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Mid lactation cows are housed in a suspended shed with sand cubicles and outside feed passage adjacent to the milking parlour.
Lactalis, Stranraer, on a cheese contract.”
Cows are mated individually for breeding and management depending on production and the Harveys also aim to maximise cull cows, so often the average days in milk can creep up and barren cows are kept in the herd. Conception rate runs at 32%, while cull rate is 25%. The herd is averaging 179 days in milk at 2.39 lactations, while John takes care of all inseminations with the assistance of Moo Monitor collars for heat detections for the past eight years. The collars have played a large role in reducing that calving index from over 420 to under 390 days.
Semen is predominately purchased from Genus with current sires including: Armitage, Franchise, Pello, Legend, Irresistible and Reward. Maiden heifers are mated using GMS.
Nutritionist Donald Lawson from Premier Nutrition takes care of rations for the herd, with the two groups of milking cows fed different rations. The high group are fed 25kg of mostly first cut silage, 8kg of whole- crop wheat, 5.1kg of blend, 4.75kg of maize, 0.5kg of wheat straw, 0.4kg of golden flake and 0.3 kg of minerals. Their ration is for 36kg with a dry matter content of 20.5kg.
Meanwhile, the mid lactation
group are fed for 30kg production consisting of 36kg of silage, mostly second cut, 10kg of whole-crop barley, 4.4kg of blend, 3.15kg of maize and 0.2kg of minerals.
Depending on the season two or three cuts of silage are taken, with 300 acres of first cut and each cut after that includes fewer acres to manage grazing for the mid-lactation group. The mid-lactation cows are buffer fed and grazed day and night from June until October. Dry cows are managed in two groups, cows and heifers are run together in a far off calving group that is fed on straw and silage. Four weeks before calving they are moved on to a
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