Commitment to change brings improved health and welfare

Agreeing to become a focus farm in the Defra-backed Farm Health Planning programme has proved such a success for Robin and Richard Bell they would advise any other farmer take part in similar projects.

But, they stress, anyone taking such an opportunity must be prepared to accept change, and to follow up and develop what has been learned after the official project has come to an end.

In their own case, the father and son team say improved herd health and welfare has brought real and ongoing benefits to Moorland Close Farm, Cockermouth, Cumbria, improving ease of management and overall performance (including longevity) and aiding sales of surplus pedigree stock.

Like so many other farms in the area, the present farm system is relatively new, as the farm’s original stock (beef, sheep and dairy) was lost in the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak. When restocking, the decision was made to become a specialist dairy unit and a herd of pedigree Holsteins were bought from East Grinstead, Sussex.

Robin says: “We just wanted dairy cattle of higher genetic merit than those we had lost. We believe the cattle we had bought in represented a 10-year jump in genetic progress over the cattle we had lost.

Settled in

“The East Grinstead cattle had been run on a similar system to our own farm and were settled in and feeding virtually as soon as they had come off the wagon.”

Richard says: “Since then we have been just pure Holsteins, putting everything to black and white bulls. We have been using our own stock bull as well as AI from a range of top bulls. Towards the end of last year we were able to start selling some surplus heifers and took the X W championship at our local Cockermouth auction dairy show.

“We are limited by the size of dairy herd we can carry at Moorland Close so are hoping heifer sales will play an increasing part in our business, with the majority selling through Carlisle.”

The present herd is 150 milkers, all registered under the Paddle prefix, with Robin and Richard describing the type as ‘middle of the road Holstein’, rather than extreme dairy. The 158-head of youngstock are reared by Richard at a nearby farm to point of calving.

The herd calves all year round, with the bulk of heifers calving at 24-30 months of age around July. Feeding is a mix of in-parlour, out-of-parlour and trough systems. Winter housing is cubicles bedded with mats and sawdust, with automatic scrapers delivering slurry to twin storage lagoons.

Becoming a Farm Health Planning focus farm was initiated by vet Rod Welford, of the Cockermouth-based Millcroft practice.

Proactive

“We looked at the idea and felt we would get something out of it,” says Richard. “Our vet has always been very much in favour of being proactive - he aims to try to deal with problems before they arise. And there was also the attraction that we would get funding to help with the project.

“The project looked at a range of subjects including health planning, introduction and transition of heifers into the main herd in autumn, clinical mastitis and nutritional health.

“Looking at heifers, it was found there was a selenium deficiency and that we needed to boost vitamin E levels. It was also found heifers joining the main herd in autumn faced a number of changes all at the same time.

“They come in from a soft field to hard concrete, they are with older cows, they have to get used to cubicles, different feeding, and have had their first calf all in a short space of time. This is all stressful for the heifer, so it was not surprising they were prone to illness and other problems in the first two to three weeks of the first lactation.

“We tackled this by bringing the heifers in before the cows, so the various changes took place over a longer period, giving the heifers more time to adjust. This has largely eliminated problems in early lactation,” says Richard.

“Virtually every farm has problems with mastitis, and we took steps to reduce the risks of environmental mastitis. We are hoping to install a back-flush system in our parlour, which will also help. Another planned change is provision of a footbath to help control digital dermatitis in cows’ feet, which has also been a problem from time to time.

“When they were housed, the cows were switching their tails to and fro suggesting they were too hot, so we removed alternate boards on the side of the cattle housing to improve ventilation. They are now much more settled.

Energy levels

“There were also some concerns about energy levels in cows during the dry period, which could cause stomach problems. On the advice of our vet we bought a blood testing machine so we can check energy levels and adjust feeding accordingly.

“Apart from our own herd, we are finding that prospective buyers of our pedigree heifers are more and more asking about our health management and vaccination programme, so the higher health standards are helping these sales.”

Robin agrees, saying: “Taking part in the programme has improved the health of our herd, which in turn means greater longevity of our cows. That means fewer replacements are needed and we will have more stock to sell.

“So far our culling rate has been about 25-30 per cent per year, but for the first two years after restocking we had only cows on the farm, so we have probably reached the stage where less culling will be needed.”

Routine

Richard says: “Since the project, our relationship with our vet has become closer. We now have routine visits from our vet every fortnight, primarily to check fertility but also to check for any other problems. We also use the services of a ‘freelance heat checker’ for our cows. Watching for heats is time consuming and with just the two of us we feel that this is a good investment.”

Alongside the health care changes, herd feeding has also developed with the help of BOCM Pauls nutritionist Martin Helliwell.

In 2008 the trough feeding was based on chopped straw, yeast and C16 fats. This was replaced with a blend of supergrains, maize meal, protected rape and wheat feed, fed alongside grass silage.

Yeast is now fed in the parlour and out-of-parlour high energy/low protein compounds. Dry cows are fed big bale silage plus a dry cow cob three weeks before calving. The cob includes selenium and vitamin E.

The dairy herd is grazed during the summer with a partly mixed ration, now fed four weeks before housing rather than at housing, to ease the transition to winter management. This has also helped boost winter milk protein levels.

The feeding programme is designed to give a shallower but longer lactation curve, taking off some of the pressure associated with high peak yields and assisting fertility. This has paid dividends in that average milk sales per cow have risen from 9,090 litres in January 2008, to 10,117 litres last month.

When asked if taking part in the herd health project was worthwhile, the answer from both Robin and Richard is an emphatic ‘yes’, but only because they were prepared to learn.

“It is no good just making changes after a project like this and then just going back to your old ways,” says Richard.

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