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I got a lot of satisfaction from taking my pride and joy to Devon County and was encouraged by the favourable comments about Ventouse
OPPOSITE LEFT Olly Reed had to make the decision to take on the dairy herd at a young age.
ABOVE Cows are housed at night during the summer and fed on a ration of grass silage, maize and hay.
BELOW RIGHT An EX90 scored Damion daughter displaying the strength that Olly is looking for.
Yates, Andrew Kennedy, the Whittakers and Jones’, they are very skilled and able with the backing of a good herd of cows at home.
“My goal is set to breed a balanced and profitable herd of cows. Ideally I’d like to have the opportunity to show, but ultimately in 10 years time I would like the herd to be recognised within the breed.” This passion for cows saw Olly make the decision to start registering the herd under the Beaconhill prefix. However, this step involved justifying the expense to his parents. “I am always looking to push the farm and business forward, but my parents are very cautious and conscious of costs. So when I wanted to register the cows as pedigree with the Society my reasons had to stack up financially for them to agree.
“I truly feel that it adds financial assurance to the herd, whether it be through TB valuations or selling cattle it adds depth of information.”
In 2009 the herd comprised of 80 milking cows and since then has naturally progressed to 130. Although restricted by land Olly aims to grow the herd to a manageable capacity of 200 head.
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The milking herd is housed in a newly built cubicle shed which is 55ft by 160ft with 110 sand cubicles. Olly’s view is to build a similar shed adjacent with plans to potentially introduce robotic milking machines in the future. “Currently I do most of the milking,” explains Olly. “Locally it is hard to find good, reliable staff and we don’t have accommodation to offer a herdsman on the farm.
“Although I would miss milking the cows I would enjoy spending more time working with them and being able to focus on herd management.” Currently Olly does all of the foot trimming on the farm with his own crush, trimming every cow as she is dried off and he finds this reduces problems long term. Routine vet visits also help keep on top of herd health and fertility.
The most recent batches of heifers have joined the herd at two years old, with the herd having initially calved at two and a half due to restricted cow space. However, to increase profitability heifers have to be productive younger with the aim of cows calving with their second at three years old. Olly is motivated by seeing heifers develop and mature. His proudest moment to date was when his first heifer calf born classified EX93, she is Beaconhill Ventouse 2. For the first time this year Olly exhibited at Devon County Show with this cow. “I had previously shown in Young Farmers classes, but this was my biggest show so far and something I really enjoyed. “I got a lot of satisfaction from taking my pride and joy to Devon County and was encouraged by the favourable comments about Ventouse. It was a similar experience to my first classification in February this year. Having a professional looking at my cows and giving their opinion is very rewarding. “It is also a way of adding value to the herd and with four Excellent, 26 Very Good and 45 Good Plus, it is the best thing I’ve ever done. Out of the 88 classified the 33 heifers averaged 81.6 points. On a second visit this
THE JOURNAL DECEMBER 2014 35
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
MOOANDBAA.COM
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