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Currently the highest multiple Excellent scores in the herd are Warnelview Jasper Irene and Warnelview Progress Glenys with five Excellent scores. Glenys is classified EX94-5E, she has produced 110 tonnes and is still milking in her 10th lactation, out of an EX94-4E classified dam she has three milking daughters classified Very Good.
Christine looks after calf rearing with calves fed on machines in a newly, purpose built shed.
Cows are fed TMR in to troughs to save pushing silage up.
A 40% grant was received to roof the silage pits incorporating rain water harvesting.
When breeding Kevin and Christine look for balanced bulls with no weaknesses, whether it is high pins or cell counts they would dismiss bulls for any weakness. “My pet hate is high pins,” admits Kevin. “High pins make the whole structure wrong, including legs. I don’t care for frail cows and in an aim to achieve longevity we focus on breeding cows with dairy strength. Overall balance is the key to Excellent cows that last a long time.” Current AI sires include sexed Caviar and Fitz and conventional Abbot, Contrast, First Class, Mega Watt and Silver. Few cows are served with sexed semen, although most heifers get two chances of sexed semen and then a home bred bull is used to sweep up. Kevin admits that cow housing built just over six years ago has also majorly contributed to longevity. Previously being housed on mattresses with sawdust, the move to deep sand bed cubicles has massively helped longevity and mobility, according to Kevin. “I viewed several set ups and deep sand beds were an obvious choice. Not only have they helped mobility and cow comfort, but cell counts have more than halved to a current average of 90. We built the shed with a low labour purpose, they are bedded every fifth day, using 29 tonnes of sand a week at £10 a tonne. The 280 cubicle shed is fully suspended with 1.3 million gallons or storage and
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