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Since the first UK Dairy Expo David has enjoyed success at National Shows with many top three placings.
Prevention is the aim at
Wormanby and cattle are vaccinated for BVD, IBR, Lepto and Rota Virus, which at the moment David acknowledges is a big expense, but is paid for by saving a couple of calves. Being a predominately closed herd there has never been any evidence of Johnes, but testing through CIS milk samples is done for reassurance. Craig Robinson Vets work closely with the Hodgsons on fortnightly visits and scan cows at six weeks. Dry cows are treated with Ceprevin and Rota Vac with a trace element bolus given too. Cows calving their fourth or older are given a calcium bolus at the start of calving and again just after. Calves are tubed with colostrum for the first three feeds and then given cows milk for a week before being moved on to milk powder, wearing calf jackets for the first six weeks. Heifers are served on size rather than age with the aim to calve heifers in as a uniform group, this means they can calve any time between 22 and 28 months. “We aim to calve heifers in to the herd all looking the same, getting the balance between not being young and immature or big and wooden. Regularly marketing heifers means we need to consider achieving this balance to have marketable heifers.”
The herd has only started
David aims to calve a uniform group of heifers so serves on size rather than age.
competing at National Shows since the first UK Dairy Expo; this was an opportunity for David and Harry to show their cattle at national level close to home. With only themselves and one relief worker long spells away at shows can prove difficult. “We were successful at the first UK Dairy Expo with cattle finishing in the top three, this was rewarding and gave me the confidence that we could compete at this level. Although it is an expensive hobby it grows awareness of the herd and hopefully having shown 10 cows between UK Dairy Day 2015 and UK Dairy Expo 2016 we have shown the depth of herd we have here.
“Being part of the Border and Lakeland Club has helped make showing possible. As well as being a strong Club the HYB section is also strong and we all stick together and help each other, particlarly at UK Dairy Expo when most of us have jobs to nip home to, but also UK Dairy Day when they look after a team of cows for the Club. Being part of a team we enjoy each other’s success too.”
The herd was also runner up in the RABDF Gold Cup in 2014 and this is something David wouldn’t rule out competing in again in the future.
Despite the current drop in market value for cattle David is continuing to sell through Border and Lakeland’s Club Sale, mainly to maximise cash flow,
but he acknowledges that there are always peaks and troughs in trade, but it averages out. One of the highlights at the sale was in 2013 when Wormanby Shottle Mahala sold for 4000gns to Craig Cochrane for his Maverick herd.
Being regular sellers of cattle, David and wife Louise have embraced marketing with a website, Facebook and most recently the herd’s own logo. They believe it adds to the overall image of the business and the website and Facebook allow their business to be recognised worldwide. On David’s first trip to Canada he visited Quality Holsteins and aspired to achieve what they had. “The farm was immaculate, the cows outstanding and they were on top of marketing their herd too, I’ve always had that aim.”
Despite facing the current challenges in the milk price like most of dairy farmers in the UK and the rest of the world, the Hodgsons are looking to the future. Plans are to extend the current cow shed, by almost double and increase housing to 200, with a straw yard and rotary parlour all under one roof.
“The parlour had been in for 40 years and, although we updated to a 16:16 herringbone seven years ago, we still feel the cows could be milked more efficiently."
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