HERD FACTS 250 cows all year round calving Average yield 11,591 at 3.96%bf and 3.13%p 14 100t cows with three more qualified Average classification 83.9 points Proven sires preferred
LEFT & BELOW Breeding is focussed on improving type and productivity while also ensuring cows remain long-lived and functional.
they’re housed each night, while low yielders are topped up morning and evening as they leave the parlour on their way back to grass.” When housed the high yielders are in sand cubicles, while the lows are in straw yards. “The sand cubicles are great and work really well for the highs, while the straw yards are more than manageable for the lows as mastitis doesn’t tend to be such an issue for them,” says Jim.
“A proportion of the maize is grown as a maize maze alongside the main road to Southwold. Managed by Bella Hall this attracts about 16,000 visitors a year.”
And while many East Anglian herds have been dispersed in recent years Jim believes dairy cows are still the best use for much of the land at Old Hall Farm. “The farm is 400 acres, but much of this is marshland and not suited to anything else other than grass. We’re regularly reseeding it and that is making a big difference to grazing and silage quality, but it could never be used for arable production. “Conversely, the drier ground is light, drought prone sandy soil which makes it tricky to manage too. It’s good for maize, but can dry up quickly in a dry summer.”
Looking ahead Jim says he aims to keep improving the herd in terms of
type and productivity while also ensuring cows remain long-lived and functional. “I’m very lucky that the Hall family allow me to manage their herd as if it were my own and take great pleasure from seeing the cows improving every generation. “We don’t show as we’re a high health status herd and don’t want to compromise that, but we’ve won the Suffolk Club herd competition for a number of years and regularly enter the Holstein UK production awards as it’s good to keep ourselves in the spotlight and remind people there are still good herds here in East Anglia,” he adds.
50 THE JOURNAL DECEMBER 2014
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