Livestock Farmer Focus: Paul Vicary has planning permission for the new dairy

Planning permission for our new dairy has been granted. I thought this this would leave us all excited, but instead we are left with trepidation.

The old unit is bursting at the seams and it will be another year before the unit is finished, by which time we will be milking 210 cows through a 12:12 parlour three times a day. This will be testing, but hopefully the building work will be the light at the end of the tunnel.

A new investment is always tricky. You spend the money and then increase output or increase and then spend. I feel we have gone the right way round, but find it painful to see the unit under so much pressure.

For example, we opened the new straw yard this week and were able to spread the cows out a bit more. You could feel the unit breathe a sigh of relief, with less bullying seen at the feed face despite there being the recommended 2ft/cow and fewer dirty cows lying in the passageways, despite the cubicle sheds being 10% under-stocked.

Individual group milking times have also been reduced, which I’m sure has contributed to the high levels of ulcers that we encounter. The new unit will hopefully not have any of these woes and cow welfare will improve considerably.

Milking times are a worry, so we are considering splitting the new shed to enable milking time to be reduced to less than an hour a group.

What am I to do with buying rape/soya? I have cover until January, but keep looking for a drop in price that never happens. We as farmers seem to be exposed to all of the risks in food production, but get no extra for being exposed to these risks. Could we start sending our milk buyers surcharges?