Livestock Matters - Autumn 2019

Livestock Matters Autumn 2019 04 3 key goals for block-calving dairy herd: simplicity, efficiency and profitability Dairy farmer Matt Cradock and his family have three key objectives in the running of their autumn block-calving herd: to keep things simple, to be efficient, and to be profitable. Helping them to achieve these aims with practical management advice and veterinary support is vet Rob Powell of Shepton Vets: a tightening up of the calving block has been a key focus over the past 18 months. At Rodmore Farm near Shepton Mallet, Matt Cradock, together with his parents Steve and Alison, is running an autumn-calving crossbred dairy herd of 250 cows, on a paddock grazing system. The herd is averaging yields of 7,000 litres per lactation, with butterfat at 4.30% and protein 3.45%; milk is sold to a local cheesemaker. Matt explains: “The milk quality is achieved through breeding rather than feeding: the cows are a 3-way cross of Norwegian Red, Flekvieh and Holstein/Friesian genetics. “There’s just me and my dad, and a relief milker working with the cows, and my mum helps rear the calves. We keep it simple: we don’t feed maize or wholecrop silages. Cows just have grazing or grass silage, and cake. We are getting 4,000 litres of milk from forage and 3,000 litres from cake which is fed in the parlour, at a rate of 1.8t concentrate/cow/lactation. “We don’t need to push cows any harder. We’d rather have 7,000-litre lactations from 7-lactation cows.” A tight calving block is especially important to the Cradocks as there are limited facilities and labour, and they need to run the milking herd as one group. Matt adds: “We start calving mid-August and want to calve everything we can outside. Bull calves are sold privately at 2 weeks. Then by Christmas, we want all the heifer calves weaned, and all the beef calves gone.” Rob adds: “The Cradocks currently run a 15- week block and are working towards a 12-week block. The calving pattern has been significantly improved over the past 12 months and this year 90% of the cows and maiden heifers will have calved by week 9 of the calving block.” A ‘Repro Review’ Before the start of the breeding season, Rob meets with Matt to review the previous year’s results and go through a comprehensive checklist to set the plan for the next few intensive weeks of activities. Rob says: “It’s important to have a plan and make sure everyone knows who is doing what, and when, before everyone gets really busy. “In block-calving herds, the stakes are high. A tight calving block is key to efficiency. But while culling any outlying cows may improve a calving pattern, it’s not resolving the underlying reason the calving pattern slipped in the first place. Farmers can end up culling lots of cows and then having to rear lots of heifers to make up numbers again. With heifer- rearing the second highest cost on a dairy farm, this impacts on profitability.” Rob Powell Shepton Vets Matt and Steve Cradock Dairy efficiency