Our farm is around 142ha split between two main blocks four miles apart and some blocks between the two. We converted from suckler cows to dairy in spring 2017 and are currently milking 185 cows on 60ha at Ballagawne with all calves kept and reared as replacement heifers or fattened at Ballacreggan, four miles away.

We operate a split block calving system with approximately 110 cows calving from the second week in February with a target of 5,500l from 600kg meal and 75 calving from the second week of September with a target of 6,500l from 1.2t meal. We operate the split block due to the A/B pricing structure at the IOM creamery, which is our only on island milk processor. The base price for milk is 29.5p/l with bonuses for SCC-bacto-fat and protein.

Cows are mostly Friesian and kiwi cross, artificially inseminated for six weeks with crossbred and Friesian semen and then a beef sweeper bull is used for three weeks.

2018 turned out to be a baptism of fire. It was our first season with a full 180 cows, the late spring followed by 12 weeks without rainfall severely affected our grass growth. Fortunately, I secured 20ha of silage from a neighbour who is reducing stock numbers due to impending retirement which was much needed and appreciated.

We managed to grow just over 10t DM/ha, which I wasn’t too disappointed with considering the weather. Litres were well below forecasts for the spring calvers but fertility seems to have been really good, with around 9% empty after nine weeks service.

We have just completed autumn calving which has gone by relatively trouble-free. Autumn-calved cows have been housed since mid-October when land started to get wet, leaving remaining grass to last longer for spring-calved cows to hopefully keep them out until the end of November. Autumn-calved cows are being fed 13kg DM of first-cut silage, 2kg meal in the parlour and 2kg barley along the feed rail and are yielding approximately 24l.

Spring cows have been put to once-a-day milking for the last three or four weeks prior to drying off to allow them to graze far away fields and to ease the work load on staff to allow me to go on holiday. They will be dried off between the 15 and 20 December.

All beef stock is fattened and sold deadweight to Isle of Man meats, which is our only abattoir. The price is quite good but there is a wait to get them slaughtered. Cull stock are not being taken at all, which is a pain as export is expensive but it is our only option.

Lambs have to wait up to 12 weeks for slaughter, which is not practical for anyone.

We are going to try to settle the cow numbers around 200 and try to use less meal and utilitise grass better. We also aim to increase the amount of grass grown to 15t DM/ha by using soil analysis and targeting slurry and fertiliser applications better.