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Dairy farmers John and Craig Barkley farm 175 acres at Slaght Road, Ballymena. In recent years, there has been a substantial investment in Lely robotics with two A4 milking robots; three Cosmix concentrate feeders, each with a backing gate; a Juno silage pusher; and a Discovery slat scraper all in action at the farm.
Cows are housed all year round in well-ventilated sheds with slotted roofs and wire-mesh side and end walls.
Overhead, there is plenty of natural light through transparent roof sheeting.
A novel feature is an extensive camera system, installed as part of a trial
Most of the slats are rubber-covered to improve cow comfort and the Teemore cow cubicles are fitted with mattresses and bedded with sawdust, shavings and lime. Calving pens are deep-bedded with straw.
A novel feature is an extensive camera system, installed as part of a trial, which can identify cows by face recognition and then monitors each cow as an individual to observe and measure cow behaviour while feeding and loafing. The company developing the system is working on how to translate the data into useful management information.
Performance
The Lely milking robots have been in use for almost eight years and they enable Craig to devote more time to improving cow performance and fertility.
The robots incorporate the Lely Shuttle milk-sampling device, and the software provides milk yield figures.
The Barkleys place a lot of emphasis on heat detection and the robots play a major role
At the most recent milk records test at the end of October, there were 97 cows in milk, yielding 37.8kg at 3.89% fat and 3.48% protein. SCC was 148 and cows were 204 days in milk. Average annual yield per cow is around 12,600l.
The Barkleys place a lot of emphasis on heat detection and the robots play a major role.
Having identified the cow via her neck collar, the unit registers cow activity and indicates the ideal time for insemination.
Across the herd, the average days to first service is 78; and 71% of the herd is served within 90 days, with only 11 cows not served after 110 days. The average number of services per conception is 2.68.
At a recent open day at the Barkley farm, Dale Farm’s dairy herd management staff were promoting PregCheck. This is a laboratory test carried out on the routine milk-recording samples. The test is based on pregnancy-associated glycoproteins or PAGs (and not progesterone).
It can be done on milk from cows that are 28 days or more since service, and at least 60 days calved. The results have an accuracy rate of 97%.
Early pregnancy diagnosis means attention can turn to non-pregnant cows, to get them bred again while still economically viable to do so.
Diet and nutrition
There is also a major emphasis at the Barkley farm on diet and nutrition.
With cows housed year-round, grass silage and whole crop wheat is the basal diet.
The high-yield group of cows get 11kg of a 19% protein blend, 13kg of whole crop, 25kg of silage and 0.75kg straw
Four cuts will be the norm in 2020, starting early May. Up to 40ac of wholecrop wheat are grown and harvested in early August.
As fresh matter, the high-yield group of cows get 11kg of a 19% protein blend, 13kg of whole crop, 25kg of silage and 0.75kg straw.
The lower-yield group gets 4kg blend, 19kg of whole crop, 30kg of silage and 0.75kg straw. Cows are fed to yield through the robots and the Cosmix feeders.
Breeding
As well as top-class nutrition, selective breeding is contributing to improved milk yields.
Dairy Herd Management provides an annual herd genetic summary report, which shows clearly the effect of improved genetics in heifers and first- and second-lactation cows.
The ongoing use of superior bulls has resulted in heifers in milk with a £PLI of 378, which compares to first-lactation cows of 285, second-lactation of 271 and thirds and fourths of around 200.
The rate of genetic improvement is promoted by a heifer rearing programme, which has heifers inseminated at 15 months at 360kg to 400kg body weight, and calving at 24 months of age.
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