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David Black
Stuart Rogers
“Most of the tools and technology the next generation of farm workers will use in their careers have yet to be invented. And, while there have been significant advances in just the last 10 years with the evolution of smart phones and tablets, there is far more to come,” he suggested.
“At present just 5% of herds in the UK are milked by robots, in Sweden that figure is 30% and I can see it won’t be long before teaching youngsters how to attach clusters will be outdated. It will simply be a redundant skill.”
But, to be able to attract the next generation of farm workers the agricultural industry needs to make its businesses fit and ready to attract them, he added. “Attracting young people will become harder and harder and we as an industry need to be able to show them that it is an industry to be proud of and that can compete with other sectors in terms of technology and skills.”
Ian Tremain GENOMIC SIRES
Genomic sires were the focus for two Holstein breeders speaking at the event, with both Philip Metcalfe of Metcalfe Farms and Stuart Rogers of the Longmoor herd highlighting genomics as key to their future plans.
For Mr Metcalfe the technology will be used to help with replacement female selection and 80% of current sires are genomic sires. “We have embraced all kinds of technology on the farm and genomics is the next logical step. Using this knowledge in our breeding decisions will back up our own skills and the insight given to the herd through tools such as classification. I firmly believe classification is a good indicator to the health of the herd, with one third of our 900- cow herd classifying as VG or Excellent.”
Meanwhile, Mr Rogers has been using genomic sires for the past five years, having first
dabbled with it in 2010. “Heifers from our early genomic matings outperformed conventional bred heifers on both type and production and that showed the real potential in the technology. “We genomically tested our heifers in June 2012 and would like to do it regularly, but at the moment it is cost prohibitive. But then again can we afford not to test? There are a number of cow families which we didn’t recognise the potential of until we saw their genomic figures.” And while he admitted that like any pedigree breeder he had emotional attachments to some cow families Mr Rogers said he had been quick to realign this attachment to profitable animals and families. “Once you’ve used a genomically proven bull you won’t want to use a proven bull and once you’ve used a polled bull you won’t want to use a horned bull,” he added.
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