Irish student Jodie McGeever is from a sheep and suckler farm and is spending several weeks doing work experience on farms around the UK. Here she writes about her time on a dairy farm in Scotland.
On 18 April 2016 I started in Coopon Carse dairy farm in Palnure, Scotland. There are 530 dairy cows, 470 young stock and 30 young bulls.
Five hundred cows are milked on the unit through a 28-point Westfalia rotary parlour. The team has milked three times a day since 1989 and the herd currently averages a 305-day yield of 10,100kg. It is an amazing setup and it is quite active in the industry and the farm was nominated for Farm of the Year in 2014. Up until recently they had been feeding conserved forages to the cows, but now they have switched to fresh grass in the diet using a zero-grazing system.
Production of milk:
ADVERTISEMENT
5,280,000 litres produced
10,300kg milk sold
Fat 3.84 %
Protein 3.28%
Calving interval 393 days
Silage is a four cut system using forage wagons
Feeding is now full total mixed ration (TMR). There is one ration for milk cows and the milking cows are split up into 4 different groups according to health status and age.
The dry cows get one ration with high fibre and low energy.
Land area
660 acres
60 rented
335 acres silage/zero grazing
100 acres winter wheat
180 rough grazing
10 acres trees
Concentrates usage /cow through the Keenan PACE downloads
This content is available to digital subscribers and loyalty code users only. Sign in to your account, use the code or subscribe to get unlimited access.
However, if you would like to share the information in this article, you may use the headline, summary and link below:
Title: Jodie's blog: Working on a dairy farm in Scotland
Irish student Jodie McGeever is from a sheep and suckler farm and is spending several weeks doing work experience on farms around the UK. Here she writes about her time on a dairy farm in Scotland.
The reader loyalty code gives you full access to the site from when you enter it until the following Wednesday at 9pm. Find your unique code on the back page of Irish Country Living every week.
CODE ACCEPTED
You have full access to the site until next Wednesday at 9pm.
CODE NOT VALID
Please try again or contact support.
On 18 April 2016 I started in Coopon Carse dairy farm in Palnure, Scotland. There are 530 dairy cows, 470 young stock and 30 young bulls.
Five hundred cows are milked on the unit through a 28-point Westfalia rotary parlour. The team has milked three times a day since 1989 and the herd currently averages a 305-day yield of 10,100kg. It is an amazing setup and it is quite active in the industry and the farm was nominated for Farm of the Year in 2014. Up until recently they had been feeding conserved forages to the cows, but now they have switched to fresh grass in the diet using a zero-grazing system.
Production of milk:
5,280,000 litres produced
10,300kg milk sold
Fat 3.84 %
Protein 3.28%
Calving interval 393 days
Silage is a four cut system using forage wagons
Feeding is now full total mixed ration (TMR). There is one ration for milk cows and the milking cows are split up into 4 different groups according to health status and age.
The dry cows get one ration with high fibre and low energy.
Land area
660 acres
60 rented
335 acres silage/zero grazing
100 acres winter wheat
180 rough grazing
10 acres trees
Concentrates usage /cow through the Keenan PACE downloads
If you would like to speak to a member of our team, please call us on 01-4199525.
Link sent to your email address
We have sent an email to your address. Please click on the link in this email to reset your password. If you can't find it in your inbox, please check your spam folder. If you can't find the email, please call us on 01-4199525.
ENTER YOUR LOYALTY CODE:
The reader loyalty code gives you full access to the site from when you enter it until the following Wednesday at 9pm. Find your unique code on the back page of Irish Country Living every week.
SHARING OPTIONS