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With the help of local dairy farmers over the last four years, Summitholm has been host to an open house for urban neighbours


LEFT Cows are


averaging 12,500kg at 3.8%bf and 3.25%p.


BELOW Summitholm welcomed 1200 visitors in three hours when they opened the doors last year for the fourth year running.


alternative driving routes to avoid the roads or not hang washing out. “They also let us know if they are having a social event at that time, so we try to change the order of spreading to suit. Having this kind of relationship with our neighbours is healthy as they feel important and are generally happy.”


Over the past two years the facilities at Summitholm have almost doubled which included buying a neighbouring house and six acres. It took a long time to get permits and while there wasn’t a lot the neighbours could do, the Loewiths found it encouraging to have the neighbours on side.


“Communication is key – it is important to keep neighbours informed. People can generally live with knowing what is happening, it is uncertainty that is upsetting and can be fertile ground for rumours which can get quite wild as we found out.


“My advice would be to be approachable, try to accommodate when possible and if you become aware of any potential issues meet with those necessary as soon as possible. We have toyed with the idea of a newsletter to update neighbours about what is happening on the farm, what kind of season it has been and any other relevant information. I think this will be the next step for us as it is an ongoing challenge to keep the community onside, but in the long term it is worth it.” The farm currently runs with five full time members of staff, Dave, Carl, Ben, Laura Schuurman and one other member of staff, alongside numerous part time milkers, calf feeders and lawn mowers. In total it would equate to nine full time people.


Everyone in the team has their area of expertise, although they are all able to interchange between jobs; Carl manages the 800 acres of arable land, Ben is in charge of HR, Laura and Dave take care of genetics and Laura is also responsible for calf health.


Longevity is important at Summitholm and currently 52% of the herd is in their third lactation or more with 17 cows having produced more than 100,000kgs. “According to an article in Holstein International we have bred more 100,000kg cows than any other farm in the world,” says Carl.





The herd breeding policy is simple, explains Dave. “We want long living, high production cows. We do not need perfection, we are happy with good enough. Consequently, our selection is for high fat and protein levels along with acceptable conformation and good health traits. We are great believers in the index system and, therefore, use LPI, TPI and Net Merit in our mating program. We are now focusing more on daughter pregnancy rate in an aim to improve fertility and efficiency in the herd.”


With the evolution of genomics only the top two or three proven sires are currently being used in the herd with the rest high genomic young sires. And at present the family doesn’t test any heifers for genomics, with no sexed semen used or any flushing undertaken. “Our goal is to get cows and heifers pregnant as quickly as possible, with 95% of our income coming from milk. However, having said that we do sell a lot of breeding stock due to our low turnover with a good pregnancy rate at 26% and only 1% calf mortality,” adds Dave.


30 THE JOURNAL AUGUST 2015


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