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Since taking over the family dairy farm in 2016, increasing milk yield and solids has been the main goal for Andrew Dale.
So far, the breeding decisions taken by Andrew have delivered a 35% increase in milk yield, with butterfat and protein, rising by 32% over the same period.
Other management factors, such as improved forage quality have also contributed to the increase in herd output. But for Andrew, breeding has resulted in the biggest gains to date.
Farming 300 acres (121ha) outside Limavady, Andrew milks 120 autumn-calving cows on a grass-based system with his parents, Jackie and Diane.
Herd background
At the time he took over the farm, the dairy herd consisted of approximately 110 cows on a 70ha grassland unit.
Cows were predominantly Fleckvieh and close to pure-breeding. According to Andrew, these cows were getting too big and not putting out enough milk.
“Cows also consumed a lot of feed and there were issues with fertility that needed sorting. I felt the best way forward was to look at crossbreeding with Holstein sires to increase yields.
“But I was selecting sires that also had good solids and fertility traits. After a few years, I had a lot of three-quarter-bred Holstein heifers coming into the herd.
“I didn’t want to go pure Holstein. I had experience of Viking Red breeding and introduced it as another breed, along with Jersey to control mature cow size,” said Andrew.
Increased output
At the start of the crossbreeding programme, cows were yielding around 6,400l on 2t of concentrate.
Milk quality averaged 3.81% butterfat and 3.25% butterfat, working out at approximately 471kg of milk solids per cow.
Cows are now yielding 7,500l on 2.5t of concentrate, at 4.41% butterfat and 3.61% protein, which is 619kg of milk solids per cow.
The increase in solids alone is worth an additional 3p/l in terms of milk price and an extra £28,300 in 12-month rolling milk sales up to August 2024.
“Every farm still has a baseline of costs that have to be covered and for us, we need cows to be yielding 7,000l to 7,500l to make the system work. But keeping the focus on milk quality is possible when choosing bulls, and, it can add a lot to the overall milk price.”
Breeding outline
The three breed mix of Holstein, Viking Red and Jersey have now been used for five years. Where cows are getting too big in terms of mature liveweight, a Jersey sire is used.
Cows low in solids will get Jersey. Viking Red is the preferred cross on Holstein cows, at optimum size, yield and solids.
Holstein is used to add litres to cows with a stronger Jersey influence and is the preferred option to go back to Viking Red animals.
AI
All cows are bred to artificial insemination and only sexed semen is used for dairy sires. Cows deemed not suitable for generating a replacement get beef semen, mainly Angus, Hereford or Blue.
Conception rates to sexed semen range from 50% to 60% most years, with all cows served to natural heats with the aid of heat-detecting collars. Breeding runs for a maximum 14 weeks from 26 December, with calving starting around 1 October annually. This autumn, 75 cows calved inside the first six weeks, with 80% of the herd due to calve before Christmas. The remaining 20% will calve in January and February.
Replacements
Replacements calve down at 24 months of age and are usually October-born animals to fit into the current calving pattern. Selection criteria is tight, with 25 heifers calved down this autumn.
“Sexed semen means we have plenty of heifers to choose from every year and in the past, to speed up the change in cow type, replacement rates were as high as 50%, but have settled closer to 30%.
“I start recording heats in heifers, as well as cows, from early December. Heifers are then bred on the first heat that comes after the 26 December. Last winter, 90% of all heifers were served in four weeks.”
Calving shift
As well as focusing on increasing yields, there has been a huge effort to condense the calving pattern.
Back in 2016, cows calved from September to April, but that has since tightened to 80% of the herd calving in 12 weeks.
“The shorter calving period makes things much simpler to manage. I have one group of cows in milk to manage in the shed and at grass.
“Most cows are being dried off at the same time, which simplifies feeding. Calf rearing is also easier to manage with one tight block, although it is obviously a busy time.”
Feeding
Milk from grass is a big part of the management system, with Andrew looking to graze for six months of the year between full-time, day grazing and zero-grazing methods.
Land base has increased within the last five years from 173 acres to 300 acres, taking a lot of pressure off the system.
“We used to be tight for silage ground and had to sacrifice quality for bulk. That also meant a lot of fertiliser was required to grow enough forage for a six-month winter.
“The extra ground means we can harvest first-cut two weeks earlier, around 10 May, with second- and third-cuts also taken, along with whole crop oats.
“Freshly-calved cows are eating 3kg/day of an 18% protein concentrate through the TMR, then topped up with a maximum of 8kg in the parlour depending on yield.”
Future plans will see the continued use of the three breed crosses on-farm, with the potential to increase cow numbers to 140 in milk, based on existing housing space.
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