Steve Brown discusses vet advice and cow space
For consecutive days in March, I had two interesting farm visits to hear two well-known vets discuss cow behaviour and potential risk areas for the housed cow. It was nice to concentrate fully on the vet’s advice without one eye on the clock worrying about the cost for their time.
In an ideal world, cow housing would be like Darlington Football stadium, which has about 25,000 seats, but a stocking density of about 10%. However, as with the football club, such luxury could prove financially unviable. At Hopper House, we could comfortably carry about 30 more cows across our robots and cubicles (with numbers in milk only up to about 170 at present), but trough space – which seems to be the current flavour of the month – is already supposed to be a limiting factor.
It seems the elbow room the cow requires should be the equivalent to that available in a typical English pub in the middle of the week – once again, such low stocking density at the bar is proving financially unsound for many pubs.
Such meetings give plenty of food for thought, and back home the compromise is between the checklist of possible things to do and the cheque book to pay for them. After a critical appraisal of housing, perhaps the best option is to think about turning cows out.
I also found myself by some strange quirk of fate addressing a roomful of Promar consultants on what the farmer expects to get from the service on offer. The conversation at one point turned to how the way in which the farm business secretaries gather data had changed over the years. I asked Roger – a senior business secretary – how information was collected and processed before the invention of the laptop and e-mail.
He replied: “Back in the old days, on farms including yours, I had to use my Dictaphone.” While such multi-tasking should be applauded, I couldn’t help wondering why my mother hadn’t insisted he used his finger to dial like everyone else.
Farmer focus: Steve Brown
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