Cows Inside

When I say that words fail me to describe the type of year its been for cattle , I will use it as the excuse for not keeping this blog up to date . The Spring started off so promising , with an early turnout for the herd . March 21st saw the cows out through the day, and out night and day a month after that. It was the earliest turnout for a few years , and all was looking well. After that , the weather has pretty much gone downhill. Constant rain through out the spring/summer, and a pretty lousy Autumn has been hard on the girls to say the least. I have been surprised at just how well they performed this summer, although yields have been hit a little. Silage stocks are ok for the winter, first cut quality is again, surprisingly good, the same can't be said for 2nd cut , which , quite frankly is closer to youngstock fodder than milk cow material. However , it will have to do as a buffer fodder for next summer. Feeding the dairy cows is always a challenge , keeping an eye on quality but also cost. This years feed bills seem to be going through the roof, but they need fed, and the worst thing we could do is to skimp on quality, although I do sometimes feel I am struggling to get this message across ! ! ! We are on the lookout for a new nutritionist to guide us through the next few months. It's very easy to get the basic feeding correct, it's just the nitty gritty details that need that little bit of expertise. At the moment the cows have been averaging around 28.5 ltrs/day which I feel is quite respectable , but there's always scope for more ! Plenty calves have been born throughout the summer,sire being Emerald, Twist, Teirgan, Gold Crown as well as Hereford calves from our heifers. Service sires at the moment are Toc-Farm Duplex Glauco , Morningview Apprentice, Pirolo Goldwyn Wyman, Siemers Atwood Allthat, Hydaways Goldmine, and Charolais and Limousin on the lower end of the herd. The Gracious family are doing away quite nicely, with two new members , Chloanne Emerald Gracious( Emerald X Hanno X Addison ) and Chloanne End Story Gracious ( End Story X Goldwyn X Hershel ) Pregnancies lined up from the family include sires Stanley Cup, Currajugle Gonzo, Synergy Always Red and Artes. Its good to see daughters now on the ground from Chloanne Lowick,hopefully breeders are happy with the calves so far. More importantly , heifers by Chloanne Gallagher are now being classified. I am fairly pleased with scores so far, we even have a VG85 on farm here. The cows finally came inside on September 24th , much earlier than usual.It all happened very quickly. One minute the weather was fair, the next absolutely foul, leaving me with no option but to house them. As it turns out , this has been the best thing we have ever done . The cows responded well to their new surroundings and have rewarded us with increased yields. The dry cows and youngstock are still outside, bit with colder weather forecast , its only a matter of time before all sheds are full , and winter will be well and truely here !

Northumbria Holstein Breeders Herd Competition

In January the results were announced for the Northumbria Holstein Breeders Club annual herds competition , which is always judged in the previous August.
This year we were pleased with our successes.
As a farm we managed to lift the titles of Best Large Herd , Top herd on Production and also Top Herd on Inspection . It's always pleasing when a judge appreciates what we are trying to do . On the individual classes , Chloanne Webster Gracious was named Super Cow , and Ellenneff Duce Cavaliero was placed first in the Heifer on Production class. Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious 2 came third in her class for Cow on Inspection.
As I've no doubt said before ,It is always a pleasure to have a judge , or indeed anyone come along and look at your herd , they will always see things that you have taken for granted, and maybe offer you that one missing nugget of advice that spurs you on .Sometimes things are staring you straight in the face and you fail to realise it . In my case , this year I didn't enter the Progeny group , It's not a class I find easy to find entries for . Well on the day of judging , I slowly found myself admiring daughters of a bull called Kings-Ransom Duce . Slightly on the smaller side than what we are used to , these animals are quite black , but the most amazing aspect of these heifers is the shape of their udders , a real joy to see when they come in the parlour to be milked. So why didn't I put in a few of these for the progeny group ? I haven't a clue , but I will be following these girls closely over the coming months and if at all possible , I will try the class this year .

Frankham Sept Storm Ethel has had a calf , and this time , a cracking heifer calf. The sire is Ked Outside Jeeves , and is again , another welcomed member to the Ethel family.
As I've had a few of the girls calf , my thoughts are now turning to getting them back in calve again. I have bought some Cogent Twist semen this year . He seems a fairly handy bull , so fingers crossed for some heifer calves later on .
I am also considering implanting some embryo's in the near future . I have a couple of heifers that would lend themselves quite well to this , and if I can rake up a couple more , It would certainly sweeten the job with regard to price etc. .

The main herd is down in numbers at the moment , which means that the dry cow pens are positively bulging . This will reverse itself in the coming weeks as they all start to calve down and join the ranks of the milkers again. Until then though , I am making the most of the slightly easier milkings , knowing that once the numbers rise again , so does the time taken to milk them !

Our Dairy Farm Assurance Audit

Yesterday it was our Dairy Farm Assurance Audit, an on farm inspection covering many aspects deemed to be important in the safe, clean , responsible production of food , in our case milk . This audit used to be carried out by the milk buyers themselves , who for us is Arla , but for the last 3 audits it has been an independent company carrying it out on behalf of the industry.
When these audits get mentioned there is usually a sigh from folk and the look of dread . On the whole I have always tried to approach them with a positive attitude, and would like to think that by us being quality assured that it will bring us a premium for our product . Sadly that never seems to be the case, with it being a compulsory audit anyway. Any non-compliance's must be rectified with-in 28 days. Happily , we were passed with flying colours, so big sighs of relief all round .
So what all was checked ? Well on arrival the milking parlour was checked for cleanliness ans my milking routine was discussed to make sure that no short cuts are taken during milking . In the dairy , the doors walls and lights were given the once over to check for cracks , defects and in general to ensure that the room was vermin and bird proof . We checked the cows housing , which was fine as the cubicles were all new just last year . All pens of stock were checked to see that all animals had adequate room and that they all could have contact with other animals etc . As you can start to see , all these checks are pretty common sense things which all farmers/stockmen around the country are ensuring high standards of anyway.
In the office is where the real fun and games starts with these inspections . Piles and piles of paperwork , layed out , just in case he needed to see relevant evidence of this and that .
So , medicine records , movement records, staff training records , animal transport records , chemical safety data sheets , milk quality facts , herd health plan , vet visits , feed delivery records to name but a few , were all checked , just to ensure that we operate a safe and clean operation .
Traceability is a vital element of food production and that is a major part of producers paperwork . All inputs must be traceable back to source and all sources must be "this'n'that" registered . it's a real mine field.
Well , the bottom line of all this is that we ticked all the right boxes and we live to fight another day , with a certificate on the wall to prove such a fact. It would be nice to be receiving a premium for a quality product, produced to the exacting standards that the industry sets . Maybe one day !

7 days off ! !

Today is my last day at work before an extremely well earned break of 7 days . Prior to this I was last off in February , and prior to that , God knows when . I am scheduled to take 28 days holiday a year , last year I ended up carrying 5 days over and got paid for 14 , so in reality I only took 9 days . So I started this year with 33 , and ended up carrying over 24 . I'd like to think that in the weeks and months to come , this shortfall in time off can be reversed . It's certainly not good for anyone to work these types of shifts , especially when a working week can easily be in excess of 75 - 80 hours !
Anyhow , hopefully when I come back I will find the herd in a content and happy mood . They are now in at nights , whilst still grazing what grass is left through the day ! This is just an exercise project rather that anything else . Most of their feed is now getting fed through the Keenan mixer wagon . The milk has really dropped sharply this autumn , I think they really were out for too long at nights , and this lost milk is proving really hard to get back on them . Hopefully , by the time I come back , they might even be in through the day and then they will be on a totally balanced diet for the rest of the winter !
The new cubicles got finished on time , and I am so pleased with them . the cows have been exploring them , and so far most seem to be prepared to try them without much fuss. The main things I am noticing about them is that the cows are lying far better than they did in the old style cubicles that we had , and this in turn is helping to keep the beds so much cleaner . Hopefully this will continue through the winter too .It would have been nice to have posted a few pictures of them on this site , but , alas , my digital camera is broken , and my phone is away getting repaired too , so I can't even post anything on Twitter . As soon as one of them is fixed I will post some pic's of the cubicles and other projects that we have being doing through the summer !

The Girls Need In

We are now at that time of year when the weather is trying to do it's best to make things as tough as possible . Don't get me wrong , we have had it much worse at this time before , but it always creeps up on you non the less. roadways start to get mucky , gateways have puddles in them and in general , the land starts to get wet . Grass quality is also rapidly decreasing and now would be the time to be thinking of bringing the cows inside for the winter .
This is always a tricky topic here . On the one hand there is ME that is saying " Bring them in" and on the other is the BOSS saying "NO , they're fine outside" . Of course , both camps are correct , up to a point . It just depends what you want from your herd of cows and how you want them to perform , particularly later on in the year. The argument for keeping them out revolves around the fact that there is still grass outside. this is fine , the cows will eat the grass and it is now a really cheap feed , trouble being there won't be as much feed value in the grass as is thought . Now , again , that in itself is okay if you are not pushing for yield and you just want the cows to produce milk at a leisurely pace. If high yields are to be maintained then the "girls" must be kept on an optimum plain of nutrition for as much time as possible. We are feeding around 3.5 tons of expensive buffer feed at the moment and they are just cleaning it up in a matter of hours just after milking. Then , they get shoved outside and some of the good is undone by them foraging around in the wet fields , especially at night , where temperatures are starting to dip. Basically , at the moment we are nearly getting a roller coaster effect in their nutrition .
Most other herds in the area are now inside , but we always go through this annual ritual of keeping them out , until the milk falls sufficiently to become a worry, and then they are hurriedly brought in and expected to pick up where they left off , before the fall in production.
If thee cows were brought in sooner , before the dip in yield , then they would have a steadier output , a more balanced ration , and ultimately , adapt to their winter housing way quicker , with no ground to make up in the short term .
(There, got that off my chest ! )

Change In The Weather

Well it's now the 25th of September and the weather has taken on a more seasonal role . lately it it has been so mild , dry and really quite pleasurable to work in .i knew this wouldn't last for ever and boy, has it changed . Yesterday saw fierce winds whipping in off the coast and the rain just lashing horizontally. Through the night it has been drier but bitterly cold . All this will not help our milk recording that I am hoping to do later today.
Overall the cows have milked fairly well through the summer and they (and I) have made good use of the grass available to them and also the buffer getting fed through the Keenan feed wagon. However all good things come to an end , and the season for cheap(ish) milk production is one of those things !From quite soon , the cow will be kept inside in the all new, all singing, all dancing cubicles that we have installed through the summer . Also a select few will get to stay in the 5 star straw accommodation , expanded from other years to now house slightly more . This however means that all the food that they eat will have to be fed to them , rather than then grazing it themselves . This is time consuming , labour intensive and above all , VERY expensive.Hopefully the end result will be more milk which should offset some of the extra costs.
We have the classifier coming in on Tuesday . he will look at some of the animals and score them according to how he feels they measure up to the "ideal" cow. All the points for the various traits (feet, body, mammary, etc) are then collated and a final score is given . So fingers crossed for then .
It has occurred to me that I haven't rambled on about any Chloanne births recently. that's because there hasn't been any , but that should be about to change over the coming months . below is a list of My cows that are due in the future.

Chloanne Dolman Ethel due 30/10/10 to Sterndale Roseman Red ( Sexed)
Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious 2 due 01/12/10 to Ked Outside Jeeves
Chloanne SJ Gracious due 22/12/10 to Sterndale Roseman Red ( sexed)
Chloanne Hanno Gracious due 23/12/10 to Ralma Oman crest
Frankham Sept storm Ethel due 29/01/11 to Cogent starsky
Chloanne Tulip Gracious due 21/02/11 to Ked Outside jeeves
Chloanne Goldwyn gracious 3 due 31/03/11 to Golden Oaks alexander
Chloanne Spooky Gracious due 08/05/11 to Ladys Manor Autumn

So it should be a fairly productive winter for the girls .

Staffing continues to be one of our major headaches on the farm . Trying to get anyone who readily wants to commit to giving up every second weekend to milk cows is proving to be difficult . We have a "bank" of 3 people who I can call upon , but they really only want to do it in a "helping out" capacity , not in a real commitment style , so the hunt goes on , but I am also acutely aware that the responsibility is now landing on my doorstep all the time to find people to milk and that's not always easy . I would like to think that fairly soon i will be able to get a few days off , it so seldom happens that sometimes you have to wonder if it is all worth while . all work and no play etc . . . . . . !

Steps in the Right Direction

Well, that's it for another year , the 2nd cut silage is safely in the pit . Yields for both the 1st and 2nd cuts have been poor , but I feel we should still have plenty to see us through the coming winter , due to us having quite a surplus the previous few years . Rain has finally remembered where we live and has now decided to be a regular visitor , but probably a welcomed visitor as we were desperately needing some . The grazing of the cows starts to get a bit more challenging from about now , due to the variable quality of the grass. It is starting to get a bit tricky trying to guesstimate how much they need to fill themselves up , and more importantly , how much they actually need to produce the milk AND keep maintenance of themselves . However , I am still extremely happy with the way the cows are performing this year , and they are looking better than they ever have done .
Fertility seems to be on the up too , which is always a good thing , as the main goal of farming has to be to get your animals back in calve , thereby keeping them and your business profitable. As mentioned in previous posts , heat detection is extremely important and you can't afford to take any shortcuts on this . Therefore it really has been my No 1 priority this summer , to see as many cows in heat as possible , and any that I fail to see get presented to the vet during our fortnightly fertility visits.

At the end of this month is the judging for the Northumbria Holstein Breeders Club annual herds competition , so as usual , it is now all eyes on to the girls to see just who to put forward for the various classes. As of just yet , i haven't a clue, but I'm sure all will come clearer over the next week or so !

It's just 10 days now until Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious is due to calve . She is in calve to Morningview Legend , and has a contract on the pregnancy for a bull calf to be sold to Cogent Breeding Ltd. Normally I would give my right arm for a heifer calf from one of my cows , but I would really love to see another one of my bulls get tested by a company . Fingers crossed !

Changes !

Well since my last post , I feel that many things have changed or are about to , on the farm. The silage was got in , all in reasonable condition , we could certainly have done with a bulkier crop , but by the way the silage fields have come away already , I think we will more than make up any short fall with the second cut.
With silage out of the way , I can now turn my attention to other jobs and projects , mainly the complete refit of the cow cubicles , ie, the beds that they lie in through the winter . I have no idea how old the ones that i am taking out are , but they are well past they're "sell-by date" and are basically just falling to bits . So bit by bit I am cutting out the old and making way for the new .We have nearly decided which company to pick , after viewing different manufacturers products on various farms .it's so interesting to see just how much min/max dimensions have changed over the years with regard to cattle housing , so much so that we are able to put an extra cubicle in every row , as by today's standards our old cubicles are too wide !
In the last couple of weeks we have been advertising for a new relief milker to cover alternate weekends for me and also holiday cover (I must look up the dictionary definition of holiday 'cos I don't come across THAT word too often here !)
With the advert put in the Farmers Guardian and Scottish Farmer, we have had a good response , with applicants from all over .It's always interesting interviewing people and reading CV's . I suppose if I had any comment to make on this subject it is that I wish people would read the advert properly , we had a lot of calls about the job and people were asking about hours/pay etc , when it clearly stated PART TIME. Clearly the job market is still a mine field out there . Hopefully by this time next week we will have the post filled .
To help with the day-to-day management of the herd I use a computer system called Uniform, I doubt i could run the herd as effectively without it . We have just upgraded to "Pro" package , sounds very grand , but basically it gives me way more information than i had in the past and enables me to keep tighter grips on output , fertility, feeding etc . It's fun at the moment , still working out everything it can do that the last one can't . I'll soon get the hang of it soon .
Cow wise the herd have had a very good summer out at grass , with the weather being unkind really only in the last few days . They are going to be spoiled soon as they will eventually find themselves grazing lovely new grass that is surplus to silage requirements , so hopefully that will boost the milk . At present they are averaging 28.6 litres /day, with only a token gesture of buffer ration in the trough , and on the whole i feel they are a much "happier" , more content herd than last year .
Later in the summer we are about to extend our straw bedded cattle court , which will give us nearly double the room , however i don't want to put double the cows in , as i want it to be comfy and clean , so double the space , a few more cows and all should be good. All in all , if we do the cubicles, the straw court and keep the "girls" as happy as they are just now , then this coming winter we should really start to see the results , both in the cows themselves and , more importantly, in the milk tank