In 2014, Ivor Smyth milked 45 cows and delivered 266,700 litres to Lakeland Dairies. This year, Ivor is milking 50 cows. Ivor is farming 114ha in total, but is only using a fraction of this for his milking herd.
Ivor raises all calves born and buys some more calves to graze on the rest of the farm. Many of his milking herd are put in-calf to Limousin and Ivor sells them at 18 months of age, usually in Carnaross Mart.
Only about 10% of the milking cows are selected for easy-calving Friesian AI to breed replacements. Average milk delivered is about 5,900 litres per cow from grazed grass and 1.8t of meal per cow.
John has an eight-unit herringbone milking parlour and he strips all cows prior to attaching clusters to check for mastitis. He washes teats if necessary and dries them with a paper towel if they have been washed.
The plant is hot-washed every second day and the plant is descaled twice a week. Ivor is conscious of the environment and is water metering. He is also harvesting water by collecting all the water off the sheds and using it for drinking water for the cows.
To treat a case of mastitis, Ivor will use at least three Multimast tubes and if it persists he will inject. However, the number of mastitis cases that he actually gets is very small in the year. At dry-off, Ivor will use an antibiotic and a teat sealer.
Farming system
In 2014, Ivor milked 45 cows and in 2015, he is milking 50 cows in a spring milk production, supplying Lakeland Dairies Co-op. In total, Ivor farms 114ha (282 acres) and milk delivered in 2014 was 5,900 litres per cow at 4.10% fat and 3.49% protein.
Parlour
Eight-unit herringbone.
SCC results
Average 147,000 for 2014.
TBC results
Average 7,000 for 2014.