On 18 April 2016 I started in Coopon Carse dairy farm in Palnure, Scotland. There are 530 dairy cows, 470 young stock and 30 young bulls.
Five hundred cows are milked on the unit through a 28-point Westfalia rotary parlour. The team has milked three times a day since 1989 and the herd currently averages a 305-day yield of 10,100kg. It is an amazing setup and it is quite active in the industry and the farm was nominated for Farm of the Year in 2014. Up until recently they had been feeding conserved forages to the cows, but now they have switched to fresh grass in the diet using a zero-grazing system.
Production of milk:
5,280,000 litres produced10,300kg milk soldFat 3.84 %Protein 3.28%Calving interval 393 daysSilage is a four cut system using forage wagonsFeeding is now full total mixed ration (TMR). There is one ration for milk cows and the milking cows are split up into 4 different groups according to health status and age.The dry cows get one ration with high fibre and low energy.
Land area
660 acres60 rented335 acres silage/zero grazing100 acres winter wheat180 rough grazing10 acres treesConcentrates usage /cow through the Keenan PACE downloads
2010
449 cows in milk1,198t of premix687t of soda wheat=4.1t concentrates/cow
2011
461 cows in milk1,025t of premix422.7t of soda wheat=3.1t concentrates/cow
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Read more of Jodie’s blog here
On 18 April 2016 I started in Coopon Carse dairy farm in Palnure, Scotland. There are 530 dairy cows, 470 young stock and 30 young bulls.
Five hundred cows are milked on the unit through a 28-point Westfalia rotary parlour. The team has milked three times a day since 1989 and the herd currently averages a 305-day yield of 10,100kg. It is an amazing setup and it is quite active in the industry and the farm was nominated for Farm of the Year in 2014. Up until recently they had been feeding conserved forages to the cows, but now they have switched to fresh grass in the diet using a zero-grazing system.
Production of milk:
5,280,000 litres produced10,300kg milk soldFat 3.84 %Protein 3.28%Calving interval 393 daysSilage is a four cut system using forage wagonsFeeding is now full total mixed ration (TMR). There is one ration for milk cows and the milking cows are split up into 4 different groups according to health status and age.The dry cows get one ration with high fibre and low energy.
Land area
660 acres60 rented335 acres silage/zero grazing100 acres winter wheat180 rough grazing10 acres treesConcentrates usage /cow through the Keenan PACE downloads
2010
449 cows in milk1,198t of premix687t of soda wheat=4.1t concentrates/cow
2011
461 cows in milk1,025t of premix422.7t of soda wheat=3.1t concentrates/cow
Read more
Read more of Jodie’s blog here
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