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Three dairy farmers from Co Down spoke to members of the Ulster Grassland Society (UGS) during a panel discussion at a dairy event held at CAFRE Greenmount last week.
Although the farms differed significantly between system type, herd genetics and land type, there were underlying similarities across all three speakers.
Herd fertility, forage quality and labour management are key elements in each farm business. All speakers had a clear understanding of the type of dairying system that they are operating and are breeding cows to match their respective systems.
They are focussed on getting good-quality forage into cows, either in the form of grazed grass or silage, or both. Additional litres then come from concentrate feeding and the genetic potential of cows.
Each also described how their farms were impacted and coped with the drought conditions during the summer. This differed across the farms, but all said that the tough grazing season has not made them reconsider having grass as the driver of their dairy system.
UGS members were told that the focus when grass supplies were tight was to get as much grass into cows as possible, and then bridge any deficit with supplementary feed.
“I would pick this year over a wet year every time,” said Reggie Lilburn from Dromore.
Gregg Somerville, Dromara
Gregg runs a herd of 220 crossbred cows with an average yield of 6,800l/cow. The herd was purebred Holstein around 15 years ago, and Jersey semen was introduced to get away from a high-input system.
Cross-breeding has continued and the aim is to produce as much milk as possible off silage and grazed grass. The herd is split calving, but is moving towards a single autumn-calving block.
Gregg is focussed on getting staff more involved in the business by giving them more decision-making powers.
“We want a simple system so that we can delegate responsibility to staff. It is better to give someone a role rather than making them do what you tell them. This should mean that you get the best people from the limited amount of available labour,” he said.
During the drought Gregg had to feed 60t of soya hulls. Some silage and additional straits will have to be bought to bridge a shortage in winter feed.
“We have been closed up with TB for over a year and have extra stock on the farm. We probably would have enough silage if we weren’t down with TB,” he said.
Chris Catherwood, Newtownards
Chris is a farm manager on John and Jason Rankin’s farm near Newtownards. He is not from a farming background and initially started working in dairy farming by relief milking. He studied at Greenmount and has been working on the Rankin farm for 15 years.
The 270-cow herd is block spring-calving and averages around 7,000l/cow from 1.2t of meal. There is potential for the milking platform to extend from 90ha to 100ha, which could allow the herd to increase to 300 cows.
UGS members were told that the aim on the farm is to breed a robust Friesian-type cow that will go back in-calf easily. At present, 82% of the herd calves in six weeks.
Chris said that the past year has been challenging as this summer’s drought followed the longest winter in memory. Grass was only a third of cows’ diets for a month during the summer, and second-cut yields were poor.
“We had to take drastic options; buying in soya hulls, wholecrop barley and beans and straw for dry cows. Third-cut yielded the best of the whole lot and we should be fine for winter, assuming normal turnout dates,” Chris said.
Reggie Lilburn, Dromore
Reggie runs a 300-cow dairy herd with an average yield of 9,200l/cow from 2.5t of concentrates.
“We had extreme Holstein cows five to 10 years ago, but we took a step away because we want a cow that can graze full-time in the summer. Cows go to grass in spring if they are below 30l and are in-calf,” he said.
Reggie added his cow type allows yields to increase when milk price is good by feeding more concentrates.
“But if milk price is poor, we can take the foot off the throttle without doing the cow any harm.”
In recent years, Reggie has moved from making three cuts of silage each year to a multi-cut system. Silage is generally cut every four weeks on the farm and four or five cuts are taken each year. He said that this has significantly improved fodder quality, with average crude protein levels increasing from 14-15% to 18-19%.
Reggie said that all replacement heifers are on a fixed time AI programme as it was difficult to detect heats in heifers when housed. Conception rates to first service generally stand at 60-70% with conventional semen, and 45-50% for sexed semen.
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