ABOVE Considered by many as the cow
of the 1970s, Terling Norah 255 had
progeny sold for well over £100,000.
RIGHT Technology in action at Terling
today. Slurry is separated, with both
liquid and solid constituents used on
arable ground
LEFT The fi rst AI calf born in the UK
from imported semen, in 1937, was
out of Terling Torch 67. The sire
remained at home in Friesland.
calved group. This latter group
is held back a little for 14-20
days to ensure they don’t
reach peak yield too quickly
and lose body condition. Phil
has introduced a 40-day dry
period as standard across
protocols that avoid unnecessary
the herd, with cows due to
health problems. Very much part
calve brought into the herd
of the team, Ian pays regular
three weeks before they
visits to carry out routine work.
calve again.
Youngstock are kept at a
Milking takes place in a 30:30
separate farm, where they are
Boumatic rapid exit parlour, starting at 4am,
taken soon after birth. Calves
12.15pm and 8.15pm. The herd uses Holstein Complete
are weaned by 6 weeks and
with CIS milk recording, retaining the use of 1-Stop software as it is
are expected to have gained
compatible with the parlour.
30 kg. They are vaccinated for
Unsurprisingly, grass is often burnt off by June, so the milking herd is
IBR, Lepto and BVD, while all
housed all year round. The ration is prepared by nutritionist Warwick
animals are vaccinated against
Bastard and is based on maize, grass and wholecrop silages, citrus grains,
Bluetongue, which has been all
crimped maize, soya meal, rape meal, Bergafat F100 plus minerals and
around Terling but never in the
buffers. The diet is fed once a day and pushed up regularly. To service the
herd, a situation Phil is keen to
needs of a herd this size, the farm has 150 hectares of grass, 220 ha of
maintain.
maize (half for silage and half for grain) and 35-40 ha of wholecrop.
Once weaned, calves are
The cows are housed in two sheds built in 1980 plus a third added in
grouped and move through the
2000. The highs, fresh calved and heifer groups are bedded in cubicles
unit together, grazing during
on pasture mats with sawdust and there are plans to extend the mats to
summer months unless they are
all the cubicles. Phil has always been keen to improve locomotion and
brought back to be served. The
foot condition, so there is now a programme that involves washing and
bulling heifer ration consists of
foot bathing once a week and regular foot trimming, at 150 days into
maize and grass silage, rape meal
lactation and when drying off, plus the treatment of any lame cows.
and maize gluten.
Veterinary assistance comes from Ian Roper, a new vet to the Northpoint
The herd’s breeding is now in the
practice, who works under Julian Dare. The veterinary work is contracted,
hands of Alta’s Terry Whitehead
with the farm paying a set fee based on pence per litre produced,
and his company’s AltaMate
providing Northpoint with an incentive to continue to provide clear
programme, which sees Terling
pay per pregnancy rather than
per straw of semen. To establish
72 THE JOURNAL APRIL 2009
e2-09 Terling.indd 4 01/04/2009 08:19:24
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