Month: April 2017

EASTER ROSS, SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS

John and Fiona Scott farm 200 suckler cows, 4,500 breeding ewes as well as some crops across 2,226ha. They also have two contract farming operations and generate energy from a small-scale wind turbine and biomass boiler

It has been a long time coming, but at last we have grass growth. Late-sown barley crops are motoring and sheep no longer need feed every morning.

Our mid-February-born lambs are the only mob that have been receiving creep feed.

We are drawing them for sale deadweight on a weekly basis and hope to get the majority away before the price slides too much.

I always question whether we should be lambing this mob early, but if the price is sensible, lamb sales in May and June give the business a much-needed cash injection.

This year is worse than usual given the late arrival of our BPS money, coupled with us taking on some extra land next door. The land, part bought and part rented, will allow us to increase the size of our base unit at Fearn Farm.

Buying this bit of land is probably the most stressful thing we have ever done.

It took several months of discussion and number crunching with the bank, but thankfully we got there in the end and are now actually farming the bit over the fence, instead of always wondering what it would be like to do so.

Other than the fact that it forms a semicircle around our farm, this land is also very attractive to us because it’s mainly free-draining and also has hardstanding in the form of a disused runway.

Over the past few years, as our stock numbers have risen, we have pushed Fearn Farm to the max in terms of winter carrying capacity. This land will take the pressure off completely with no extra travel miles.

There’s a fair bit of fencing to do, but our plan revolves around changing the way we feed livestock in the winter. We aim to move away from a cereal-based diet to one that centres on forage behind a wire.

We have always grown some swedes – usually in drills – but this year will see a far larger area grown along with fodder beet, which is completely new to us. We have 10 different varieties being planted as a trial in association with Watson’s Seeds and are really excited by what the crop might be able to do for us.

Beef bulls have been sent to the works on a fortnightly basis. Thankfully the price has lifted slightly, although the decision has been made to castrate this year’s crossbred calves.

Who knows if it will turn out to be the right thing to do, but it will give us options. We could sell store or we could finish them after wintering them outside before selling them to Morrisons – gaining the Shorthorn premium.

@FearnFarm

BODMIN, CORNWALL

Matt and Pip Smith run 1,085 breeding Romneys and Romney cross Lleyn ewes across 121ha. Matt is also a shearing contractor and trains sheepdogs

I have been over to Finland shearing, as I have done for the past 10 years.

It is tough shearing sheep that have been indoors for so long, but the money I can make is worthwhile for an intense but brief stint.

It is frustrating being away from the farm with so much yet to do, but I look forward to the long days of summer to get on with fencing and draining projects.

On the farm, our lambs are growing away. A few weeks ago we had a weekend of docking. We had a group of good friends help; it makes the line very efficient and the camaraderie always seems to be great at docking time. Maybe that’s just testament to how wonderful country people are at helping others.

The handling equipment was hugely successful and made it really easy to work each paddock in turn – resulting in fewer problems with mustering and mothering up again once the job was done.

The lambs were all given a vitamin B12 injection, which will give them three to four months of slow-release vitamin B12.

Pour-on blowfly treatment was also applied around the rear end. They were also drenched and given a shot in the neck for clostridial disease.

My dad has come over from New Zealand and will be with us for four months. He is working with my father-in-law Jimmy to run the farm, so I’m pretty happy that while I’m away shearing, preparing for the record, the farm will be in good hands.

The new grass we have sown has struck nicely and is growing well, with quite a bit of last season’s brassica showing up among the planted seed.

We have disced up another paddock for forage crop and sprayed out one ready to disc and sow, hopefully in the very near future as weather permits.

The paddocks already sown in Winifred, a hybrid brassica, are well away and should be great lamb fattening paddocks after weaning.

The shearing stand for the record attempt is well under way. It has to be built to exact criteria and passed by the judges of the shearing world record committee.

My coach is making sure that my strength and fitness training is on track, plus I am finishing a shearing job in Hampshire of 10,000 Romney ewes with a good friend, Gareth Daniels.

ABERGAVENNY, MONMOUTHSHIRE

Gary and Jess Yeomans run a herd of 700 milking goats across 100ha, which supplies a local cheese factory. They also own a small pedigree Welsh Black suckler herd to graze permanent pasture

Maize was drilled a bit later than usual, but into good soil conditions. It has had its preemergence herbicide and is growing well.

We have been approached by Adas about the possibility of carrying out a trial on next year’s maize crop using soft wall tyres to reduce compaction at harvest.

We were asked as we have sloping land with loam soil in the catchment of the River Trothy. Natural Resources Wales is concerned about levels of soil contamination in this river.

Anything that can be done to reduce soil run-off and allow us to continue growing maize has to be a good thing.

Routine foot-trimming of the goats always seems to come round quickly and we are halfway through trimming the milking herd.

We have been doing some work weighing kids and recording their growth rates using our EID reader and software.

Work done on dairy cows proves better growth rates in heifers corresponds to better milk yields. Our vet Matthew Pugh is doing a Farming Connect kid-rearing meeting here on 17 June to see if the same is true with goats.

The Welsh Assembly election returned a minority Labour government, but at least a minister for rural affairs has been appointed.

The RDP funds are proving to be extremely difficult for farmers to access in Monmouthshire. Despite having good intentions, the council has so far used the money to put wi-fi in village halls and similar projects, with very little coming back to farms.

Abergavenny has been chosen by the EU for an Agri-Urban project, which aims to link farmers with the local urban population.

Hopefully some local farmers will be able to benefit from this scheme, although very few sell produce directly to the end consumer.

We managed to get a weekend away in Pembrokeshire, which clashed with the YFC AGM. Luckily Will and Jodie didn’t attend, so were able to feed and milk while Dimitri had fun in Blackpool.

I’m just glad that phone cameras and Facebook weren’t invented back in the days when I used to go.

Organisers of this year’s Livestock Event are opening up the floor for farmers to have their say on the sector’s biggest talking points.

Livestock Learning, a “knowledge­sharing forum” for dairy, beef and sheep producers to discuss the issues affecting the livestock sector, will debut at this year’s show, which takes place on 6­7 July at the NEC in Birmingham.

It will include panel debates and presentations from leading industry specialists, former Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers Gold Cup winners, and the 2015 Farmers Weekly Dairy and Beef Farmers of the Year.

They will look at aspects of herd health, including mobility scoring, early lameness treatment and digital dermatitis.

There will also be a BVDFree England panel debate.

“We are thrilled to develop a brand new feature for 2016,” says Matt Knight, Livestock Event director. “Livestock Learning will be offering essential knowledge towards effective decision making for all producers seeking a sustainable business.”

Farmers are also encouraged to suggest additional topics of discussion, which they can submit to organisers via Twitter by tweeting @LivestockEvent and adding #livestocklearning, or emailing the Livestock Event team at office@ livestock.com.

Go to www.livestockevent.co.uk for more on this year’s Livestock Event and to register for free entry

Closer scrutiny of ewe performance and adopting composite sires has brought big rewards for Northumberland sheep farmers Tony Drummond and his son, James.

Improving forage production and maternal genetics has seen liveweight gains and deadweight prices improve from smaller ewes, allowing the flock size to increase by 450 head.

The 1,300 ewes at Lemmington Hill Head Farm, Alnwick, are benchmarked against a range of criteria to boost productivity. The target is to produce ewes that are capable of weaning 1kg of lamb to every kilo of ewe mated at 12 weeks.

In order to achieve this and help increase overall productivity the farm has adopted a three-tiered approach by:

✱Increasing stocking density – using 65kg Scotch half-bred/Aberfield ewes.

✱ Reducing production costs – forage-only finishing.

✱ Increasing output a ewe – breeding from ewe lambs and reducing lamb mortality by driving maternal ability.

Changing from a traditional stratified system to using a smaller Aberfield sire is working for the father-and-son partnership, with the maternal Aberfield outperforming the former terminal Suffolk-cross put to a Texel.

“We have already seen twins averaging daily liveweight gains [DLWG] of 410g a head a day to eight weeks, so ewes are rearing 820g a day,” explains James, a Nuffield scholar. “This is from a smaller, 65kg ewe – allowing us to increase our flock size and output a hectare.”

This performance compares well with the Suffolk-cross twin-carrying ewes, which were 20kg heavier, and reared 700g of lamb a ewe a day when adjusted for losses, explains James. This isn’t all down to breed but to management too. “Aberfield genetics have been scrutinised much harder on the farm,” he says.

Last year, twins were weaned at 41.5kg (375g DLWG) at 14 weeks and singles at 40kg (430g DLWG) at 12 weeks.

“This means average ewe output is at 58kg at 12 weeks, so ewes are rearing 90% of their weight,” says James, although he targets in excess of 100%.

DEMANDS ON LAMBS

Breeding from ewe lambs is another way the Drummonds are increasing output a ewe. This was not possible from the late-ovulating Suffolk-cross, but it is now a major consideration when selecting for replacements, following a change in genetics.

The new output target requires lambs to reach 42kg by Septem ber and to hit 51kg (the average obtained last year) at tupping in mid-November, before reaching an average of 59kg one month before lambing, when ewe lambs are given a clostridial booster and a liver fluke dose.

Outdoor lambing is practised to remove some housing costs, with stock loose-housed at night. This year’s cold spring meant plastic lamb coats were used to prevent mortality creeping up during the inclement weather.

At a cost of 15-16p a coat, James says that if they save three lambs they have paid for themselves, even if 1,000 coats are used.

EWE BENCHMARKING

A five-year transition period has been in progress at Hill Head, which has seen selection pressure ramped up to take genetics forward – although this was not always the case, admits James.

This transition is essential to improving the farm, explains James, who has also reviewed soil and grassland management to boost gains from forage.

“Selection pressure was hampered hugely at each end of the old stratified system,” he explains. “The Cheviots on the severely disadvantaged area (SDA) land we have were not prolific enough to justify increasing numbers to help selection pressure and the terminal Suffolk-based flock were 85kg sheep, which reduced stocking density and output a hectare.”

Previously, the Drummonds ran a total of 850 sheep split across a Cheviot hill flock, a maternal Scotch half-bred flock and a terminal Suffolk-cross, although James concedes this was often falling short of the mark both in terms of productivity and in the mart.

“Border Leicester-sired wethers were £9 back on the Texel-crosses and Suffolk-crosses were £5 back,” he says. “Since becoming involved with the Aberfield we have seen lambs about match the Texel for price and finish six to eights weeks earlier.”

RECORDING

Further monitoring – namely, breach and dag scoring and faecal egg counts (FECs) – is carried out as part of the Drummonds’ involvement with the Innovis breeding programme.

James views breach and dag scores as “connected traits”, with one often affecting the other, although he acknowledges some lambs can have really poor dag scores and good breach scores and vice versa.

“We use a simple ‘1 bad, 5 good’ scoring system on the ram lambs to complement FEC scoring in the ewes,” he explains, hoping to have enough 5s to select from and fatten the rest.

A really clean breach with barely any cover would score a 5, working down to a 1, which is a straggly breach with long wool cover and covered in muck, adds James.

Faecal egg counts are taken after a 12- to 16-week challenge on pasture in the summer, with a huge variation in egg counts ranging from zero to 1,600 eggs in 2015.

“All ewe benchmarking is aided hugely by the fact that we EID-record all lambs,” says James. In the future, he hopes, a combination of breach, dag and FEC scoring will decrease flock maintenance by reducing fly strike, pasture burden, wormer usage and time spent dagging.

Record keeping is essential for strict benchmarking, explains James. Farm data on scanning and ewe weights go back five years.

Rearing performance is gauged from a combination of DLWG to eight weeks, weaning weight, time to slaughter, mature weight, feet and BCS maintenance.

An auto-drafter then has the final say, selecting potential replacements on ewe performance and physical lamb information, which is fed into a software system.

Only the top 20% of the Aberfield-cross flock are kept on this criteria, explains James.

The Drummonds crossed their last Cheviot gimmers in 2014 and reared the last Suffolk-crosses in 2015.

FINISHING OFF FORAGE

Ewes are expected to perform off rotationally grazed pasture and brassicas and silage in the winter and progeny are finished on for age-only diets, with Aberfield-cross lambs grading at 65% R, 25% U and 10% E on average.

Two mixes of plantain and legumes are providing close to 20kg DM/ha/day, which James says almost rivals the red clover and high-sugar grass mix on the farm. They are:

✱ Plantain 1.75kg, lucerne 3.9kg, white clover 1.5kg, forage rape 0.35kg

✱ Plantain 1.75kg, red clover 2kg, white clover mix 1.5kg, forage rape 0.25kg

Pasture measuring was brought in to increase permanent pasture productivity. The farm is set stocked at lambing, rotating from May and monitoring grass growth with a specialist dairy stick for new leys and a New Zealand stick from Massey University to monitor plantain and legume growth.

Winter feeding for ewe and ram lambs is provided by brassicas (1.75kg:0.5kg kale to stubble turnip mix) drilled into “sacrifice fields” that have been trashed in the previous winter, seeing sheep ring-fed silage.

“Trashing sacrifice fields is a key part of the grazing plan,” says James, whose target is to build covers of 1,800-2,000kg DM for lambing.

Brassicas are direct-drilled into pastures after a light glyphosate application of two litres a hectare, three litres a hectare on older pastures and four litres a hectare on rushier land.

“When trashing a field in winter we feed 11.1ME red clover silage, a good mid-gestation feed, allowing the rest of the farm to rest.”

James says that, in the early days, turnips established first and smothered the kale, so they have reviewed the mix to allow more than 20% of the crop to be kale.

FARM FACTS

✱ 205ha split 22ha SDA, 100ha rough grazing, 35ha of decent permanent pasture, 24ha of brassicas, 24ha of herbs and legumes

✱ 50 Limousin cattle split 50:50 autumn and spring calving

✱ Aberfield-sired Cheviot, Cheviot/Aberfield and Scottish half-bred flock

✱ Texel-sired “B” mob and Suffolk-cross flock

✱ Ewe lambs to Aberfield sire selected on terminal traits

IMPROVING SOILS

✱ Not bolusing Addressing from “soil up” is more economical than annual boluses at 80-90p a head.

✱ Analysis Blood and forage levels tested to assess efficacy.

✱ Gafsa phosphate £2.20/acre (£5.44/ha).

✱ Trace elements 1kg of selenium (250g/ha) and 1kg of cobalt (250g/ha) added to each tonne of Gafsa phosphate applied (cost: £22/tonne of fertiliser).

✱ pH Up from 5.5-6 to 6.3.

PROGENY PERFORMANCE

EWE BENCHMARKING TARGETS

Neil Baker is constantly striving to improve performance and efficiencies at Rushywood Farm, Crewkerne, Somerset.

In recent years he has slashed antibiotics use, mastitis and lameness rates, and is now focusing on improved breeding to further boost productivity.

But he hasn’t implemented major management changes – it’s all about measuring, monitoring and making small improvements that add up to big gains.

“We use a consultant and an onfarm software package – too many people manage the business by the bank account, but if you want to look after your cows you need to be making small strategic changes all the time,” he says.

About 1,500 people descended on the farm for the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF)/National Milk Records Gold Cup open day last week, to take home top tips on how to survive and thrive in the future.

“Dairy farming businesses will have to survive at 21p to 25p/litre for the next five years,” says RABDF chairman Mike King.

“Resilient businesses are built around solid financial footings and farmers need to react to market conditions. If they don’t know what their cost of production is at any one time it’s very difficult to make meaningful decisions.”

IMPROVING PREGNANCY RATES AND CALF MANAGEMENT

Mr Baker has used his farm figures to maximise pregnancy rates, which are now running at 24-25%, compared with the national average of 11-12%.

His calving index is 384 days against a national average of about 418 days.

“We wouldn’t be in business at 418 days,” he says.

“We’d be losing 1,000 litres of milk.

“To us, pregnancy is king, and it all comes back to transition cow management.

“If you can’t get them calved and cleaned up and ready to go they won’t get pregnant again.” Heifer rearing is also critical. At Rushywood there are strict protocols in place to get calves off to a good start.

Cows are moved to individual calving pens once the calf’s feet are showing, to minimise group changes, and the calves are removed from the dam after two hours.

They are tagged, fed colostrum and weighed, and given a jacket if the weather is cold. “Little calves burn so much energy to stay warm, which doesn’t maximise growth rates,” says Esme Moffett, veterinary assistant at Synergy Vets. “Cold calves are also more susceptible to disease; so if Neil needs a coat, so do the calves.”

At the rearing unit, the calves are fed milk powder (150g/litre) at two litres twice a day, rising to three litres twice a day.

“This is the most efficient time of growth,” says Mrs Moffett.

“The calves are weaned at 50 days old, when they should be at least double their birth weight.

“Keeping records is essential to monitoring progress,” she adds. “But to my mind, stockmanship is one of the most important things when heifer rearing, as is empowering staff to act if problems arise.”

CLEANLINESS AND CLAMP MANAGEMENT

According to consultant Graeme Smith from Precision Nutrition, attention to detail is key to boosting efficiencies.

“One of my biggest bugbears is clean water. Milk is 85% water, so get rid of big troughs and fit easy-toclean replacements,” he says. “If it’s easy, the job will get done.”

Good clamp management, cleaning the mixer wagon, and pushing up silage more frequently will improve feed intakes and reduce wastage, he adds.

“Here, Neil uses a robot to push up.”

Excellence is the aggregation of marginal gain, says Mr Smith.

For example, a 1% improvement in milk yield and quality, feed rate and cost, pregnancy and replacement rates, combined with one less case of mastitis and lameness, one fewer casualty cow and a month’s reduction in heifer calving age all tot up to £123.69 a cow a year.

“On a 200 cow herd that’s £24,738.”

COW HEALTH AND CUTTING ANTIBIOTICS USE

Mr Baker is targeting 0% milk fever, retained cleansings and left-displaced abomasums (LDA) – and in the past 12 months he has calved 1,862 cows.

Of those, there were 26 cases of milk fever, 19 LDAs and 150 retained cleansings.

“That’s too many retained cleansings so we’re introducing selenium supplements in the transition group to help the cows’ immune systems,” says Mr Smith. “Prevention is better than cure.”

That sentiment follows through to antibiotic reduction – something which has been a big focus in recent years.

“We don’t want to use antibiotics – it’s a failure on our part as it means we haven’t controlled mastitis or calf pneumonia,” says Mr Baker.

The biggest cut in antibiotics use has been made by moving to selective dry cow therapy – which, perhaps surprisingly, has mirrored a sharp drop in mastitis.

“Is that because we’re not knocking the cows’ natural resistance? It’s a really easy win and the net gain is massive – it’s a waste of money giving antibiotics to healthy cows.”

Mr Baker has cut dry cow treatments from 180 treatments of every 1m litres in 2014 to 60 now.

All the cows are bedded on sand cubicles and the farm has a rigorous parlour routine, with the recent addition of a teat brush to improve consistency of teat preparation. Mastitis rates have fallen from 30% in 2014 to 5% now; saving £4,000 a 100 cows.

According to Duncan Williams from Kite Consulting, if the industry doesn’t voluntarily reduce antibiotics usage, it won’t be long before legislation forces farmers into it.

“The third-generation cephalosporins are essential for life-saving treatment in hospitals so we are being asked as an industry to move away from them,” he says.

Since 2014 critical antibiotic usage at Rushywood has fallen from 70% of treatments in 2014 to under 40% now. “That has not been done by not treating sick cows – it’s been done by driving down disease,” says Dr Williams.

PHOTOGRAPHY: OLIVIA COOPER

LAMENESS

Fortnightly mobility scoring has helped the farm to cut lameness, too, by driving early treatment decisions.

In 2007 25% of the herd scored two or three; now it’s 5%.

“High-quality data – and welldesigned sheds – are driving performance in this herd,” says Dr Williams.

In the future Mr Baker hopes to delve more into genomics and genetic selection, and may cull the worst performing quartile of the herd to boost future efficiencies.

“Our top 10% of cows are averaging 18,000 litres – the lower quartile are a barrier to progression,” he adds. “We don’t know what Holsteins can do if we take the barriers out of their way.”

FARM FACTS

⁕ 1,750 cows, 900 youngstock

⁕ Average yield in year to April 11,022 litres a cow

⁕ Housed in five barns, split into nine groups according to lactation

⁕ 30% replacement rate

⁕ Arla Tesco contract, currently paid 19.17p/litre

⁕ Employs 35 staff (60% Polish)

⁕ Milking three times a day through an 80 point rotary, operating 18 hours/day

⁕ 794ha growing triticale, grass, maize, lucerne and sugar beet