Attention to detail ensures high yields on Shropshire dairy farm

Careful cow selection and management, coupled with the latest technology, is driving annual average milk yields of 11,500 litres at the high-input, high-output dairy enterprise, Lower Lee Farm, located near Lee Brockhurst to the north of Shrewsbury.

The 180-cow herd of pure Holsteins is run by Je and Judith Lester, in partnership with their son George, with the support of their daughter Izzy, at their state-of-the-art 350-acre farm.

The Lesters had originally planned to build a new dairy unit with two robotic milkers, however the plans evolved while the family waited for the housing market to improve. After trialling a milking robot on the old site and being impressed with its performance, they decided to install three robots at the new site – two Lely A4s and one Lely A5 – as well as the company’s Vector automatic feeding system and automatic scrapers.

“The custom-made dairy set-up is perfect for what we need,” says Je .

He says the robotic feeder wagon feeds little and often, which helps reduce waste and ensures the cows always have fresh food in front of them. “It took a long time to get over the shock of seeing very little food at the feed fence, but it’s better presented and reduces the stress impact on the cow,” adds Je . “You get an increase in dry matter intake because they eat more silage.”

Genetic focus

The Lesters believe a close focus on the genetic potential of the cattle is key to ensuring they achieve yield potential.

“We genetically test every heifer, and we’re part-way through building a picture of the whole herd,” explains Je . “When we’re testing, we look at yield potential and Production Index (PI), as well as speci c robotic milking traits, like long rear teats, and wide placement of the teats.”

He says the aim of genetic testing is to ensure only the best cattle are being used to breed replacements, and to help nd any “superstars” in the herd, that can be ushed and bred from further.

The Lesters run a 25% replacement rate and sexed Holstein semen is used on heifers who score highly in genetic testing, as well as cows which have bred well in the past or previously scored highly during genetic testing when they were heifers.

Everything else is bred to British Blue genetics using AI, and all dairy beef calves are sold at market before they reach 42-days-old.

Transition management

An all-year-round calving system is run at Lower Lee Farm to ensure continuous supply of milk to Tesco, via Muller. And while genetics play an important part in ensuring optimal milk production, the Lesters also believe a close focus on transition cow management is key to ensuring cows reach their yield potential.

The milking herd ration contains a mix of home-grown forage – roughly two-thirds maize, and one-third grass – and a blend, whereas the transition cow diet comprises mostly straw, with a small amount of maize and grass silage.

“We keep the dry cows together so they’re in the same group from when we dry them o until they calve,” says Je . “They’re in cubicles with sand, which are slightly longer and bigger to make them more comfortable, and there’s lots of feed space so there’s no competition for food.”

He says Kexxtone – a monensin bolus – is given to at-risk dry cows to prevent ketosis and any related health problems after they have calved. This is given to any cattle based on the SOFT analogy – this means giving the boluses to any sick, old, fat, thin or twin bearing cows.

“We’ve been using the boluses successfully for around ve years now,” says Je . “We chose to start administering these because we believe if your cow doesn’t calve down and get o to a ying start, she is never going to reach her yield potential.

“Our cows are like Olympic athletes, or Formula 1 racing cars – they’re at the top of their game, but it doesn’t take much to knock them down. Prevention is key and hopefully we don’t get as many transition problems because we use the boluses sensibly.” FG