Farmer Focus: Impressed Red Tractor with mastitis rates
© Jeff Holmes The one good thing about taking time off to recuperate just before our farm assurance inspection was being more organised in the office than I’ve ever been.
For a change, everything was to hand, which meant it went very smoothly.
I’m glad, however, that I got our vet practice to collate our antibiotics use for the past 12 months, as the inspector struggled to believe how low it was.
See also: Cut in mastitis saves 460-cow herd more than £23,000
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I’m saying this while touching wood, but we don’t have many cases of mastitis at all – five for every 100 cows.
It’s testament to the Jersey breed and attention to detail from the team here.
Our thoughts are beginning to turn to spring in Ayrshire. All our winter wheat has had its first dressing of fertiliser this week to hopefully kick it into gear.
We’ve also managed to spread some slurry onto silage fields with the umbilical system and are waiting for the contractor to get back to us to get the rest done.
It’s even dried up enough to get onto fields with the tanker, but it’s a soul-destroying job bouncing in and out of them when you know there’s an easier way.
I celebrated my 40th birthday on 29 February, and the enthusiasm for sitting in a tractor all day is not what it was.
All youngstock sheds have been mucked out, and there’s a huge pile in one of the empty silage clamps ready to be spread onto stubbles for spring wheat.
I’ve decided to go with wheat this year, which will be wholecropped to try to get some more energy into the milking diet for next winter.
Cows haven’t performed quite as well as I’d like over the winter, probably because I tried to drive milk from grass too heavily in the autumn.
That said, I’m looking forward to getting a bit of extra cheap protein into them in the next couple of weeks, if the weather allows, to get started zero-grazing.
The 100-day pregnancy rate is 51% and calving interval is 381 days. Milks solids are 6.55% butterfat and 4.2% protein, but yield is only 19.8 litres a cow a day.
We’ve calved 25 heifers in the past month and they’re performing well. Unfortunately, 56% were in-calf to a Jersey bull via natural service.