50
trade - plus 4.5kg of blend 1.5kg of urea treated wheat and cake to yield in the parlour. The last of the fodder beet are not harvested until April and then stored in the dark to enable year round supply. “We work with Steve Jones of Harpers Feeds on the rations and he has done a great job with nutrition.”
Other benefits of taking on the new farm will be the ability to grow their own straw as well as more grain and reduce bought in protein with Lucerne. “We’ll also have more short-term leys of hybrid and Italian Ryegrass and probably most importantly a year round supply of maize silage.”
When it comes to genetics Peter aims to breed medium sized cows with excellent
udders that will live a long time. “I try not to use any bulls under two on udders, I also dismiss any bulls that are negative on fat because we are paid well by our milk buyer for butterfat. Lately I have been paying more attention to fertility, daughter fertility, lifespan and lowering pins.
“We aim to individually
mate every cow to improve weaknesses. The information
on all bulls in the tank is kept in the office and as well as myself there are two other members of the team that AI. We’re all aware what the breeding aim is for the herd,” he explains. The team includes herdsman Tony Foss who has been at Whitsand for five years and he shares responsibilities for night duties and works alternate weekends with Peter, he enjoys tractor work, doing most of the fertiliser, spraying and planting. For seven years Jonathan Legg has been helping at the farm, currently working four days a week relief milking, drying off cows, managing heifers and in charge of worming and vaccinating.
Having previously had his own herd, Jonathan shows great interest in the pedigree side and concentrates on the breeding decisions with Peter, as well as assisting with clipping and show preparation. In fact the herdsman’s duties are split out equally between Peter, Tony and Jonathan although, with the extra land the family are now looking for a full time herdsman.
General farm work is carried out by Guntars Tumans, who has been working for Peter
for 15 years. Previously a policeman in Latvia, Guntars is conscientious and now in charge of feeding cows, calf rearing and yard work. A student placement from
Duchy College helps with extra jobs which in the past has resulted in a full time positon, as is the case with previous student Abbie, who is now a milking assistant. She is the second person in the parlour and has been working at
Whitsand for four years with a gap for travelling in the middle. Peter also relies on other local relief and part time staff to cover holidays and peak times. Now that Peter has built numbers up he is selecting better families to breed from and putting more cows in calf to beef sires. “After spending years of trying to build up numbers by using solely
An improvement in cow comfort by moving to deep sand beds also improved herd health.
The herd is milked twice a day through a 20:40 Dairy Master parlour.
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