Dairy conversion trebles output by focusing on milk from grass

Grassland management and rotational grazing are at the heart of a dairy conversion bringing a spring-calving herd of 800 cows to the windswept north-west coast of Anglesey.

Pushing for high components from an extensive grazing system has enabled Anglesey farmer Johnjo Roberts to effectively treble the output of Mynachdy Farm, Llanfairynghornwy.

Mynachdy has been converted from a 190ha sheep-and-beef operation to a 250ha dairy farm, on a total land mass of 410ha, stretching from rocky coastal cliffs and outcrops to free-draining medium loams and heavier clay soils, interspersed with gorse bushes and forestry.

Having seen several good systems in his capacity as a qualified rural surveyor in the region, Mr Roberts voiced interest in a dairy conversion to a business consultant, who suggested drawing on the experience of Cheshire farmer Mat Venables as an operator well versed in spring-calving, extensive dairying.

Reseeding the farm has doubled the productive land’s cow-carrying capacity, explains Mr Roberts, who made the switch to dairy mid-2014.

“Mat translated the farm as it stood as a sheep enterprise and calculated it was capable of running almost 400 cows as it was,” says Mr Roberts.

“I didn’t have confidence in the previous system I was running with the sheep. I felt a system could be better matched to the holding, which was when I mentioned my plans to a business consultant.”

The original farm ran a mixed flock of 1,500 ewes and 120 beef cows plus followers, but the set-stocked system magnified the effect of dry conditions on the farm, admits Mr Roberts.

He says the rotational grazing system now in place minimises the effects of summer drought – the “biggest limitation” to a spring-calving system.

Converting ‘lock, stock and barrel’

Pasture establishment work began in the summer of 2014. Within 24 hours of a glyphosate application, land was drilled and rolled, with nitrogen applied at 20kg/ha to help rot the sward.

Laboratory reports of soil samples taken from every field showed which area required different fertiliser applications.

“The land and farm was in good heart from the original stocking,” says Mr Venables, adding that cobalt and selenium deficiencies and potassium and phosphorous levels have been small matters to manage, with all of the land testing above 6pH.

© Johnjo Roberts/Germinal

Some fields required additional phosphorous and potash at 25:25 or 20:30, according to the soil report. This was in addition to annual nitrogen applied at 220kg/ha.

The 2014 grass leys totaled 150ha, with 70ha drilled in 2015 and a further 30ha planned for this year. Grassland establishment costs amounted to £309/ha and yielded 15.5t DM/ha in the first year, with best performance at 19.5t DM/ha after budgeting for 12t DM/ha.

“The establishment cost was for the seed, rolling, spraying and drilling,” explains Mat. “Seed prices have significantly fallen for 2016 and about half of the establishment cost is the grass seed.”

Grass varieties were chosen on their ability to deliver good shoulder growth and were rated among the highest for DM yields and grazing system suitability. Clovers were sown at 3.7kg/ha and grasses – mostly Aber varieties- at 34.5kg/ha, mixing a diploid and a tetraploid.

Introducing heifers

Genetics centre on Friesian cross Jerseys averaging 450kg liveweight. A total of 680 in-calf heifers were delivered on wagons to Mynachdy from Cheshire and Ireland.

Cattle were wormed, given liver fluke treatments and then vaccinated for IBR, leptosprirosis, BVD, rotavirus and given a 10-in-one treatment for clostridial diseases.

Barring a small cell count issue in some fresh heifers, the SCC has been at 70,000, with a bactoscan of 25. At first, heifers were introduced to the reseeded leys, before being outwintered on fodder beet and silage bales. They were kept in five separate groups.

“This was as much for the workload and logistics as anything else,” says Mr Roberts. “In January, close-calving cows were drafted to create a calving group and at this point they became a herd for the first time.”

© Johnjo Roberts/Germinal

Cows were selected from the Irish Economic Breeding Index (EBI) tables and will be crossed with Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) genetics from New Zealand.

“High-EBI cattle are specialists for the spring-calving system and Moorepark in Ireland is probably the biggest research facility for the system we are running. We are hoping to match liveweight to kilogrammes of milk solids by the third lactation, expecting 4,500-5,000 litres at that point,” Mr Venables explains.

In their first year on the farm, the Mynachdy herd averaged 3,900 litres, equating to 325kg MS a cow a lactation. Milk is sold on a manufacturing contract, with solids at 8.5%.

“Everything on the farm is a heifer, so we can’t push them too hard to match their liveweight,” explains Mr Venables.

Simple and replicable

The new venture has shown how replicable the spring-calving system is, according to Mr Roberts.

“Originally we decided to have 500 cows, but with 300 more the infrastructure cost didn’t change in terms of the parlour, tracks, water fences and the reseed,” explains Mr Roberts.

“In principle it works by having the right stocking density to harvest the grass you can grow.”

• Round 1: Calve 1 February – aim to graze 30% of farm in February
• Aim to graze 70% of farm in March
• Finish round 1 by 28 March
• Round 2: 21 days, growing to a 30-day round by August/early September
• October: graze 60%
• November: graze 40%
• Pull off the platform on 1 December

Cows are then outwintered on rented land on a neighbouring farm, with silage rations budgeted at 1.2t DM a cow for the two-month dry period before calving starts again in February, with DM covers opening at 2,500kg DH/ha.

“Our coastal position and the gulf stream mean we get very few frosts here,” says Mr Roberts. “Daily winter growth can achieve 8-10kg DM/ha.

“A reseed should not be necessary providing the grazing management works well.”

Pastures are measured and recorded weekly while pasture breaks are 12-24 hours, and never more than 36, he adds. “We always aim to hit residual cover, even if it means returning for an hour or two.”

Parlour-fed mineralised corn and a bolus at drying off help balance diets, explains Mr Venables. Herd blood mineral levels are tested twice a year to prevent issues stemming from the farm’s low cobalt and selenium levels.

Cows are outside year-round at Mynachdy, with calves born outside between 1 February and 28 March stomach tubed three litres of colostrum in the first six hours, with bull calves sold to local beef farms.

The herd is split between high and low yielders, with low yielders – milked once a day – grazing outlying pasture and walking the furthest – up to 4km/day. The 46 swing-over parlour can milk 300 cows an hour and switches on at 5am, with a typical workday planned to finish at 5pm.

“We try to gear the farm to work on a 12-hour day if we can,” says Mr Roberts, who has gone from working with 1.5 self-employed contractors to managing a workforce of five staff plus relief cover.

“People are important and it is important the directors in the partnership are aligned. Initially, all labour and contractors used in the conversion were local and we have mainly used local hands from Anglesey on the farm. Managing them is pretty simple, with a one-off, one-on weekend rota in place.”