Page 81 - Demo

S H O R T H O R N
Dairy
produced 330 cows and we often select
our stock bulls from this family.
“They are consistent for both type and
milk yield and have also performed well
in the show ring in the past.”
The family used to show and achieved
considerable success in the ring, securing
the breed championship at the Royal
Show four times and winning at the
Cheshire and other county shows.
Now they limit their showing to the
Society’s regional herd competition
where this year they won the best heifer
in milk category with Amber Princess
Anne 143.
James and his wife, Julie, are joined at
Eddlestow by Josh Neville, who has been
working at the farm since he was 11 years
old and now juggles his time there with
studying at Harper Adams University.
Josh shares their passion for cows and
is clearly viewed as indispensable and
part of the farm’s future by his senior
counterparts.
Although breeding exceptional
pedigree animals is what the farm is
renowned for, it is a commercial dairy
farm and the cows reflect this.
James says: “We blend some Red
Holstein with the Shorthorn and, over
time, yields have increased from an
average of 5,500 litres to 6,000 litres
achieved 40 years
ago to our current herd average of
8,600 litres.
“This is also partly down to modern
feeding methods where we are using diet
feeders and have sown new leys.
“I think one of the secrets to our
success is we produce most of our own
ration here on the farm so we are not
dependent on bought in feed.
“We grow oats, barley and wheat,
which we mill and mix ourselves and just
add in some soya protein and minerals as
well as grass silage.
“On the arable land, we grow a
short-term Italian ryegrass ley in the
arable rotation as a break crop to help
control grass weeds.
“We mow this every month through
the summer and typically take four or
five crops which we buffer feed to the
milking herd when they come in to be
milked.
“The silage from these one-year leys is
very high quality and we find it helps to
iron out any fluctuations in nutrition from
the grazed grass so maintains yield.
“This is important here as the cows
would struggle to yield so well from some
of our steeper, rough grazing fields,”
James says.
Across the rest of the farm, longer-term
leys are grown, these are ploughed up and
a crop of wheat grown there for a year
before they are re-seeded back to grass.
Grazing
The grazing platform, situated around the
farm is the ‘very difficult’ fields, according
to James.
“The fields are generally on heavy clay
and are steep, with many land drains. We
do re-seed them occasionally, but it is not
an easy task and they need a lot of
maintenance.
“We aim to turn the milking herd out
by April 20, with the youngstock usually
out before then.
“This year was a challenge, because of
the wet, cool start but we have a good
network of tracks and the cows need to
be able to walk a long way, so good
mobility is important to us.”
Heifers generally calve down at
between 27 and 30 months and although
a few will calve earlier. Mick says a
younger calving age is not something
they strive for.
“The heifers would need pushing so
much if we were to try and calve them all
at two years. We have a few which calve
then as if they have grown on really well,
we will serve them a bit earlier,” he adds.
Calves are kept in individual pens for
the first two to three weeks of their life
and then go into groups in pens.
James says their calf feeding regime
results in a slightly later weaning date.
“We wean at eight to ten weeks; we keep
them on milk a week or so longer
because we do not feed a rearer nut.
Instead, we mix our own calf creep feed
from our own milled mix.”
When they are housed, they are
•
Eddlestow Hall Farm has land rising
to 300 metres (990ft)
•
The farm is home to the Amber herd
of pedigree Dairy Shorthorns from
which the first animal was
registered to the Society in 1944
•
The land extends to 202 hectares
(500 acres) of which about 81ha
(200 acres) is in the arable rotation,
56.5ha (140 acres) is temporary
grassland and about 64.5ha (160
acres) is permanent grassland
•
The arable rotation includes oats,
barley, wheat and temporary grass
•
The herd comprises 150 cows in the
milking herd, with a further 200
followers including replacements
and surplus females which are
usually sold privately or through
Leek market. On average six bulls
are sold privately each year
•
Cows average 8,600 litres at 3.18%
protein and 4.5% butterfat
•
Milk is sold on a liquid contract to
Muller
FARM FACTS
introduced to cubicles and James says
this means they are never a problem
when they join the milking herd in the
main cubicle shed.
At any one time, about 100 dairy cross
beef bulls will be housed at the farm and
finished on the home-grown ration.
“We use male sexed beef semen from
Blue, Angus and some Limousin bulls on
the lower end of the milking herd. This
works well for us as otherwise if use
conventional beef semen, we end up
with small numbers of females which are
then more difficult to manage.
“We finish the bulls at about 550kg
liveweight and sell them through
Bakewell market.”
Looking to the future, James mentions
genomics as something they will
certainly look at although there is
currently limited data for the Shorthorns.
Jame says: “We have to be open to
these advancements and we are
conscious that one of the issues with the
Shorthorn is the limited choice of sires.
We have looked further afield for our
sires, but we are looking for a grazing
animal and this guides our choice of
genetics. We are striving for continual
improvement and the best genetics and
feeding will help us achieve this.”
Articles by the Dairy Farmer
Photographs by Jon Eveson
Shorthorn 81