Braemar Farm near Castlerock is a family-run farm in every sense of the word. Ian Pollock owns and runs the 110-cow dairy herd alongside his father Jim.

Ian’s wife Ruth is also extremely active in the business and has used her expertise and qualifications in food technology to develop a successful homemade ice-cream brand using milk produced on-farm. Ian and Ruth have three sons, Jamie (5), Sam (3) and Lewis (1).

The 70ha farm is located in an upland area that would not normally be conducive to dairying. The farmyard lies at an altitude of 500ft above sea level, with grazing land running to 650ft. All land is in grass and surrounds the main farmyard, with the farm evenly split between owned land and conacre.

Herd details

In 2013, the herd consisted of 110 cows in milk. Stocking rate for the farm was 2.03LU/ha and is gradually being increased. Ian is planning to expand to 130 cows in milk this year.

The calving season starts in October and runs to May to even out the supply of milk over the year. No cows are calved from June to September. Despite a rather prolonged calving pattern, herd fertility is relatively good.

Calving interval normally runs between 370 and 380 days, with 80 cows and 15 heifers calved since October. A further 30 cows and 25 in-calf heifers are still left to calve.

The herd is predominantly bred through DIY artificial insemination with late calving cows and cows that repeat more than once going to a Limousin stock bull.

Increasing yield

Cows in milk are currently averaging 30 litres per head per day and are being fed to yield. Two out-of-parlour feeders were installed last November to increase milk production.

Cows are fed 0.25kg of concentrates per litre of milk over a maintenance yield of 20 litres per day. The cows are fed a further 5kg of concentrates as part of a total mixed ration through the diet feeder.

A total of 14kg of concentrates are fed at peak milk production. Cows are not fed through the parlour.

Ian regards the installation of the out-of-parlour feeders as being a long-term investment, but one that is already paying off.

It cost £9,000 to install two feeders, augers and an eight-tonne meal bin, which is being depreciated over 10 years.

In a 130-cow herd yielding 8,000 litres per cow, the feeders cost £69 per head or 1p/litre. There are plans to install a further two feeders in 2014.

A recent mechanical breakdown left the feeders out of use for two days. During this time, milk yield fell by 1,300 litres across 80 cows, or eight litres per cow per day. At a milk price of 33p/litre, the loss in yield amounts to £429.

Cows in milk are fed 35kg of silage (£30/t), 10kg of wholecrop (£50/t), 1kg straw and 5kg of a bought-in 20% blend costing £280/t. Nutritional advice is provided through Chestnutt Feeds, where all concentrates are purchased.

The cost of feeding the cow through the wagon is £3.03 per cow per day, with a cow yielding 35 litres per day having a further cost of £1/day for feeding through the out-of-parlour feeder. Glycol is also fed to cows after a major problem with ketosis in the past.

Challenges

Milk yields were down in 2013 as a direct result of lower fodder quality, forage shortage last winter and slow grass growth in spring 2013.

Cows dipped below 7,000 litres as a herd average – yields are normally around 8,000 litres per cow. Milk composition in 2013 averaged 3.84% butterfat and 3.1% protein.

Milk from forage is an area of production that the farm has consistently struggled with. Given the farm’s location, turnout date and grass growth are usually delayed until late April. In 2013, cows did not get out to grass full-time until 12 July.

The farm reseeds 10% of land annually and as ground conditions are a limiting factor in keeping animals at pasture, Ian is considering the possibility of zero grazing to improve milk from forage.

In a good year, the farm achieves 2,000 litres from grass per annum, but the plan is to increase this to closer to 2,500 litres. Zero grazing, while expensive, would improve both grass utilisation and milk from forage.

The herd has a grazing platform of 50 acres surrounding the yard, which was stocked at 5.5 cows per hectare in 2013.

Supporting such an intensive stocking rate is only possible when weather conditions remain favourable.

Herd health

The herd has a comprehensive health plan in place. Cows are routinely vaccinated for IBR, BVD, Lepto and salmonella.

According to Ian, the salmonella vaccine has been the most beneficial used on farm as calf mortality has dropped significantly. Prior to use, calf mortality could run at 10% but this has now more than halved.

Calves have been BVD tagged since the voluntary phase of the NI eradication programme. No persistently infected (PI) calves have been confirmed on farm.

Mineral supplementation is provided as a bolus when cows are at grass and included in the bought-in concentrates.

Adding value on-farm

Farmers have very little influence over the price received in the marketplace. Whether it is milk sales, beef or lamb, the end price is determined by processors and retailers. Adding value to the product is the best way to secure a higher value from farm sales.

Having completed a degree in food technology at CAFRES’s Loughry Campus, Ruth Pollock saw an opportunity to diversify part of the farming operation and, in 2006, she began to produce homemade ice-cream.

Coming from a beef and sheep farm, Ruth was no stranger to farm diversification as her home farm had already successfully established a holiday caravan park on the north coast. The ice-cream venture was partly funded by LEADER to a total of 40% of the set-up costs. Since its launch, Ruth works full-time developing, manufacturing and distributing Braemar Farm Ice-cream.

The brand has recorded steady growth by targeting public events, open days and the restaurant/hospitality trade. Over the summer months, a site is rented at Castlerock beach from Colerain Borough Council.

One future option might be to target multiple retailers. However, market research has shown that this would require a larger factory production base, which greatly increases production costs. Instead, the business continues to operate from a small-scale unit on-farm and has expanded gradually to a team of three fulltime and four parttime staff.

At present, the ice-cream business uses an average of 100 litres of milk per day. Approximately 20 litres of whole milk can produce 50 litres of ice cream.

The manufacturing sees skimmed milk powder, sugar and flavouring as the main ingredients, added to whole milk. A viable margin can be made, but only if costs are controlled.

There is potential to grow the business to sales of 30,000 litres of ice-cream annually from the current production unit and marketing route. The Pollocks said that, while market demand is good, there is no shortage of competition, which means producing a quality product and controlling the cost of production is essential for the future of the business.