6 minute read
DAIRY TALK
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.
While writing this the world has gone mad as we’re seeing rising prices, shortages and mass panic. I must say I think the big corporations are driving a lot of it. Diesel was at £1.55 at the pumps this morning, which suggests someone has increased their pro t margin quickly.
At the rst meeting of the new season for the Dorset Grassland Society, we welcomed speaker Cathal McAleer, who discussed how to maximise outputs while reducing synthetic inputs, and if it were only for cost reasons. I can only see this as the way forward.
We are always the rst to be squeezed and last to be rewarded at the bo om of the chain. We have done well as an industry to shi and adapt to reduce production costs, but with a milk price the same as 25 years ago, I do feel a real change coming.
Farmers haven’t been subsidised for years; everyone has had that subsidy, in the form of cheap food. Without it, costs to the consumer should, and will, rise. Consumers need to evaluate what is important to them. is may well, nally, be the time in which nutritious food is valued, and I believe eating as close to the soil as possible is sustainable.
Lab-grown
e processes which products go through to become empty calories and ‘lab-grown’ meat full of synthetics are only here for one reason – you guessed it – money in the pockets of the big corporations.
On-farm we have nally installed the rst of our rainwater harvesting system and hopefully the Rural Payments Agency will soon say we can have four more 10,000-litre tanks on a new agreement under the Capital Grant element of the Countryside Stewardship scheme, as we are in a high priority catchment. I am hopeful this will reduce our water bill by half.
I am also looking at ways to produce energy and am considering the feasibility of a small wind turbine, possibly roof-mounted. I feel the more we can reduce our reliance on anything bought-in, the more resilient we can be.
It has been ridiculously dry here; we had 17mm of rainfall in August and 6mm to September 26, and we are now drier than we have ever been, including the drought years. We normally have a great ush of grass now and so it has caught us out.
Cows have held on well, yielding 17 litres (1.46kg milk solids) until mid-September, but have just dropped back to 15 litres (1.29kg milk solids), feeding 3kg.
We were thrilled our rst home-reared heifers were 100% in-calf this year, with only two outside the rst three weeks and all in-calf to Hereford.
We have also bought-in some cows and will be milking 150 next season, which will be the peak for this farm. With 100 calving in the rst three weeks, this should put us in a great position to build on fertility going forward and shorten our block from 12 weeks in the second season to 10 weeks in 2023.
Bu er feeding has commenced, and I am going to sprinkle on various seeds to see what can establish this way to increase the diversity of our swards.
Our 12 hectares (30 acres) of herbal leys have been established. Unfortunately, our normal min till method did not work this time, so the plough was used for the rst time since we took the tenancy. I am very excited to see how these perform, how the cows yield on and o them and how our soils alter, so will be keeping close tabs. ird cut came in on top of the clamp and the red clover was baled to be used as high quality protein on the shoulders of the season. ese did win at the local show, but just like the old beauty contest, we were the only entry.
Wallace Gregg
Wallace Gregg runs the family farm in mid-Antrim, near Ballymena, Northern Ireland, where he milks 180 pedigree Holsteins under the Frocess prefix and sells his milk to Dale Farm Co-op. Wallace is actively involved with Holstein UK, representing Northern Ireland at local and national level.
Like so many fellow farmers, I follow the weather forecasts every day, as this is a major in uence on the day-to-day decision-making process on our business. e swings in temperature, along with more rain, will mean all cows will soon be housed at night, as opposed to just the fresh calvers and close up dry groups. is will be accompanied by the usual conundrum of whether to keep cows out in the daytime to reduce costs and shorten up the winter or miss out on milk yield and consistent diet by eating low dry ma er grass of varying quality. If Mother Nature plays ball, we should have enough grass to last to the beginning of November and set the farm up for a good spring.
A date looming large on our calendar is our upcoming TB test due in the middle of November.
I know many farmers dread this time because the results can absolutely decimate businesses at worst and prove a major headache at best. is will be our rst test for six months a er being ‘closed’ last year from September to May, so ngers crossed for a clear test. is leads on to a recent consultation by DAE here in Northern Ireland about changing the whole
TB testing and compensation regime to one which would be similar to England by se ing out wildlife culling and control strategies, alongside a drastic reduction in compensation for reactor animals.
I personally believe it is morally wrong to o er a fraction of an animal’s market value to a farmer if the Government is not prepared to tackle the reservoir of infection in the local wildlife population rst.
We, as an industry, must always take on the responsibility to respond to these consultations so the Government is fully aware of our views and opinions.
At a recent discussion group meeting facilitated by our consultant, there was quite an animated discussion on the merits of high type animals versus selection by pro table lifetime index (PLI) only, and the concerns of quite a few farmers were that a er three generations of breeding selecting for PLI, farmers were disappointed by the conformation of the cows.
Graph: Lifetime yield of milk compared with overall score as first calf heifer
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7,000 74 ≤ 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 ≤
Major role
I feel that PLI has, and will in the future have, a major role to play in the dairy industry, but alongside the merits of breeding for be er conformation and type. A recent study by Holstein UK of a substantial dataset of almost 50,000 heifers revealed overall score is positively correlated with lifetime milk yield.
First calved heifers scored VG85 and above will achieve £2,000-£4,000 more value of milk yielded in their lifetime compared to heifers scoring under 80 points.
Classi cation on our farm not only provides me with an independent assessment of my animals, which instantly adds value to those animals, but also allows me to access the bull selection and mating programmes on o er to help me make be er breeding decisions to increase pro tability on my farm and prove that higher classi ed cows are not just a pre y face.
