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Cows at Holmes Mill are fed fresh grass in their diet via zero grazing as soon as they are in-calf, while low yielders are turned out to grass.
“I am receptive to being challenged and our nutritionist David Jacklin is one person who does this. He is an independent nutritionist and visits every couple of months, nutrition is something that needs to be kept a close eye on.”
Ian is a firm believer that you shouldn’t be stuck in your ways. One example of this is calf rearing at Holmes Mill, currently calves are reared on machines in a shed, but with 500 calvings a year it is struggling to cope. After lengthy discussions with Paragon Vets at Dalston, the decision has been made to go back to hutches to allow them to be easily mucked out and disinfected.
Calves will be in individual hutches before moving in to group hutches with the capital cost the lowest on this option. It will also fill Alice’s role as she already looks after herd health and paper work.
Ian is also working with his vets to gather information on colostrum transfer in calves. Notes are made on the management of each calf, birth time, colostrum given and how long it was given. These
are then blood tested and the transfer of antibodies recorded. This results have allowed Ian to make protocols for calf management to get the best results. David Allen Consultants are used to bench mark costs and double check along the way that every decision is going to have a financial gain.
“The current milk price has emphasised if you can’t produce milk cheap then you are limiting your future in the industry,” say Ian. “When we were running 150 cows it was just Dad and I working on the farm and when he suffered a heart attack I realised how exposed the business was. This forced the need for a review of the business and with the expansion staff increased to five which has resulted in less pressure with staff covering each other’s time off.”
With the increase in numbers, breeding decisions are not made on an individual basis anymore and are now made for a trend with an aim to breed cows of average size with good locomotion, cell count and fertility index.
“Good cow families are more obvious now as they are still there and doing as well as ever in the larger herd. I aim to breed cows that are invisible – I don’t want problem cows, they are the ones you notice.
Ian is working with vets to test calves to monitor antibody transfer.
“In our part of the country grass can be grown quite cheaply, but as farmers we are always looking for an alternative and we don’t always need to.
Two silage pits are the latest changes to infrastructure at Holmes Mill.
I’ve noticed a cost benefit of getting fresh grass in to the diet and once cows are in-calf they are fed grass via zero grazing, and the low yielders are turned out to graze.”
The herd is averaging 9000kg at 3.9%bf and 3.35%p on twice a day milking with Ian preferring the cow to keep the last litre and gain that in longevity and lifetime yield. Calving interval is 384 with Genus RMS used to get cows in calf.
Cows have been purchased from Europe to help increase numbers, but Ian is selective on which cows are bred from. One third of the herd is bred to British Blue bulls which helps improve the standard of replacements as poorer cows don’t have pure calves. “When people are willing to listen knowledge is shared all the time. I might have different views and ideas from other people, but by discussing them we can work out what is best for the business. At the end of the day everyone has the same goal – to be successful. I think both ourselves and Harry and David are successful in what we do and have businesses that we can be proud of,” adds Ian.
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