Attention to detail, a strong work ethic and good teamwork are just a few of the things that come to mind after a visit to the Lilburn farm near Dromore in Co Down. Beattie and Margaret, together with their son Reggie, are milking about 200 autumn-calving Holstein Friesian cows on a 113ha milking block. Youngstock, silage and 40ha of cereals are produced on outlying land away from the parlour.

Over the last six years, the Lilburns have been changing their system of milk production by focusing more on autumn calving. This year, over 90% of the herd will calve before Christmas with the remainder all calved by the end of March. Previously, calving was all year round.

“We feed around 2.5t of meal per cow now. Before we switched to block calving, we were feeding almost 4t per cow. While yield per cow has fallen from 10,000 litres to 8,700 litres overall, profitability has increased and we are making more use of grass – which is the key,” Beattie said.

When I visited in late July, the Lilburns were busy preparing for calving, which was due to begin on 10 August. The cows closest to calving were being brought indoors to the calving area where they go on a transition diet for three weeks before calving.

Wholecrop wheat

This diet consists of wholecrop wheat and stemmy grass silage which is fed through the mixer wagon. Beattie says the mix is 10.5 ME and is high in fibre which helps to prevent stomach upsets and milk fever after calving.

Cows calve on the communal calving area and are milked immediately after calving to provide colostrum to newborn calves. The Lilburns feed calves with four litres of colostrum using a homemade stomach tube within an hour of birth. Only the best colostrum is fed, with all colostrum tested with a colostrometer; only that with more than 50mg IG/ml is fed. Last year, the average colostrum quality was 62mg IG/ml.

After four or five days, the calves are moved from an individual pen to a group pen where they go on to an automatic feeder and are fed milk replacer. Last year, 150g of milk powder per litre of water was fed and calves were drinking six litres per day at 14 days. From day 45, calves were gradually weaned and were fully weaned by day 63. Calves are offered calf pencils ad lib.

After this, they are moved to a cubicle shed where they get silage and 3kg of 18% protein meal that is mixed on the farm. They are turned out to grass in April.

The Lilburns manage the calves in four bunches, with each bunch separated based on age and weight. The earliest-born calves are now weighing 296kg, while the youngest bunch are weighing 211kg.

Beattie says 67% of their health bills are for preventative medicine. The herd is vaccinated for IBR, BVD, leptospirosis, salmonella and rotavirus and the calves are vaccinated against RSV and PI3. For parasites, the calves are dosed with an ivermectin pour-on.