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Duncan Gaudie & Iain McCulloch
WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
19
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
D A I R Y F E A T U R E
Veterinary Surgeon
Julian Allen
XLVets Practice
Friars Moor, Dorset
At Park Farm, near Blandford Forum, in
Dorset, Alan and his father Andrew, run a
130-cow flying herd, with heifer replacements
now coming through. Alan explains: ‘We've
no opportunities to diversify here at Park
Farm so must stay focused on dairying.
But although I do like my cows, I just didn't
want the tie of milking them.’
Alan and Julian had already taken steps to
improve cow health through a herd health
planning scheme with the Wessex Positive
Health Group, and vaccination programmes
for BVD, IBR and leptospirosis were already
in place.
Julian explains: ‘To take full advantage of the
investment in the robotic system, changes to
the whole management of the herd were
required. Instead of running a flying herd,
heifer replacements are now being reared.
This is because it's easier to train heifers on
to the robotic milker than older cows, and
it's also more beneficial for herd health.
‘For a robotic milking system to be successful,
buildings and facilities need to be arranged
so that cows can move easily between the
robots, feed, grazing, water, and lying and
loafing areas. So new cow accommodation
was required and this was an opportunity to
switch from straw yards to cubicles.’
Controlling lameness
Julian says: ‘Under the old straw yard housing
system, lameness had not been a major
problem. But we anticipated that moving
cows into cubicles at the same time as
training them to use the robots would lead to
increased standing times and, consequently,
foot problems.
‘We devised a lameness control plan, and
cows were given six weeks to get used to the
cubicles before robotic milking commenced.’
(See opposite). ‘This helped reduce the problem
to some degree, but lameness became the
principal health challenge at Park Farm in the
months after the change,’ says Julian. ‘Some
older cows were slow to adapt to cubicles,
leading to long standing times and sole ulcers.
But locomotion scoring has shown that young
cows now entering the system are accepting
the cubicles and foot health is good.’
Although Julian recommended sand as the first
choice bedding material in the cubicles, for
mastitis prevention, Alan was concerned
about the wear and tear on machinery and
Installing robotic milkers
changed herd health and production
as well as lifestyles...
W
hen Dorset dairy farmer Alan Perrett took over the responsibility
of milking at Park Farm, he totally revised the system, investing
in two Lely robotic milkers, to free up his time. This also required
some major changes to be made to the cow housing and buildings layout,
and a new strategy on herd management. Friars Moor vet Julian Allen
advised Alan and worked with him to ensure that herd health, not just his
lifestyle, also improved.