Over the years the land base area has increased with purchases made when possible allowing cow numbers to increase. Currently 770 acres are owned and 330 rented with the most recent purchase of 90 acres made in 2013 of a nearby farm.
BREEDING IS KEY AT BRIDGE END
Deep pedigrees and type are behind a drive for expansion at Bridge End as Katie Davidson found out
aintaining a focus on cow families and pedigrees is never easy in larger herds, but for father and son team Colin and Mark Dent, keeping a clear focus on pedigree has been paramount despite growing the herd to 950 cows.
M
Having lost their original herd to foot-and-mouth in 2001 the family restocked to 450-cows in 2002 and have grown the herd since then through judicious purchases of cow families and retention of top quality heifers. At that time they used young stock housing to expand the herd from the 300 milking herd before foot-and-mouth, since then numbers have increased gradually.
Initial purchases were made from Rossett, New Failand, Why Not, Riverdane, Coyen, Brynhyfryd and Strutt and Parker Farms. “We built a good foundation of cows when restocking, type and strong cow families are something we find essential. It is important to always have stock that is marketable, my father had production sales every two to three years in the 80s and 90s,” explains Colin. “When we reach a point that we have surplus heifers we want them to be easy to sell.”
36 THE JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2015
Following the purchase of the last farm a further 100 cows were added to the herd. Prior to the purchase of these 100 cows in 2013 numbers has been increasing naturally with the herd’s own replacements. The aim is to increase numbers to 1000 head with 900 milking by winter 2015, housing for 1000 cattle is there, but has been put on hold while the parlour is being built. “We haven’t quite finished the latest cubicle shed with focus on the 80 point Milfos rotary parlour we are building. It will make a massive difference to milking times and management in the parlour as the current Dairy Master parlour was extended from 20:40 to 33:66 four years ago. This allowed milking to be done three times a day, but with jars still in the parlour and no digital technology it is very dated – but it has done the job. “At the moment milking is taking five hours, but we are hoping to reduce this to less than three hours per milking when the new parlour starts.”
Cows are managed in seven
different groups with 12 of the best cows in sand cubicles, with a straw yard for hospital cows, lame cows and those that won’t lie in
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICHARD HODGSON
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