Farmers Weekly Awards 2025: Livestock Adviser of the Year

A laser-like focus on data to help his dairy farmer clients boost milk yields and trim costs while also looking to help train staff has seen Peter O’Malley win the Farmers Weekly 2025 Livestock Advisers of the Year Award.

The Somerset-based vet takes a holistic approach to his work, from scanning the latest TB tests to setting up health protocols to guide farm staff and helping with smooth succession.

See also: FW Awards: Meet the 2025 Livestock Adviser of the Year finalists

Preparing protocols on areas such as drying off cows and dealing with toxic mastitis helps staff take more day-to-day responsibility, leaving Peter more time to look to the future.

This focus on education and training of staff, often with no farming backgrounds, has helped cut overall vet costs per litre of milk for many of his dairy farming clients.

Peter’s approach for toxic mastitis is that cows do not need antibiotics, but rather sick cows need plenty of fluids, with their milk immediately stripped out and anti-inflammatories used.

Monitoring ear tags can warn of early signs of toxic mastitis and then farm staff look to see if the suspect cow is off-colour and appearing “slightly drunk”, and so they can be quickly treated.

Peter has worked with FAW Bakers, in Somerset, since 2019, and has been the farm’s primary vet since 2021.

His staff training has helped drive down the vet spend/litre of milk to a low of 0.92p/litre, with many other farms more than 1p/litre.

Client relationship

The Bakers’ operation is run by father Neil Baker and his children Rhian, Jamie and Scott.

Peter’s data-driven approach has helped the younger generation of the family take on a bigger role and bring in new recruits.

There are 30 dairy staff employed on the 1,200ha farm, milking 2,500 Holsteins three time a day and housed all year round. About 45% of cows are in their first lactations.

Jamie says: “Training is very important to us as we are recruiting from outside farming, and Peter has been useful in terms of basic training and then leading to more technical skilled training.”

Rhian says Peter has helped with the smooth transition of the day-to-day operation of the family business, and is helping the younger generation of the family take a bigger role in the business.

Technical knowledge

Antibiotics use has been cut by 22% in the past two years, while maintaining high milk production with low disease levels.

Good footcare has seen lameness down to 6% of the herd, thoracic lung scanning has pushed clinical pneumonia of calves below 5%, and no antibiotics are used when drying off cows.

Peter says: “The Bakers have an incredibly sustainable farming model with disease levels incredibly low, and this saves carbon due the very efficient production.”

Nearly half the herd are in their first lactations in a rapid expansion strategy, which accounts for the relative modest annual milk yield of 11,000 litres a cow, albeit on a rising trend, with 4.5% butterfat and 3.5% protein.

What the judges say

“Peter’s infectious energy and his enthusiasm for whatever he does is plain to see, to the advantage of farmers, staff and young vets. He is an essential factor in the success of his dairy clients.”