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sole use of black and white semen in the early days, more recently some stock bulls have been bred, with their eldest daughters looking promising and about to be classified in November.
Cows and heifers have been sold regularly to add to cash flow with milk sales low in the early days. "Last year we had 188 heifer calves, so 40 young heifers were sold off in May this year. A third of semen used is sexed, with this predominately used on heifers and first service for the best cows." Recently, breeding has been more selective with an aim to improve replacements with British Blue and Aberdeen- Angus AI bulls used on poorer families. Two years ago Peter and Sarah’s son, Jason, persuaded his dad to use more Angus semen on bottom end cows and difficult breeders as they are easy to rear, finish and attract a good premium. With an average rainfall of 33 inches a year and free draining soil, cattle, usually in-calf heifers, are strip grazed all year round on hybrid kale and turnips. “However, in 2015 cows were housed all year round for the first time in an effort to manage the spread out rented land,” explains Peter. “Youngstock needed to be grazed closer to home limiting grazing available to the milking herd. We did find that keeping
cows housed during summer improved yield and put less stress on the older and fresh cows, but I do miss seeing cows out grazing. In 2016 with more access to nearby land we will return to grazing by day in the summer.”
Cows are milked twice a day through a 20:40 Dairy Master with drafting and auto ID. The parlour, originally built in 2001, was extended from 16:32 in 2012, with extra units added to the parlour with the pit already sufficiently long to contain the extra units. Currently the herd is averaging 10,779kg at 3.91%bf and 3.22%p with a cell count of 130 and calving interval of 393 days. Helping with this level of production is an emphasis on cow comfort, which significantly improved six years ago when the move was made to deep sand bed cubicles for the milking herd. “We have noticed a reduction in mastitis cases, cell counts are lower and the cubicles are more easily managed with sand raked
every day and topped up every third or fourth day, instead of straw being added every day,” explains Peter.
Over the past two years, heifers entering the herd have been averaging 24 months old, calving between 22 and 26 months, however, Peter’s ideal would be between 23 and 24 months old. “I believe a combination of modern genetics and keeping calves on milk for eight weeks gives heifers potential to calve at 23 months old. “For the past five years we have fed whole milk to our calves in pens of five initially and then in to pens of 16 or 17 on a circular milk bar feeder because we noticed they performed better on whole milk compared to a whole milk and powder mix. Calves are weaned at eight weeks old and then fed in pens of 16 on creep feed,” he adds. The milking herd are fed a TMR of grass and maize silage, fodder beet, washed potatoes – rejects from a neighbouring farm that supplies the food
Cows are shown locally as a way of promoting the herd but also as a hobby.
Third calver Whitsand Cinzano Patty EX90 last calved in February.
The Whitsand herd has been built up to 350-head.
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