PILKINGTONS Parlour patter at the...
Ruth Pilkington is the female side behind the renowned Aintree Holsteins prefi x. Ruth, along with her husband Richard, manages 240 Holsteins, 650 sheep and a livery of 17 stables at their 700-acre farm in Wrexham, North Wales. Juggling various livestock incomes, life at the Pilkingtons is always hectic and here, Ruth gives an insight into daily life at Shordley Hall
Aintree has been very starting with our son Edward’s 21st
social since hosting the HYB Competitions Day,
birthday, followed by two different
open days/evenings. The new fans are now up and running (hurrah) and the cows love them! Just as well really as they are not something we could take down easily....
The various social events required our garden to have a bit of an overhaul. Richard decided he would go to Chelford Market and buy ‘a few’ plants. I looked at him and raised my eyebrows when he suggested this. Years of experience has taught me, Richard never goes into the garden with a fork or a spade – although he did almost kill me once with the Manitou bucket full of manure. He forgot to put the pin in and it nearly fell on top of me – about fi ve tonnes of metal and muck! Anyway, I digress. So off he went to Chelford like a child in a sweet shop, although the colours of the fl owers dazzled him and he became so excited that he bought hundreds of the damned things. Consequently I have been very busy.
On Friday 13 June Richard was busy mixing the cow diet which involves putting some straw through the chopper and creating a pile on the fl oor ready to add to the feeder wagon. It takes quite a while to chop the correct quantity, so he thought he would leave the machine running in the ‘straights’ shed while he whizzed off to AI a cow waiting in the pen. As he fi nished and chatted to Jane Arrell, our Herds Person, they both looked down the yard and saw smoke billowing out of the food bunkers! OMG!!! A fi re! (Yes, that’s right, another fi re!!!) Richard sprinted down the yard and found the straw chopper alight, as was the pile of straw – now spreading to other dry feed. He pulled the tractor and chopper out of the shed and parked them in an empty silage bay – but the fi re continued to move through the building. Four
fi re engines arrived and soon the blaze was under control – thank goodness nothing like last year’s drama. The Chief Fire Offi cer was the same guy who came last year and he did comment that he knew the way and did not need directions! Also he managed to fend off the Environment Agency as there was no water course nearby! Our neighbour, Andrew Jones from Rossett Holsteins, came straight over with his telehandler to help us move the burning feed out of the shed. Afterwards he likened us to Fawlty Towers! Haha!! Very funny. This week at Aintree has also seen us wave goodbye to our vet student and say hello to the incoming Harper student. Jane and I were given the job of a formal induction mainly to do with health and safety – a real nightmare on a farm of course. The student bounced onto the yard keen as mustard, like a Jack Russell with two tails. He chatted away, whilst we were more reserved. At the end he said he had seen the ‘Aintree Holsteins’ branded overalls and could he have a pair? We looked at him in disbelief and gently explained that he would have to earn them as “we don’t want idiots advertising the herd!” Anyway his fi rst morning was today and he was out on the yard early bursting with enthusiasm and immediately went and crashed the scraper tractor! Good job he wasn’t wearing our overalls!
Herd size: 250; Average milk yield: 10,650kgs, 4.0%F, 3.21%P (x3) New technology: Automatic calf feeders, automatic dipping and fl ushing system (ADF), rumination collars on the milking herd, long-distance radio frequency collars on the youngstock, Calving 24 Herd classifi cation: 23 EX, 121 VG, 60% VG or EX (48% of herd milking heifers); Bulls in AI: 16 What’s in the calf pens: [A2/A2 milk contract] Chipper Reds, Observers, Historys, Dorcys Flagship family: Nugget, Tellar, Elegance Intriguing youngstock: Aintree Chipper Daisychain Red (Chipper P x VG86- 2yr Destry) – six generations average 90 points
120 THE JOURNAL AUGUST 2014
Ruth
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