Preparation is well underway for everyone to be welcomed at High Plains Farm, Longtown, on behalf of the Vevers family on Tuesday 7th of June.
Matt and his parents, Richard and Julie run 420 Holstein cows along with 380 youngstock across 400 owned acres and 100 acres rented, having had the farm since 1885. The team consists of a further three full time and two-part members of staff. Milking twice a day through a 24 unit Swingover Devalal parlour which has been installed on the farm for 15 years with all milk supplied to Arla on a manufacturing contract.
“The parlour does everything we need it to do, it isn’t as fancy as some, but it suits our system. Technology does still play a major part in the farm though with ADF installed in the parlour. One of the best investments on the farm has been the cow manager system which monitors health and fertility.
The herd is housed all year on cubicles and calving takes place all year round. The herd is split into 3 separate groups for management purposes which are fresh calved, highs and lows. Part of the grouping system is so we can feed the full herd by TMR as there is no feeders in or outside of the parlour. We made this move about 4 years ago for cow health and ease of management which we believe has been a valuable
decision. The diet consists of molasses, Traffordgold, straw, silage and a bespoke meal made by Davidsons Animal Feeds. The highs and fresh cows are fed the same diet and the lows a separate diet which is kept an eye on by dairy technician Sam Hodgson from Davidsons.
I work closely with Sam, who keeps the nutrition on track as we tweak the meal in relation to the silage analysis.” Said Matt. This goes to show
with the herds current production being 10124kg at 4.11BF and 3.35P whilst maintaining the years average preg rate at 35%. The farm takes 3 cuts of silage a year with 360 acres being cut twice and 250 acres cut 3 times, allowing for grass reseeding later in the year and extra grazing for in calf heifers. “Forage is a major part of the cows diet so it crucial that we get it right” said Matt.
Matt added that “we used to shop about for feed and tried a bit of our own home mixing to try and control costs, but the efficiency and service we get from Davidsons is defiantly outweighing what we had been doing
in the past, whilst making the management of feeding on the farm far simpler”. “I cant fault the service, I am on the phone to Sam every week and he is on the farm ever other week, nothing is ever an issue. A good relationship with your nutritionist as well as your vet is critical in the dairy industry. Routine vet visits are every 3 weeks and if there is ever an issue in between, James Brocket our vet is just a phone call away for
advice too”.
Currently the farm serves 75% of the cows with 2 shots of sexed semen, with 90% of heifers also being served twice with sexed semen. The rest of the cows are served with the Belgium Blue and heifers served with Aberdeen angus semen or run with an Aberdeen angus bull to cover them after the service window. Holstien heifers are reared on farm until 11 months of age. They then go off farm, for the rest of the rearing process where they return home a month prior to calving. The heifers are served off farm by a RMS service whilst all servicing with the cows is done in house. The beef calves are all sold through the ring at Carlisle auction or off farm privately. “With carrying such a large amount of replacement heifers, it has allowed us to be selling fresh calved cows over the past few years as well as keeping the herd young, fit and healthy”.
Pregnant replacement heifers return to the farm to graze during the summer months as nothing is grazed until it has been given PD+ status as we have seen fertility has not been as good on any animals grazed
prior to service. Youngstock fertility is taken as seriously as it is with the cows, as any missed times with a heifer is a cost and lost milk.
“Going forward in the dairy industry my outlook is very positive, in the short term its looking like there will be a rough time with the excessive inflation of input costs. The biggest issue I believe will be staffing. We currently have a fantastic team on the farm, which is a blessing as when you are speaking to other farmers and hear about the problems they are having finding anyone, let alone a good person.” You always need to put yourself in the shoes of the employees”. “In the last 15 years the dairy industry has witnessed a lot of changes, and I do think the rise of the smaller dairy farms will return due to the issue with the shortage of staff. There are becoming more milk contracts available and opportunities for new dairy’s to start up, so if you have the courage to face the start-up costs I do think it will prevail in the long run. Milk is always going to be needed “concluded Matt.
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