FARMER FOCUS: Autumn calving has gone well

Many of us are keen to make sure our staff are adequately trained to undertake the roles that we expect of them, but how many of us review our own skills set and ability to manage our businesses?

This was the opportunity afforded to me by the Alta U dairy management school in Wisconsin last month.

An intense five-day course, incorporating 11-hours a day of lectures, was shared with 13 other progressive dairy managers from countries as diverse as Sudan.

I was left in no doubt about the value of timely and knowledgeable decision making, along with structured and effective people management. We will see how much of the theory I can now apply at home.

Autumn calving has gone well, with the kind weather allowing healthy calves to be born outside. Losses have been minimal. To date, we’ve had only three dead on arrivals out of 191 calved, and just seven cows yet to calve as we approach the nine-week completion point.

The cows have milked well, with plenty of grazed grass available to them and it will be interesting to see how they adapt to the silage that was cut later than usual due to the delayed spring.

Spring calvers are approaching the end of their lactations and very soon we shall be able to analyse the success of our experiment to select our 200 highest protein percentage cows to be milked and managed separately.

This is to try and make the most of a First Milk solids contract, feeding milk directly into the Haverfordwest creamery.

Cows were selected on a late June milk test to commence production on 1 July. Although on average the 200 cows were 0.3% higher for protein in July, the remainder of the herd now seem to have caught them up through the later part of their lactation.

Will Prichard manages the family’s 1,250 cows and followers on four sites in north Pembrokeshire. A grassland and block-calving enthusiast, he operates two spring and two autumn calving herds and also breeds and sells Wagyu beef

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