LEFT A silage pit was converted in to a cubicle shed to allow more air circulation and a better environment to house cows all year round.
ABOVE Some 80% of heifers at Orton Grange are used as recipients for embryos from Comfort Livestock and Genus.
ABOVE RIGHT Richard’s diversification also includes two embryos partnerships with Genus and Comfort Livestock.
for Neospora since 2009 with all in-calf heifers being blood tested. One example of a resulting bull calf is Ortongrange Dollarmaker, a Farnear-TBR-BH Cashcoin son out of the Man-O-Man daughter Terbeek Glenda.
Orton Grange itself is a 350- acre farm which was purchased in 1957 by the Martin family. The herd has built back up to 230 cows after a dispersal of the milking portion in 2008, this was done to allow for building work to be carried out on the farm and was encouraged by the volatile milk price that year.
HERD FACTS r Herd size: 230 cows 200 youngstock
r Average milk yield: 9564kg at 4.13%bf and 3.18%p – twice a day
r Cell count: 154 r Calving interval: 410 r Milk sold to:Woodcocks, Yewtree Dairy, Skelmsdale
r Current AI sires: Destry, Goldfish, Mozygos PP Red, Shottle, Trump, Fever, Mincio and Captian is used for sweeping up
Richard is constantly moving forward and will be holding a production sale next year to ease the workload while the parlour is upgraded from the current 16/32 Fullwood. Cow numbers are aimed to be more than 300 by 2018 with the increase generated by their own heifer replacements. He is also installing Heat Time in to the heifer shed and plans to use sexed semen on maiden heifers that don’t hold to the embryos. Cows have been housed all year round since last year, firstly due to a yield drop of 1000 litres a cow in 2012 due to the poor summer. “We noticed a severe drop in milk in 2012 and felt we needed to make some big changes. The cow sheds were revamped to make them more accommodating for summer housing with more air flow and we converted a silage pit into a cubicle shed.
“The farm buildings are in one corner of the land and cows were having to travel long distances for grazing. Now the cows are benefitting from less stress and consistent feeding and it has allowed for better crop rotation on the land.”
The farm employs three members of staff, herdsperson Emma Little who is responsible for milking, cow management and calf rearing and has been at Orton Grange for 20 years next year, while Mark Peile and Tom Collins are stockmen that have been employed for 10 years and four years. The team also work closely with genetic consultant Richard Graham who scores the cows for the World Wide Mating Service to correctively mate them. Over the years Richard has invested in some strong cow families with some of the picks two year old Debonair daughters out of the Ex92 scored Rosedale Adventaeous Red, who is an Advent daughter of the Ex96 classified Red and White cow Lavender Ruby Redrose.
Ridgefield Roxy was purchased at the Ridgefield dispersal, she is an Ex91 classified cow by Skychief and out of an Ex95 scored Charles sired dam going back to Glenridge Citation Roxy. She has bred a natural VG86 scored Atlantic daughter who has an August 2013-born heifer by Supersire. The Ghost family have been a lucrative family in the herd with Orton Grange Shottle Ghost, a VG87 scored embryo daughter out of the VG88 classified Riverdane Silky Ghost breeding three heifers that sold to gross 8500gns. The highest sale price for the herd was the Observer daughter Ortongrange Observer Ghost 4 who sold at the Black and White Sale for 4500gns to the Fisher family for their Newtonmoss herd and Robert and Elaine Butterfield, she is now classified VG86. Also at the Black and White Sale 2012 Orton Grange Snowman Alysia sold for 4000gns to Kevin Rickard. She was the result of embryos purchased out of the Ex94 Comestar Alysia Goldwyn and has gone on to classify VG87 and stood second junior heifer in milk at the Royal Welsh Show 2014. “It is very rewarding to see animals go and be successful in other herds while advertising the Orton Grange prefix.”
Several bulls from the herd are on test at the moment, Ortongrange Snowman is at Genus. He is a Man O Man son out of the Ex92 Titanic daughter ALH Polly. Genus are also testing a heterozygous polled son by Coyne-Farms Jabir and out of Venture Shamrock Payton P. While Cogent have his homozygous maternal brother by Pine-Tree Ohare.
THE JOURNAL OCTOBER 2014 37
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