FARMERFOCUS
FARMERFOCUS
Sue & Andy Guy
Sue and Andy Guy farm
79ha (196 acres) on an
FBT in Notts. They are
expanding their 76-cow
pedigree high health status
Holstein herd which
averages 6900 litres
ONE of our New Year resolutions is to get to grips with the office work more promptly. We settled down this week to calculate the cost of rearing our replacement heifers.
When Sue worked on a pig farm as a student, she learned the importance of biosecurity and disease prevention. When we established the Lottabottle herd, we decided the benefits of maintaining a closed herd heavily outweighed the cost savings which may be made by running a flying herd. We bought 54 of the best, high health status cows we could afford and began breeding our own heifers.
So, pencil sharpened, we started to calculate (see table). Labour is a notional cost since we have no employed staff and depreciation on equipment is included in the cost of silage, so we do not write a cheque for £813. Nonetheless, it is sobering to think how much money is tied up in these heifers.
The best genetics are in the heifer yard, so the greatest improvement comes from breeding Holstein calves from these. Finding high type merit, easy calving bulls limits the choice and adds cost. We paid an average of £25/dose for semen last year, although we have reduced this by splitting some straws. When looking at the impact a few £s spent on AI has on the bottom line, we are less anxious to trim the semen budget.
There are enough heifers on the ground to fuel herd expansion up to 120. We have started to serve some of the lower performing cows with Belgian Blue semen. Hopefully, there will be a market for beef cross calves because shooting black-and-white bulls has been a heart rending job. *
Heifer costs
£
Heifer calf (from dairy herd) 150
Concs, mins & bedding 123
Vet and AI 51
Variable sundries 12
Forage costs (Silage and fert on grazing) 250
Rent 147
Labour (19.5 hrs at £5/hr) 98
Finance (6% interest) 55
Total costs 886
Calf sales (Heifer £150, bull £0 2% mortality rate) 73
Total cost of replacement heifer 813
Alan Montgomery
Alan Montgomery runs
a 300ha (750-acre) mixed
farm near Downpatrick, Co
Down, Northern Ireland.
As well as cereals and
potatoes, the farm supports
a 130-cow suckler herd,
800 breeding ewes and
1000 store lambs
JUST as our caseous lymphadenitis contact ram was given the all clear, a TB test revealed four reactors. As we farm in an area of high incidence, it is a position we have experienced in the past.
Fortunately, restricting the herd is no real hardship, as all stock is sold deadweight. Along with F&M, concessions on stocking rates and the TB coefficient applying, it will be interesting to see which of the two levels of extensification we will qualify for.
We are half way through early lambing. To date it has been a pleasure, owing to the mirror image of last years weather conditions. We have a smaller batch lambing earlier than usual due to 25 ewes, which had been sponged, second lambing last August.
We expect a few ewes to lamb this way, but the higher number doing so this year is a real bonus in times of excellent lamb prices. These lambs have been weaned and ewes joined with the ram again to hopefully produce three crops of lambs in two years.
To buy or not to buy: That was the question regarding store lambs this autumn. Signals suggested margins with purchased lambs would be slim. If F&M returned, regionalisation would be lost leaving uncertainty over prices. An announcement on a sheep link with BSE was imminent. Lambs were at least 50% dearer than previous years, and the French were asking for spinal cord removal.
In the end the heart won and lambs were bought, although not as many as I needed, as numbers simply were not there.
To compensate for reduced numbers on 11ha (27 acres) of swedes, concentrate levels were reduced to allow lambs to reach heavier weights without becoming too fat.
Grade 1 lambs – R3 and better – receive top price to 22.5kg. Indeed last weeks lambs – all males – averaged 22.4kg at £3.10 deadweight, leaving a worthwhile profit. *
JUST as our caseous lymphadenitis contact ram was given the all clear, a TB test revealed four reactors. As we farm in an area of high incidence, it is a position we have experienced in the past.
Fortunately, restricting the herd is no real hardship, as all stock is sold deadweight. Along with F&M, concessions on stocking rates and the TB coefficient applying, it will be interesting to see which of the two levels of extensification we will qualify for.
We are half way through early lambing. To date it has been a pleasure, owing to the mirror image of last years weather conditions. We have a smaller batch lambing earlier than usual due to 25 ewes, which had been sponged, second lambing last August.
We expect a few ewes to lamb this way, but the higher number doing so this year is a real bonus in times of excellent lamb prices. These lambs have been weaned and ewes joined with the ram again to hopefully produce three crops of lambs in two years.
To buy or not to buy: That was the question regarding store lambs this autumn. Signals suggested margins with purchased lambs would be slim. If F&M returned, regionalisation would be lost leaving uncertainty over prices. An announcement on a sheep link with BSE was imminent. Lambs were at least 50% dearer than previous years, and the French were asking for spinal cord removal.
In the end the heart won and lambs were bought, although not as many as I needed, as numbers simply were not there.
To compensate for reduced numbers on 11ha (27 acres) of swedes, concentrate levels were reduced to allow lambs to reach heavier weights without becoming too fat.
Grade 1 lambs – R3 and better – receive top price to 22.5kg. Indeed last weeks lambs – all males – averaged 22.4kg at £3.10 deadweight, leaving a worthwhile profit. *
Peter Delbridge
Peter Delbridge farms
162ha (400 acres) in the
Exmoor National Park, near
South Molton, Devon. The
farm is mostly permanent
grass, classed as less
favoured and
environmentally sensitive,
and all above 300m
(1000ft). It is stocked with
800 ewes, replacement
ewe lambs, 60 spring
calving sucklers and their
followers
SEEING the back of 2001, which will no doubt go down as agricultures annus horribilis, came as a relief. Surely things can only improve, but I seem to recall thinking the same for the last four or five years.
Father Christmas delivered me an early present in the shape of a Port Agric snacka feeder to pull behind the quad. This administers sheep feed in double handful heaps quickly and effortlessly.
It removes the need to empty water-filled troughs, half buried in mud and being flattened in the process by a mob of hungry ewes. In fact, it only took a couple of days to ask myself why I hadnt had one before.
With grass shrinking, first beneficiaries were ewes, offered 0.15kg/head of sugar beet during tupping and for four weeks after. I hope this will ensure a high percentage of eggs being implanted.
With finished lamb prices on the up, the super weather has also allowed remaining store lambs to be fed using the feeder prior to housing and ad lib feeding.
As we have had no movements on to the holding since early November, we are now able to sell lambs for export. These must be lean and at 250p/kg deadweight, this is not only a dramatic increase over the recent domestic trade, but at last covers cost of production.
However, lambs on the Continent are £4.20/kg deadweight so there is still room for prices to increase further.
No wonder an industry insider told us, at a ADAS meeting, that one supermarket was actively dissuading its dedicated abattoir from entering the export trade. It preferred to buy its lamb at a constant price of about £2/kg. Are these the people we are constantly told to build a meaningful trusting relationship with?
You can always tell when finished lamb prices are rapidly increasing because the BSE in sheep story does the rounds. I dont know whether it is cash strapped scientists or retailers and their processor chums who are behind the scare mongering but I know producers will undoubtedly feel the financial fall out. *
Richard Thompson
Richard Thompson farms a
325ha (800-acre) mixed
arable and dairy unit near
Kings Lynn, Norfolk. The
200 dairy cows average
6500 litres on a simple,
high forage system. They
are allocated 40ha (100
acres) of permanent
pasture, 44ha (110 acres)
of short term leys and maize
grown in the arable rotation
OUR cows went into Jersey mode during December ,with butterfat reaching 4.4% and protein 3.8% – despite being on a diet of just maize silage and protein blend.
It shows it doesnt matter too much what you feed stale cows. The milk quality did wonders for milk price, but unfortunately yield wasnt high.
Jan 8 was a momentous day for us. That afternoon was the first time we hadnt milked cows on the farm for over 30 years. In the morning we dried off remaining cows and closed the parlour down. Twenty of the cows were dried off rather early, but I couldnt see the point of keeping the parlour going just for a few stale cows. The parlour will now be steam cleaned and serviced.
This all coincided with the arrival of 58 in-calf heifers from a farm in Lincs. So every animal is now on our dry cow ration, which consists of 15kg maize silage, 1kg of protein blend and dry cow minerals fed through the feeder wagon, plus ad-lib straw.
We have spent a lot of time in the last few months planning for the start of block calving. Because there will be about 120 cows calving in February, we have been trying to plan the logistics and foresee potential problems before they arise during the height of calving.
Although we struggled to find a block calving herd in our area, a dairy that had calved large numbers of cows in a month was finally located and they were kind enough to show us round.
As a result, we picked up several useful tips. One was to have a separate post-calving yard, which will contain cows 1-4 days after calving. This will allow them to be milked through the parlour at the end of milking, rather than going through the dump line individually. It will also mean we can keep a close eye on them, pampering them in their first days after calving.
There is an air of quiet around the dairy at the moment, with no milking. It is a case of the calm before the storm. *