Business focus on taking control & minimsing risk

26 January 2010

A controlled regime is helping to maximise the performance and efficiency of a 330 cow pedigree Holstein herd averaging 10,500 litres accommodated in a state of the art facility in North East Scotland.

Back in 2000 the Milne family, Ian, Dawn and their son, Sandy, agreed to commit to dairying for the long term. They decided to combine their two herds, each amounting to 120 cows and build a new steading on a greenfield site based at East Pitforthie, Brechin, Angus: featuring a 85m x 55m triple span building with both cubicle and loose housing, a 32 x 32 rapid exit parlour with ADF clusters and a flood washing system.

“We’d reached a cross roads,” Ian explained. “Our two parlours and accompanying buildings had been put up in the 1960s, Sandy was committed to farming, we enjoy what we do and various incentives were in place to consider the green field development. For example, the Scottish Office was offering an expansion bonus to dairy farmers of more than 1p per litre which we budgeted would pay for development over a five year period. However three quarters of the way through the expansion process, the incentive was pulled leaving us to pick up the tab for the entire project.”

Too late to turn back, the Milnes continued their plan which has enabled them to achieve some real economies of scale and exploit the herd’s potential performance from 300 acres dedicated to dairying, which is complemented by a 700 acre arable enterprise. Their all year round calving herd has since expanded to 330 pedigree Holstein cows plus followers, and a high input high output strategy was introduced featuring three times a day milking together with complete lactation housing.

“Since we put the first cows through the completed new parlour in 2004, we have faced further challenges with changes to the structure of our milk contract which have been to our detriment, and being one of only eight producers left in the county, we find we have no alternative milk buyer to consider,” he explains. “Therefore our herd management has become even more focused as we continue to strive to improve our efficiency in order to maximise margins. We are attempting to take control at each point in the system, and subsequently minimise risk.”

In the first instance the Milnes are firm believers in getting their heifer replacements off to the best possible start. Two years ago they found luck was on their side when they won a competition featured in British Dairying for Volac’s prize draw of a computerised calf feeding system. The system automatically mixes and feeds calf milk replacer to individually identified calves. Calves are able to drink ‘little and often’ resulting in a reduced risk of digestive disorders and improved milk digestion.

“The system has enabled us to save more than one hour per day previously taken up feeding the calves with buckets and housed in hutches,” Sandy explained. “Nowadays we find we are spending more quality time with them, rather than observing how much they’ve drunk, because that’s a job the machine takes care of. However, the system is not a substitute for good stockmanship. Any individual calf which commands attention is dealt with immediately.

“The calves appear to be extremely contented, the provision of detailed management information enables us to pre-empt the majority of health issues and one of the system’s biggest benefits has been to alleviate checks at 56 day weaning by feeding reduced amounts of milk over the final week.

“The system is producing bigger stronger calves at weaning and ultimately is contributing towards target first calving at two years. The heifers are currently coming in to the herd at between 25 months and 26 months. We’re reasonably satisfied with the current average 417 day Calving Index for a relatively high yielding herd, however we have a 400 day target.”

The decision to house the herd throughout lactation has made for improved management. “We’re now able to control the key inputs by offering a consistent environment. For example, while we provide a loafing area for the cows to come and go as they please during the main grass growing period, they’re soon back indoors when it starts to rain.” Split into two groups, high, 43 litres plus or low, 30 litres plus, they are fed according to yield on an energy dense total mixed ration comprising grass silage, homegrown whole crop wheat and crimped barley, draff and molasses balanced with a protein blend. 

The accommodation has been designed for optimum comfort and features open ended 1.2 metre wide cubicles bedded with dried paper granules, while the central passageway is washed down five times a day with clean recycled water from a flushing system.  

“The overall system, accommodation, nutrition and management is helping to minimise lameness. We put the cows through a footbath at least once a week to counter digital dermatitis, while any lameness incidences are treated immediately they are spotted.”

The flushing system, which removes the need for scraping passageways and was among the first to be installed in Scotland, required the accommodation to be built on a 1.5^o slope. Pressurised water carries the slurry with it out of the cubicle housing and into a separator where solids are separated out at xx% dry matter and the liquid fraction is returned via lagoons for flushing. The separated solids which are either spread on swards destined for silage or the arable land, have substantially reduced the Milne’s fertiliser requirements and brought savings of £37k per year.

The latest development at East Pitforthie, a 85m x 36m single span shed nearing completion, reinforces the family’s commitment to dairying. “The structure, positioned adjacent to the cow accommodation, will bring together on one farm all our youngstock which are currently scattered over three farms. Apart from ease of management and time saving, it will also enable us to expand the herd by a further 60 milking cows and achieve further economies of scale,” said Sandy.

He added: “Somewhere at the bottom of my heart I believe there is a future for progressive dairy farmers. The current world marketplace trends reflect the emerging shortage of dairy products, with Fonterra’s monthly auction up 90% in just four months. While those trends should instil some confidence, when they’re likely to impact on GB farmgate milk prices is another matter. In the meantime, we have no alternative but to remain determined and focused in our quest to improve the enterprise’s overall efficiency.”

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