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ABOVE LEFT Milking the 325- head herd through the 44-point external rotary has reduced milking time by three hours.


ABOVE RIGHT Since Carl Poole started as herdsman more than 10 years ago he has turned the focus to pedigrees and classification.


BELOW RIGHT Pendyffryn cows are medium sized and the herd consists of 48 Excellent and 90 Very Good cows.


Jonathan tries to be self sufficient in feed as much as possible, taking three cuts of grass silage as well as growing wheat, maize and hybrid rye. “We find wheat consistently good and in 2014 we crimped it for the first time which has worked well. However, we have been growing maize for six years and are finding it expensive to balance the costs, particularly in a bad year.


“For the first time this year we are growing 35 acres of hybrid rye, it is higher protein than maize with the same energy and bulk. Hopefully this will be easier to grow than maize and provide a more reliable crop.” On the breeding front the focus on breeding has remained the same since the herd was graded up 35 years ago, explains Jonathan. “We aim to breed a medium sized cow that suits the existing farm buildings and find this system to be working well for us. Although my father wasn’t interested in classification he graded up the herd and laid good foundations in the breeding to create the herd we have today. “However, 10 years ago we took on Carl Poole as herdsman and his interest in breeding has grown the pedigree side as well as regular classification. We find classification useful in helping us to be more selective when


breeding. We also use the World Wide Mating Service with consultant Dave Thomas and Bryan Challenor being influential in the breeding decisions we make and it is paying off as we’re noticing an improvement on every group of heifers we calve in. Geraint Windsor from Genus is another advisor whose opinion is valuable when buying bulls. The herd’s latest classification resulted in 19 new Excellent scored cows, with 29 Excellent scores in total. Currently the herd has 48 classified Excellent and 90 Very Good. Only AI is used in the herd with bulls selected from Cogent and Genus and run through the mating programme to determine corrective matings and protect against inbreeding. “We use sexed semen on heifers while the bottom 40% of the herd, including some heifers, is bred to British Blue sires. Genomics is used on about 10% of the herd and it is something we are using cautiously. I can see the reliability is improving all the time and it has the potential to speed up genetic improvement. Holstein semen is only targeted at cows we want to breed from as current shed space means we have surplus heifers. “Currently surplus heifers are sold privately as maiden heifers due to limited rearing facilities. We try to only rear the heifers we need for herd replacements and the beef calves are sold privately.”


With limited heifer rearing space in 2014 for the first time 100 heifers were wintered away from home at a local farm. Heifers went to to the rearing farm post weaning and were AI’d before returning to the farm. “I’m pleased with how the heifer rearing is working so far, they are looking well and PD results have been good. However, we have recently had a confirmed case of TB which has made things difficult with heifers being reared away from the main holding. It has also made it impossible to sell beef cross calves which - along with milk price - is affecting cash flow.” In 2010 Jonathan made the decision to invest and expand the dairy with the 14:14 herringbone parlour taking five hours each milking. Now with the new 44-point external rotary parlour milking time is down to two hours. As well as building a new shed for the rotary parlour which meant changes to the slurry system and storage,


48EX AND 90VG


THE JOURNAL JUNE 2015 21


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