm Alliance Community Interest Company and Agrecalc have reached an agreement to work together and measure GHG emissions, harmonising the methodologies and outputs of their carbon calculation tools.
The agreed goal is to reduce the overall GHG through efficiency improvements, optimising production practices and mitigating environmental impacts.
Consultations
The companies will engage in consultations with Defra, Welsh Government, Scottish Government, and Northern Ireland Government to reach a practical form of ongoing validation of their work.
rMore information from rachel. hucker@farmcarbontoolkit.org. uk or aleksandra.stevanovic@ agrecalc.com or comms@ coolfarmtool.org
John Deere launches 6M Series
JThe new John Deere 6M range aims to provide a lowerspec tractor offering without the standard data and control technology integrated with the R Series. The cabs have been refined and the dashboard replaced with an A-pillarmounted display, and the choice between a right-hand console or a new compact CommandArm.
Occupying a base power band from 105-275hp, 17 new models will be offered with either 4.5-litre four-cylinder or 6.8-litre six-cylinder engines. Depending on the specific model, a 20hp boost will be
provided during transport or high-load pto activities.
The new range is offered with more transmission choices and all models are provided with a 50kmh option, not previously offered.
Users looking to add precision farming systems to the series can choose either a 10.1 inch or 12.8in G5 terminal, which can include Autotrac guidance, IsoBus control and variable rate applications and will be mounted to the cab A-pillar. Users of multiple machines can opt for the integration of the JDLink telemetry system.
‘You
GOODEvans
can tell the financial state of dairy by looking at the scraper tractors’
This month, Roger Evans talks about some of the latest agricultural technology and also discusses an icon of the dairy farming world; the scraper tractor
There are lots of magazines and newspapers that make their way onto this kitchen table and most of them are about farming, and I read them all. This in itself is a big piece of work.
But one thing is for sure, the march of technology is relentless and I expect it always will be. It seems that more and more cows are milked in robots and it would be interesting to know just what percentage.
Deep down I suspect that to run a successful robot operation your management has to be of the very highest order and the experience gained in a more conventional set up would be invaluable.
Newfangled technology
Some new products have caught my eye recently. One is the electronic eartag for cattle. I suppose this would be inevitable. The surprising thing for me is that the sheep industry is ahead of us in this. Who would have ever thought that? I suppose they are ahead because of legislation.
I do wonder whether you can easily be too soon to go with a new idea. Computers, keeping warm and electric cars are good examples.
I know an electrical engineer of some repute, who tells me that there will never be enough electricity to drive all the cars that are planned, not unless we build half a dozen nuclear power stations.
But there is one innovation that worries me. There are more and more devices on the market that will clear out your cubicles.
In a generation’s time are we to have a breed of dairy farmers that has never driven a scraper
tractor? Scraping out with a tractor is one of the fundamental skills of being a dairy farmer. I can see why there would be a shift in emphasis. The supply of little manoeuvrable tractors is drying up. We are competing on price with vintage enthusiasts.
If I had kept all the scraper tractors I have ever had, I would have been able to have a tractor run of my own.
Tractor run
We had a tractor run here, they started and finished at our farm. There were more than 20 that would have made good scraper tractors.
I soon discovered that if you tell a vintage enthusiast that their tractor would be better off pushing a scraper it’s about the worst insult you can give them.
I can remember the Fordson Dexta that used to come out of gear if you weren’t careful and you had to take the top off the gearbox and poke about with a screwdriver to get it going again.
My favourite tractor was a Fergie 65. It didn’t have a cab, but the power steering was brilliant. I had two of those David Browns. White is not a good colour for a scraper tractor, they all end up brown anyway.
I can remember one day I got off the David Brown and left it ticking over while I tidied up the cubicle beds. No, ‘ticking over’ are the wrong words. Expensive watches tick over. This was a sort of grinding noise. Then it stopped. I’m not a mechanic but I knew it had died. It was a vain job, trying to restart it would be a waste of time.
You could tell the financial state of dairy farming just by looking at these scraper tractors. It
“Scraping out with a tractor is one of the fundamental skills of being a dairy farmer
must have been good at some time because for years I had two; one to use and one as a spare.
e spare was a Leyland 255 and it stood for years in our tractor shed. When we nally got it out and put a scraper on it, we found that everything worked, from lights to power steering. It lasted us about three years, which is good for a scraper tractor.
e weekly visit to the fuel tank was a good idea for about three weeks. e perfect scraper tractor soon learns to run without diesel and oil.
As long as it starts and its hydraulics go up and down it’s okay. It doesn’t have, and rarely needs, brakes, for example. If you need to stop, you just lower the scraper or run into something.
Icon
If you were designing a new one you would put the radiator in a less vulnerable position. All scraper tractors were ba ered and brown and there are less of them. Are we about to lose, albeit slowly, a dairy farming icon?
Tackling emissions is ke
New Zealand’s dairy industry is grappling with how it addresses climate change as its global customers demand more action. Cedric Porter reports.
New Zealand is the world’s eighth largest dairy producer, with its six million dairy cows producing 21 billion litres of milk a year.
But with a population of only 5m people, 95% of that production is exported to more than 130 countries. Environmental demands are becoming more important for many of those customers, prompting the country’s dairy industry to focus on its green credentials.
Natasha Tellies Dcosta, head of sustainability at business consultancy and analytics company Veeva, told a recent Federated Farmers conference: “China and other Asian countries are the main market for NZ dairy products, but they are demanding more environmental measures.
“Half of Asian banks will now not lend if borrowers do not have a sustainability protocol.”
Farmer-owned Fonterra dominates the NZ dairy market, collecting about 80% of the nation’s milk. Its director of sustainability Charlotte
Rutherford told the conference that the company’s approach is based on grass-fed, pasture-based practices, with a focus on animal well-being and regenerating waterways, soils and climate.
Ms Rutherford said: “By the end of 2023 we had halved our 2018 Scope 1 and 2 emissions – those resulting from fuel, energy and electricity use – with the aim of an absolute reduction by 2030. We have also reduced our forest, land and agriculture emissions by 30% and 95% of our packaging is recycle-ready.”
The company has an aim of all NZ-supplying farmers having a Farm Environment Plan by 2025, with a similar requirement for Animal Well-being Plans. As part of its social goals, the company has set a 40:40:20 goal, whereby 40% of its senior leaders are female, 40% male and 20% of any gender.
In its base year of 2018, Fonterra, along with JBS, Tyson, Cargill and Farmers of America, was one of five meat and dairy companies which had greater greenhouse gas emissions
Fewer emissions from more cows
JNew Zealand’s dairy cow population and dairy production rose rapidly in the 2000s, but has since peaked. In 2002, its 5.162 million dairy cows were producing 13.866m tonnes of milk, according to Stats NZ and NFAOSTAT figures. By 2014, the number of dairy cows had increased by almost 30% to 6.619m. Production peaked at 21.947mt in 2019. The latest figures are for 2022. In that year, cow numbers had fallen by 7.3% compared to 2014 and milk production was 4.1% lower at 21.051mt.
Agriculture accounted for 53%, or 41.7mt of carbon dioxide equivalent, in 2022, according to Government data. Energy was the next largest emitter at 28.7mt CO2e, followed by industry and waste at a combined total of 8mt CO2e.
Total emissions
Total emissions were 14% higher than 1990, but had were at their lowest level since 1999 after peaking in 2006. Dairy cows accounted for a quarter of total emissions.
Agriculture emissions increased by 12% between 1990 and 2022,
than oil companies Exxon, Shell or BP, according to a report by small farmer organisation GRAIN and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
The company was also missing from a list of global dairy companies, which at last November’s COP28 meeting, pledged to disclose their methane emissions in partnership with the Environmental Defence Fund.
Pledge
Those dairies which did sign the pledge included the Bel Group, Danone and Lactalis. Arla did not make the pledge and neither did Dairy Farmers of America.
At the time, Ms Rutherford said: “Our recent focus has been on announcing our on-farm emissions target and working with farmers to help them understand this.
“We decided that the timing for signing the pledge just was not quite right as it may cause confusion. This does not mean that we are not committed to reducing methane, which
driven by a 78% increase in the national dairy herd and a 465% increase in artificial fertiliser use.
A 56% reduction in the national sheep flock, a 15% drop in beef cattle numbers and a 19% fall in the deer count helped offset the increase in dairy cow numbers, with agricultural emissions peaking in 2014.
Rising fertiliser prices and increased afforestation under an emissions trading scheme also helped reduce emissions.
In 2022, forestry offset emissions by 19.28mt CO2e.
is why our work through AgriZeroNZ to find a solution to methane is so important.”
AgriZeroNZ is a partnership between the NZ Government and major agribusiness companies, which aims to reduce emissions while helping to maintain production and profitability. It recently invested NZ$9.9m (£4.7m) in a project by US company ArkeaBio to help develop a methane vaccine.
ArkeaBio’s chief executive Colin South, who is a New Zealander, said: “A vaccine is the lowest cost path to global scale enteric methane reduction and is applicable to cattle worldwide.
“This singular solution, distributed globally with large-scale adoption, can change the trajectory of global warming and demonstrate a path to meeting major climate mitigation goals.
“The funds raised will play a pivotal role in expanding the research, development and deployment of the vaccine, including large-scale field trials and engagement along the supply chain.”
One global company which did sign the COP28 pledge to disclose its emissions was Nestle. It is a major customer of Fonterra.
At the Federated Farmers conference, Nestle’s NZ chief executive Jennifer Chappell said the company
y to Kiwi dairy success
has commi ed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, a 50% reduction on 2018 levels by 2030, and a 20% reduction by 2025. It recently announced that 2023 emissions were 13.5% lower than in 2018, with methane emissions 15.3% lower. Most of these reductions came from the supply chain, rather than direct Nestle operations.
e company has a ve-pillar programme of on-farm environ-
mental goals: diverse cropping systems and livestock integration; biodiversity; collective and landscape actions; soil health; and water security and quality.
NZ’s last Labour Government, led by Jacinda Ardern, had one of the most ambitious and strict farming regulation regimes in the world, aimed at tackling climate change and improving water quality and biodiversity.
e ‘He Waka Eke Noa’ (‘We are all in this together’) emission initiative would have resulted in a 5% reduction in dairy cow numbers, with a 20% reduction in beef and sheep output.
It led to a lot of dissatisfaction among farmers and the wider electorate and the Labour government lost last November’s General Election.
e new National Government
dropped the initiative in May and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay told Dairy Farmer that the Government was still commi ed to reducing farming’s environmental footprint, but wanted to work with farmers rather than force them to adopt measures which would damage the pro tability of their businesses.
Strict rules
He said: “ e last Government legislated for some very strict rules around water quality, animal welfare and the environment, but these were unworkable and led to lots of resentment among farmers.
“We have the aim of addressing climate change, water quality and improving animal welfare, but we are taking farmers with us to meet those goals rather than impose unworkable rules and targets.”
New Zealand’s dairy cow population and dairy production rose rapidly in the 2000s, but has since peaked.
RECRUITMENT
Hiring the right team is crucial for a farm business’ progression and success, but once the job advertisement is out, what comes next? Dairy Farmer reports.
Ideas for successful interviews
Recruiting quality staff is no easy feat and requires some effort – but it can really pay off for farm businesses looking to build the ‘dream team’ or hire that extra pair of capable, reliable hands.
Once the job advertisement is out, it is worthwhile investing time and thought into the next stages –applicant selection and interview.
Paul Harris, chief executive at staff specialist REAL Success, says: “Conducting effective interviews will better inform employers and aid
Harris
in the final decision they make on as to who to offer the job.”
1 Planning and preparation
rClarity is crucial
Mr Harris says the job advertisement should have communicated the key business and job details.
However, at the interview stage, employers should be prepared to drill down into the details of what the job will entail, including physical tasks, technical skills, and work hours. He says: “Farm jobs often require a mix of technical knowledge and ability, so it is important to be ready to outline these expectations upfront, alongside clarity on training and progression opportunities and any additional benefits.”
rKnow your candidates
Once the application deadline has passed, it is time to
2 Structuring the interview
rConsistency is key
Employers should have a consistent interview structure for all candidates to assess their skills and suitability fairly.
“Consider beginning with a discussion about their understanding of the job and its demands, followed by specific questions about their experiences and skills, concluding with a chance for them to ask questions,” says Mr Harris.
rMix technical and behavioural questions Include questions that assess knowledge of farming practices and the ability to operate machinery or manage livestock.
Combine these with
review the CVs, says Mr Harris.
“Look for relevant experience, such as prior farm work, knowledge of agricultural machinery, or studies in agriculture.”
Mr Harris also says it is important to look at whether transferable skills from other sectors might be beneficial.
rCreate the right setting
Many farm interviews take place in less conventional settings, such as a farmhouse kitchen or even outdoors. Ensure the space is conducive to conversation and give the right first impression.
rPlan your time
Plan your day. Stay on time and do not keep candidates waiting. Allow an hour for the interview and time for a farm tour.
behavioural questions to understand how the applicants would handle challenges such as long working hours, adverse weather conditions, or unexpected problems.
rLeave time for a farm tour
A farm tour should be completed after the interview –not before, says Mr Harris. “Do not waste time taking candidates around your farm if you have already decided they are not the right fit.”
rPractical assessments Include a practical component in your interview process says Mr Harris, for example demonstrating their ability to operate a piece of farm equipment or milking cows.
3 Asking key questions
rSkills and knowledge
Mr Harris says it is important to ask specific questions to gauge the candidate’s familiarity with agricultural techniques, animal husbandry, crop management, or machinery operation.
rAdaptability and problem-solving
Questions about handling past challenges or adapting to changes can reveal the candidate’s resilience and creativity.
4 Post-interview evaluation
rTake detailed notes
Mr Harris says it is important to document answers and impressions during the interview for later evaluations as it is easy to forget when there are several candidates.
rConsider a trial day For roles that are difficult to assess in a single meeting, offering a paid trial day can
effectively see the candidate in action and evaluate their fit for the job and the team.
rCommunicate clearly Provide clear feedback post-interview, regardless of the outcome. Mr Harris says: “Communication about the next steps, expectations, and start dates is crucial for successful candidates.”
Paul
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