Since graduating from Harper Adams, I have been farming in partnership with my parents on a 400-acre mixed tenanted farm in North Cornwall, England. The main enterprise is a pedigree Holstein herd under the Laram prefix. We also rear stores and grow 100 acres of combinable crops for feed.
Recently I ran the Twitter account @FarmersOfTheUK.
I find Twitter a useful source of information. Last year we bought a TruTest scales, which I first saw being used by Stuart Rogers, Longmoor Holsteins by following him on his Twitter account @Longmoorfarm.
The scales has allowed us accurately view growth rates in both dairy heifers and store cattle, meaning diets can be adjusted if growth rates aren’t hitting targets.
I hope my turn on the Twitter account may have helped other people think “that’s interesting, I might give that a try”. I think my generation of young farmers will use social media more to drive their business forward. You can follow me on @WillMitch93.
On the farm, we recently had a breeding meeting with Andrew Axford of Semex UK. As a business, we supply Dairy Crest, which produces Cathedral City cheese, so we need sires who have positive constituents.
However, we also want to breed cows that last, as long-lasting cows are the most profitable. We have been genomically testing heifer calves for 16 months and we are now able to assess weaknesses in their genomic index to improve for future generations.
Our highest indexing animal is Laram Boardshop Chloe, gPLI £477. By evaluating the genomic results, we found that body depth and pin width in heifers was a point to improve on.
The new sires we have chosen include View-Home Cardinals, Stantons Adorable, Wa-del Outfitter and Westcoast Perseus, who will add to sires such as Flame, Penmanship and Loic.
This week I am expecting the arrival of some fresh bloodlines into the herd. Bought through Eurogenes Auctions, Argh Jedi 7279 Cosmogirlie and DG Vekis Hana should be joining the herd. Cosmogirlie is a Jedi granddaughter from the great Larcrest Cosmopolitan with a gTPI of +2,561. Hana is a Powerbull daughter, gTPI +2,555, from Double-Eagle Tango Hula, owned by Butlerview Holsteins (US).
These two families are of interest to me and join current families such as Flo and Rapture within our herd. Breeding high-genetic-merit animals with deep pedigrees is a goal of mine and I hope these two purchases can be the start of more to come.
After the last 18 months of turmoil in the dairy industry, I want to finish on a positive note.
This year will see businesses starting to recover, with milk prices from some processors above 30p/litre (35.2c/l) already. With the recent GDT auction up 1.3%, this will help maintain the price heading into the early spring.
The industry now needs a period of stability and hopefully this will happen.
Since graduating from Harper Adams, I have been farming in partnership with my parents on a 400-acre mixed tenanted farm in North Cornwall, England. The main enterprise is a pedigree Holstein herd under the Laram prefix. We also rear stores and grow 100 acres of combinable crops for feed.
Recently I ran the Twitter account @FarmersOfTheUK.
I find Twitter a useful source of information. Last year we bought a TruTest scales, which I first saw being used by Stuart Rogers, Longmoor Holsteins by following him on his Twitter account @Longmoorfarm.
The scales has allowed us accurately view growth rates in both dairy heifers and store cattle, meaning diets can be adjusted if growth rates aren’t hitting targets.
I hope my turn on the Twitter account may have helped other people think “that’s interesting, I might give that a try”. I think my generation of young farmers will use social media more to drive their business forward. You can follow me on @WillMitch93.
On the farm, we recently had a breeding meeting with Andrew Axford of Semex UK. As a business, we supply Dairy Crest, which produces Cathedral City cheese, so we need sires who have positive constituents.
However, we also want to breed cows that last, as long-lasting cows are the most profitable. We have been genomically testing heifer calves for 16 months and we are now able to assess weaknesses in their genomic index to improve for future generations.
Our highest indexing animal is Laram Boardshop Chloe, gPLI £477. By evaluating the genomic results, we found that body depth and pin width in heifers was a point to improve on.
The new sires we have chosen include View-Home Cardinals, Stantons Adorable, Wa-del Outfitter and Westcoast Perseus, who will add to sires such as Flame, Penmanship and Loic.
This week I am expecting the arrival of some fresh bloodlines into the herd. Bought through Eurogenes Auctions, Argh Jedi 7279 Cosmogirlie and DG Vekis Hana should be joining the herd. Cosmogirlie is a Jedi granddaughter from the great Larcrest Cosmopolitan with a gTPI of +2,561. Hana is a Powerbull daughter, gTPI +2,555, from Double-Eagle Tango Hula, owned by Butlerview Holsteins (US).
These two families are of interest to me and join current families such as Flo and Rapture within our herd. Breeding high-genetic-merit animals with deep pedigrees is a goal of mine and I hope these two purchases can be the start of more to come.
After the last 18 months of turmoil in the dairy industry, I want to finish on a positive note.
This year will see businesses starting to recover, with milk prices from some processors above 30p/litre (35.2c/l) already. With the recent GDT auction up 1.3%, this will help maintain the price heading into the early spring.
The industry now needs a period of stability and hopefully this will happen.
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