dairy farmer august 2011

DAIRY FARMERForward thinking for a profitable future September 2011

DAIRY DEBATE: Join us and our panel of experts on our stand both days 2-3pm full details p18

Treat everyday mastitis with Metacam.

LIVES ARE AT STAKE.

20mg/ml *Penethamate hydriodide. Reference: 1. McDougall et al. J. Dairy Sci (2009) 92:4421-4431.2. Bryan, M.A. BCVA 2009 presentation, Southport. Based on Dairy Co. Datum 2009.Advice on theuse of Metacam or other therapies should be sought from your veterinary surgeon. Metacam containsmeloxicam. Prescription only medicine. Further information available from Boehringer IngelheimVetmedica, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 8YS, UK. Email: [email protected] of preparation: Jun 2011. AHD6758. Use Medicines Responsibly (www.noah.co.uk/responsible).

www.mastitis.co.uk/metacamCattle

A large scale (n=727) landmark study clearly demonstrates that routine use of Metacam with an antibiotic,* to treat farmer-diagnosed mastitis, significantly reduces somatic cell counts and culling rates.1 With proven financial benefits,2 can anyone afford NOT to include Metacam in their mastitis treatments now?

Long-acting treatment. Longer-life milkers.

Inside this issue

Dairy Event special previewPages 17-61

Win this crush!Page 20

On farm featurePages 10-11

Dairy debatePanel: John Allen, DavidHandley, Kenny Campbelland Mansel Raymond

***DF Sep Cover 12/8/11 11:29 Page 1

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CONTENTS

1DAIRY FARMER SEPTEMBER 2011

Vol 58 No 9 September 2011

News and commentNews review 2 Cowmen comment 4On farm 10Potters View 12 Conference 14

Dairy Event previewIntroduction 18Milk 22Breeding 30 Forage & grassland 38Health & nutrition 44Machinery 52Finance 60

RegularsWorkshop tips 62Good Evans 68

NEXT MONTH

Breeding & fertility

In this issuePrice transparency...

Two releases thudding onthe desk this week co-incidentally highlight thedeep concerns currentlyfacing producers.

Firstly, M&Ss announcement toincrease its price by 2.307ppl to31.73ppl takes us through thepsychological barrier and sets thepace for others.

But its not so much theheadline grabbing price as thesentiment behind it. According tothe companys press statement:Our Milk Pledge Plus paymentmodel has been developed toremove the uncertainty of pricefluctuations so that our farmershave greater security and confid-ence in the future and iscalculated transparently on anagreed formula that is based onobjective indices covering inputcosts and the movement of thetotal market.

Wow, well that hits virtually allthe right buzz words in one fell

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Editor

swoop and must seem a utopiandream to others savaged by pricesset to ignore the strength of thecommodity market.

Which brings us onto DairyCosmargins report which showedthat producers milk price went upby 5% whereas the marketindicator AMPE, reflecting returnsfrom the butter and powdermarket, went up by 31%.

With that sort of disparity it notsurprisingly refers to a disconn-ection between commodity andfarmgate price movements, andsays for a sustainable dairyindustry the key issue is thatconditions within the supply chaindo not disadvantage farmers inthe long term.

Well the fact that punditsreckon there may be 2-3ppl stilllurking out there not yet findingits way into producer pocketssounds like a pretty big disad-vantage, and something whichunder its asymmetric price

transmission may now distinctlyqualify as long term.

At the end of the day, all prod-ucers want, whether they beliquid or commodity suppliers, is asustainable future and paymentbased on a transparent system.

Now thats not too much to askfor surely?

PPSS:: MILK DEBATE DETAILS p18.

***DF Sep p1 Contents 12/8/11 12:33 Page 1

2 DAIRY FARMER SEPTEMBER 2011

NEWS

Lack of confidenceto invest in dairying D

airy farmer confidencecontinues to nose divewith 13% planning toleave the industry inthe next two years,

compared with a predictivefigure of 9% last year.

Thats the findings of thelatest DairyCo survey of dairyfarmer intentions, or putanother way the prediction isthat 2.2 dairy farmers areplanning to leave the sectorevery day compared with apredicted rate of 1.6 per day inthe 2010 survey.

This is coupled with areduction in the number of dairyfarmers planning to increase

production 31% comparedwith 35 per cent in 2010 whichpoints to a 4% fall in GB milkproduction over the next twoyears.

DairyCo says using theestimated milk production figurefor the 2010/11 milk year of11.4bn litres as a basis ofcalculation for 2011/12, this wouldequate to a fall of 456m litres to11.0bn litres by 2012/13. Whichmeans that Kite Consultingsrecent prediction of a possibleoutput of 15 billion litres by 2020could be hard to meet.

Interestingly only a smallpercentage of dairy farmers citedmilk buyer contracts as a major

threat or challenge, with 54%indicating that they are happywith their contract, although56% highlighted milk price as aconcern.

Only 6% of GB farmerssurveyed in 2011 plan to investmore than 250,000 over thenext five years. This represents athree percentage point drop onlast year.

Perhaps not surprisingly,those producers with a retailer-aligned contract also have moreconfidence in the future, with41% planning to increaseproduction compared to 29%of those on non-alignedcontracts.

Welsh milk Patriotic Welsh milk drinkerscan now buy their milk withthe guarantee it has beenproduced by Welsh cows andnever been trucked over theborder for processing. TheProper Welsh Milk Companyhas been set up and iscurrently offering Welsh milkin Tesco stores across NorthWales, but plans to extend thiswith supplies from five farmersnear its new plant at Whitland.

Call is rejected The New Zealand CommerceCommission has rejected callsfor an investigation ofwholesale and retail milkpricing practices in a marketthat is 90% dominated by theFonterra co-operative. Thisfollows a similar decision byAustralian consumer watch-dogs not to investigate milkpricing practices at thecountrys biggest supermarket,Coles.

ADF in Spain Since its launch in 2005, theAutomatic Dipping andFlushing system has beeninstalled on many UK units,but now the weak pound ismaking it attractive to overseasproducers as well. The teamhas just installed the first ADFsystem in Spain at a farm westof Barcelona. Engineers fittedthe system between milkingsof the 420-head herd into the24-point rapid exit parlour.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Milk price is notreflecting marketAS most producers feel only tookeenly, strong commodity pricesover the last year have not beenreflected in farm gate milk prices.

That has now been confirmedin DairyCos latest report whichsays milk prices increased by 5%compared with the previous 12months while returns frombutter and powders rose bymore than 30%. Report available atwww.dairyco.org.uk

TB tracing in CumbriaFOLLOWING the outbreak ofbovine TB near Penrith in Marchthis year there is growing farmerconcern the disease may becomeestablished in Cumbria.

Speaking at a recent Bowscarmeeting, the Animal Health andVeterinary Laboratories informedthe 40 attendees that they hadmanaged to identify the strain asspoligotype 10A which is comm-only found in Gloucestershirebut has also been found inCumbria before.

The clear message from theDefra agency was that they areworking hard to find where thedisease came from but thatthey require farmers help withidentifying vectors of thedisease. If farmers in the county haveany information about thePenrith outbreak or are aware ofactive badger setts in the area,they should contact AnimalHealth immediately on 01772861 144.

NFUS spreads the wordWEST Midlands producers weresaid to have met the NFUS milkpricing proposal with enthus-iasm following a presentationat Harper Adams UniversityCollege, Shropshire.

The NFUS initiative looks todeliver a more sustainable dairysupply chain. A key element isthe desire to see a transparentpricing formula based onexisting market indicators madea compulsory element ofcontracts between dairy farmersand milk buyers.

Milk policy manager GeorgeJamieson said: It presents anopportunity and not a threat to

processors and retailers alike, but itis built on the premise that theexisting status quo is not anoption.

The NFUS proposal ispotentially based on the existingmarket indicators of AMPE andMCVE to be incorporated into allmilk contracts.

AMPE (Actual Milk PriceEquivalent) is an estimate of theprice that dairy processors wouldpay for milk to manufacture intobutter and milk powder, whileMCVE (Milk for Cheese ValueEquivalent) is a benchmark of thevalue returned from processingmilk into mild cheddar.

Irish partnership worksto double dairy outputWITH plans to double milkproduction over the next 10years, Ireland has taken animportant step towards its goalof accelerating dairy productdevelopment to keep pace withthe anticipated increase in milkvolumes.

In the longer term this call forextra production could impacton the UK as the bulk of Irishdairy product exports go to theUK market.

Anticipating the abolition ofmilk quotas post-2015, the Irish

government and the Irish DairyBoard have entered a formalpartnership to support researchthey hope will ultimatelyboost the value of Irish dairyexports.

As a consequence a dairyinnovation centre has beenestablished at Teagasc FoodResearch Centre, Moorepark,where the team is currentlyworking on four new cheeseproducts. If successful, productideas would be scaled up andsold globally by the IDB.

***DF News p2,3 12/8/11 12:31 Page 1

NEWS


SURPRISE AS SUCKLER COW GIVES BIRTH TO FIVE CALVES

Record breaker? Countrywide customer Don Constable from Hinstock, Shropshire, was in for a surprisewhen his 10-year-old Belgian Blue cross suckler started to calve. After three had arrived his vet told himthere were two more to come all are alive and doing well!

OFT imposes fines

The Office of Fair Tradingannounced this week thatit has imposed finestotalling 49.51 million onfour supermarkets and five

dairy processors.Within hours of the fines being

imposed Tesco indicated that itmay mount a legal challenge.

The OFT found that Arla, Asda,Dairy Crest, McLelland, Safeway,Sainsbury's, Tesco, The CheeseCompany and Wiseman infringedthe Competition Act 1998 by co-ordinating increases in the pricesconsumers paid for certain dairyproducts in 2002 and/or 2003.

This co-ordination was achievedby supermarkets indirectly exchan-ging retail pricing intentions witheach other via the dairy processors the so called A-B-C informationexchanges.

The OFT found three infringe-

ments were committed, but not allcompanies were involved in allthree infringements.

Arla benefited from completeimmunity from fines as it appliedfor, and was granted, immunityunder the OFT's leniencyprogramme. Arla was the firstcompany to alert the OFT to theexistence of possible infringe-ments and the first to apply forleniency.

Asda, Dairy Crest, McLelland,Safeway, Sainsbury's, The CheeseCompany and Wiseman receivedreductions in their fines becausethey agreed to early resolution.Each of these parties admittedliability for the infringements andagreed to a streamlined procedureenabling parts of the case tobe resolved more quickly, thusreducing the costs of theinvestigation.

M&S set pacewith 31.73pplMARKS & Spencer has raisedmilk prices by 2.307ppl to31.737ppl for its 40 plus farmer suppliers, effective fromAugust 1.

Announcing the move, theretailer said the increasereflected the cost of productionas well as in-store pricemovements, and said it ensuredits suppliers remained in theupper reaches of the milk pricetable.

M&S said its Milk PledgePlus, with a cost of productionelement built into thecalculation, was especiallyimportant now as cost inflation(especially feed, fertiliser andfuel) escalates. It also meantproducers were not exposedto the full vagaries of thecommodity market.

MPs highlightpower imbalanceTHE European Commissionsproposed package of measuresfor the dairy sector will not solvethe UKs dairy sector problemsand Government must come upwith a strategy for the sector ifmore and more producers arenot to go to the wall.

That is one of the conclusionsof MPs on the CommonsEnvironment, Food and RuralAffairs Committee which hasexamined the proposals andwarns farmgate milk pricesremain below the average costof production.

The MPs call on the Govern-ment to ensure UK dairy farmersare offered written contracts byprocessors which specify eitherthe raw milk price or theprinciples underpinning theprice, the volume and timing ofdeliveries, as well as duration ofthe agreement.

Unless such contracts aremade compulsory, we believethere will be no improvement inthe system that currently meansour dairy farmers have littlecertainty over the price they willreceive for their milk, sayscommittee chair Anne McIntosh.

The Committee also arguesthe forthcoming abolition of EUmilk quotas coupled withgrowing global demand fordairy products creates a signi-ficant window of opportunityfor UK dairy production.

"To capitalise on thisopportunity, says Anne McIn-tosh, some core issues thatlead to low profitability must beresolved, not least the imbal-ance of bargaining powerbetween dairy farmers andbuyers.

***DF News p2,3 12/8/11 12:32 Page 2


COWMEN COMMENT

Ihave just had an operation onmy ankle so you find me thismonth laid up with one leg inthe air! The reason is because I got

stood on by a cow a few yearsago and it left me with damageto my foot which, over the lastfew years, has meant if I walk onunlevel ground I fall over like asack of spuds. Now this has oftenbeen blamed on excessivedrinking but on most occasionsthat would be wrong. Hopefullyafter this operation I wont befalling over half as much andnever because of a dodgy ankle,although I shall probablycontinue to use it as an excuse forany late night unsteadiness!

Mr Doctor has given meinstructions to do nothing, butright in the middle of harvestthere is not much chance of that.Somehow we managed to get areasonable quantity of first cut,more than last year, with a lot lessrain than we had last spring.Second cut got away slowly, butafter seven weeks was good andcropped well.

I opted for winter barley to usefor crimping this year, but got itwrong and it ended up too dry tocrimp so we will use it as dryrolled. Any wet wheat will becrimped and the rest is forwardsold. High wheat prices feel goodbut when the few wagon loadsthat I have to sell meet a feedtruck coming the other way upthe drive with compound at morethan 200 a ton, the feel goodfactor soon disappears.

The maize has recovered froma very shaky droughty start, andwith the dry spring I under-sowedthe spring barley with lucerne.The barley will be whole croppedand the lucerne might make anautumn cut, but I am promisedfive years of a crop which isdrought resistant and makesbetter silage than grass. Soundsok, but why is nobody elsegrowing it? We will see next yearif it was a good idea.

I am determined not to run outof forage, and I dont care even ifwe make a field clamp of silagesomewhere which ends up being

Falling over did not mean I was the worse for drink!

Tim GibsonTim Gibson farms in Bedale, North Yorkshire,milking 185 cows with three Lely robots. Thefarm produces 140 acres of combinablecrops and employs one man full-time. Timalso runs a separate dairy engineering andsupplies business from the farm.

left for a year or more. After twodry springs, more cows to feed andexpensive bought-in rations tokeep us ticking over, a few moreacres into forage are a goodinsurance policy in my book. Tohelp with this we have directdrilled the winter barley stubbleswith grazing rye to aim for acouple of cuts or grazes beforeploughing in for maize next spring.

As it happens, September 2011marks an anniversary at HuntersHill it marks 10 years of milkingwith robots. Ten years since theparlour was washed out for thelast time and sold for scrap a fewmonths later. Ten years which,although there are always thingsyou wish you had done differ-ently, there is honestly not much Iregret!

When I first wrote for DairyFarmer in 2000 I was asked topredict the dairy industry in 10years time. Well here we are andwhat has changed?

Acceptance of robotic milkingis now at an all time high, and Iboldly said thenmost cows would bemilked by robots.Well there certainlyis more but notmost. Uptake in theUK still lags wellbehind the rest ofEurope, but thedesire to opt for arobot is there nowbut it is just the milkprice and profitab-ility which is holding back the UK.

Total capital spend on robotictechnology is now dwarfing thatspent on new milking parloursright across Europe and NorthAmerica, although the initialcapital cost of a robot is greaterthan a parlour, so that can distortthe figures somewhat. On thewhole conventional milkingparlour manufacturers are nowbeing dragged into robotdevelopment to follow thespending that is occurring, butdealers and engineers are not askeen to change.

A leaflet has just been handdelivered to us from a semencompany with a new range of

robot friendly bulls. I have tolook at this two ways firstlywith a farmers hat on. In 10 yearsI have never yet bred or bought acow which the robot can notmilk, using any bull there was tobuy. Yet in another way, Iappreciate that allied companiesare realising the direction of theindustry and changing theirmarketing thinking.

Feed companies are a realexample of this. Having spentyears trying to find a feed adviserwho didnt want to just numbercrunch how to feed my cows andtry to tell me to do the imposs-ible, some companies have

jumped to embracenew technology.They have acceptedthat the manage-ment of the farmand the herd has tochange whenadopting a robotsystem, and so doesthe feeding andnutritional adviceand implementation.

On reflecting on10 years milking and beinginvolved with robots systems, myview of the next 10 years isdifferent to what it was 10 yearsprevious. I wont make a boldprediction all cows will be milkedby robots in 10 years time, butcertainly a large percentage ofthem will.

The main reason is becausethere are people in all walks oflife who embrace and acceptchange, and there are those whodont. In milking with robots it iswithout doubt down to thepeople involved and not themachine or cows.

Generally, I find the oldergeneration and the younger lads

accept robots. The older onesaccept change because they haveseen change and the younger ladsare accepting of technology andopen minded to changes.

What usually happens to thosethat take it on is that once up andrunning most farms go well forthe first 5 to 6 months and then,like clockwork, every farm hasthe blues. They worry becausecows dont appear to be trainingthemselves, milk yield has notrisen and people feel like theyhave made a mistake and areworking more not less. But comethe 7th month theyll have somecows calving down which had agood half of the previouslactation on the robot, and theyfind that they will hit the groundrunning. Its the same story I tellto everyone but again, like thestart up, they think it doesntapply to them and it will bedifferent, but it never is.

Education of the ways to run arobot farm is really important andagricultural colleges do to someextent need to wake up andchange the dated syllabuses whichstill refer to robot milking as thefuture. A college which believesthey need a parlour to teachstudents how to milk is now sadlyvery much mistaken.

Most of what you need toknow to operate a robot iscommon sense, and a case oflooking through the eyes of thecow rather than chasing its tail!

Total capital spend onrobotic technology isnow dwarfing thatspent on new milkingparlours right acrossEurope and NorthAmerica.

FARM SIZE: 350 acres COWS: 185 MILK: 8000 litres SOIL: Mostly stone and sand RAINFALL: 22ins MILK BUYER: Paynes Dairies.

Farm facts

***DF Sep p4 Gibson 11/8/11 09:04 Page 1

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COWMEN COMMENT

Christopher Murley farms in partnershipwith his parents and brothers at HigherBojewyan Farm on the north coast ofCornwall. They run 320 pedigree Jerseysaveraging 5900 litres at 5.9% fat and3.87% protein.

Partial DCAB dry cow ration seems to be working so far

Christopher MurleyWe were lucky to goclear of TBrestrictions in earlyJuly which was agreat relief. Having

initially had only one reactor afterbeing clear for many years wewere pleasantly surprised the twofollowing 60-day tests didnt showany lumps at all. Now we can sellsome cows and in-calf heifers totry and reduce our workload.

As we have been overstocked ithas put a lot of pressure on allparts of our business, not least onforage stocks and slurry storage,although the extra litres in thetank have been very welcome.With cow numbers at 320 it hasalso put a strain on spare room inthe cow yards, and herd averagehas dropped slightly mainlybecause we reduced overallconcentrate use owing to theprice increases.

On the plus side our milk fromforage has risen quite dramat-ically, helping generate slightlybetter margins. We have achievedmost of this from much better useof grazed grass and separating offonly the highest yielders for someTMR by night. Currently we have220 cows out by day with 170 ofthese out by night as well andonly fed concentrate in theparlour. That leaves the 50 groupthat are in by night on TMR.

At the moment we have 100dry cows which are housed andfed a partial DCAB diet which hasworked very well for us in thepast and so far seems to beworking well with no milk feverand very fit cows and calves. Mindyou, we have yet only calved 10so we hope it continues for theother 300. The dry cows are fedthe same diet for the entire dryperiod as shown in Table 1.

Second cut silage was completedat the end of June, two to threeweeks later than planned due tofoggy and damp weather whichwas very useful for the grazingground as we have had very littlerain this summer compared tonormal. (See Table 2 for silageanalysis). Unfortunately thefog/drizzle is only a temporaryreprieve because as soon as thesun comes out it dries up again.

Of the 180 acres of second cutwe squeezed 130 into the clampwith 28 acres of round bale grasshaylage and 22 acres of round balered clover haylage. The red cloveris trickier to get dry withoutturning. Weve found it best tomow into a wide dram and,weather permitting, leave for twodays and then to rake three intoone, leave for one day then baleand wrap. This way we minimiseleaf loss due to shattering.

Since second cut we have beenable to graze cows on 35 acres ofaftermaths, the first for manyyears which has allowed the cowsto have some fresh clean grassreducing the pressure at home.We graze this at night because itseasier to put cows across the roadin the evening owing to lessholiday traffic. So far in themorning weve only stopped onecar who happens to be a localstarting the early shift at thenearby bakery. Grazing this extraland has also made it easier toreseed some grass fields at home.So far we have done three fieldswith hopefully a few more in due

course. We have been using grassseed without clover to help weedcontrol in the first year, and wewill stitch in clover when clean atthe end of next summer.

You may remember back inspring we tried over seeding onthree fields. So far the grassdoesnt seem very successful butthe clover has been much better almost to the point of taking overfrom the grass on two fields. Onefield hasnt been successfuldespite being done exactly thesame and at the same time. Thisfield has been put on the fullreseed list!

This week we have takendelivery of next winters barleystraw. We dont know the priceyet but we anticipate in beingwell over 100/tonne. Some hasbeen local and some come fromSalisbury. Once our spring barleyhas been cut we will sow astubble turnips/typhon mix so thatwe can outwinter in-calf heiferswhich will reduce straw use, slurryand hopefully our workload!

SIZE: 144ha (355 acres) CROP: 22ha (55 acres) spring barley HERD: 320 pedigree Jerseys +replacements YIELD: 5900 litres, 5.9% F &3.87% P BACTOSCAN: 11 CELL COUNT: 127 MILK BUYER: Milk Link.

Farm facts

Slurry & dirty water.Contained.

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Table 1: Dry cow diet0.45kg dry cow mins0.075kg mag chloride1.5kg blend25kg grass silage2kg straw

Table 2: Silage analysis1st cut 2nd cut

ME 12 10.9D value 75 68Protein 15 13.5DM 35.6 58.7Sugar % 11.1 6.5Potential intake 125 125

***DF Sep p6 Murley 11/8/11 11:03 Page 1

DAIRY FARMER SEPTEMBER 2011

A N I M A L H E A L T Hw w w . b o l s h a w s . c o m

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DF_09_P07 11/8/11 09:07 Page 21

RE Buildings WP DF 11/8/11 09:08 Page 1

100% 90%80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%

2009 2010 2011

MASTITIS RESULTS


The third annual CobactanNational Mastitis Surveywas recently undertakenvia forms in Dairy Farmer,sister publication Farmers

Guardian and direct mail tofarmers.

More than 1300 individualstook the time to complete thequestionnaire, giving detailedinformation about their herds,the mastitis challenges they faceand how they manage milk andudder health.

Vet Andrew Biggs, from theVale Vet Centre, Tiverton, is anexpert on mastitis and has againcast his eye over the results tointerpret the trends, both goodand bad.

With three years of data from1300 farms in 2009, 1000 in 2010and 1300 again in 2011, we cansee how farmers are reacting tothe challenges they face today.

For example, much has beenwritten about increased herd sizes.Is this the case? And if so, whatimpact is this having?

Likewise, many commentatorsare concerned about the impactof fewer staff for more cows, butwhat is the reality on farm?

Herds from all areas of the UKwere represented (see graph 1),and although there does not seem

to be a significant change in herdsize (see graph 2), the regions allhave a greater proportion ofherds with higher milk yields.

No significant change wasunexpected and things really startto get interesting when you lookat milk harvested per milking unitin the parlour (LPU).

Graph 3 shows how herd yieldis greater per unit in higheryielding herds.

What this shows is that in herdswith yields greater than 10,000litres, a greater proportion ofherds report 100-150,000 LPU.More harvest 150-200,000 LPU andindeed this size of herd has thehighest milk harvest rate at morethan 250,000 LPU.

From a practical perspective it isnot surprising that, if throughgenetics and feeding, you manageto push yields up but you do notexpand the parlour in line withthese greater yields, then youmust harvest more milk per unit.

What is the probable impact ofthis? More milk per unit meansmore wear and tear on theparlour, increased liner hours, cowsstanding for longer, and probablymore man-hours per milking.

These are all factors that can,and do, impact on cow health, milkand udder health and lameness.

The 2011 National Mastitis Survey how does your herd match up?

Cows standing for longer meanslameness may be increased and, asthey are not eating, their drymatter intake is reduced, whichcould lead to a number ofassociated problems such asnegative energy balance andreduced fertility.

Vets normally refer to mastitisrates as quarter cases per 100cows, and the national targetfigure is 40 to 50 quarter cases per100 cows per year.

A figure much above thatmeans there is a mastitis issue onyour farm. Comparing theinformation submitted in 2009with 2011, there is an increase inthe proportion of herds in the 26-50 cases per 100 cow group 35%in 2009 as compared to 42% in2011 (see graph 4).

Overall, bulk milk somatic cellcounts have varied slightly withthe 2011 stats showing moreherds in the 200-250,000 cells perml group, but variation hasgenerally been slight.

A greater proportion of lowBMSCC herds always foremilk.Foremilking is recommended aspart of the milking routine, andthis finding seems to indicate thereis a good reason for doing so.

The survey clearly shows that asmore litres are produced permember of staff, BMSCC climbs.Likewise, the more cows permember of staff, the higher theBMSCC. Is this a case of less timeand attention per cow? It is hardto say categorically, but this isperhaps a logical conclusion todraw.

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Graph 1: Respondents per region (shown as a %)

WalesSouth/SWScotlandNorthern IrelandNorth/NWEast/Midlands

2009 2010 2011

100% 90%80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%

100% 90%80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%

Graph 2: No significant change in herd size

Graph 3: LPU increases with herd yield

Graph 4: Mastitis rates (cases/100 cows)

Pre milking disinfectionYear No Yes Grand Total 2010 397 549 (58.0%) 9462011 388 829 (68.1%) 1217Grand Total 785 1378 2163

Survey summary

More farms disinfect pre-milking (seetable). Still 35% say they dont do bacterio-logical testing! Bacteriology is very impor-tant in understanding the mastitis chal-lenge for your herd. Herds that dip (pre- or post-milking)

tend to have lower BMSCC than thosewho spray. Tube usage per case remains atbetween 4-6. There was an increase inStaphylococcus aureus & Streptococcusuberis in higher SCC herds.

Over 1,000500-1,000251-500101-25051-1001-50

10,000

>250k150-250k100-150k50-100kup to 50k

Over 200101-20051-10026-501-25

2009 2010 2011

Mastitis cases

Herd yield (litres per unit)

Region

HS band

***DF Sep p9 Mastitis 12/8/11 11:29 Page 1


ON FARM

Good quality forage andlots of it that is thefundamental elementof Stuart Yarwoodsapproach to profitable

cow management.The Yarwood family farm 400

cows on two units near Congle-ton, Cheshire, but Stuart andStephanie Yarwood and sonAndrew run the 250-strong herdat Lower Medhurst Green Farm.

Weve gradually moved from alow-cost, self-feed silage system,where we strip-grazed grass andmixed our own rations, to onethat relies on producing highquality forages, but now feedsmore concentrates and is prod-ucing a lot more milk, saysStuart.

There was a time 15 years agowhen Id be happy to tell peoplewe fed a flat-rate of 8kg per cowin the parlour and provided 6kgof that off the farm. We wererunning a tight ship and prod-ucing 6000 litres off just over one

Setting out to make best use of home-grown forage Despite vastly increased yields over the past few years, Cheshire producer Stuart Yarwood is still as committedas ever to taking a good proportion of that milk from forage. Jeremy Hunt went to find out more.

tonne of corn and getting justover 4000 litres from the forage,he adds and admits he thenbelieved producing 4000 litresfrom forage was the holy grail but things have changed.

ConcentratesNow were averaging just under9000 litres and feeding more thantwo tonnes of concentrate but

were still getting around 4000litres from the forage. In myopinion, theres still profit to bemade milking a cow that willrespond to a higher level ofconcentrates but is managed on adiet which provides her with ahigh level of good quality forageand grazed grass.

Stuart and Andrew are reluct-ant to push for more yield. If itgoes any higher it will put extrapressure on cows at grass insummer when some are givingmore than 50 litres and getting12kg of cake a day, explainsAndrew.

We buffer feed with forageuntil mid-June and try and stretchthis out for as long as we can, butonce the buffer feeding stops itsasking a lot of the cows if wepush them for more yield, hesays.

This has not been an easy grass-growing year even though theYarwoods cows were out in theday from mid-March. By late June,

two cuts of grass silage had beentaken, and by the end of theseason there will be at leastanother two more in the clamps.

Four cuts is the norm for usand I think it will become thenorm for a lot more milkproducers in areas where itspossible to exploit grass to its fullpotential. I think well even seefive cuts taken on some farms,adds Stuart.

Taking two cuts before the endof June enables a more relaxedapproach to grazing. It meanswe can let the cows be moreselective about grazing, ratherthan keeping them nailed downin a paddock, he says.

Yield groupsThe herd is split into two groups high and low yielders which theYarwoods believe helps achievemore efficient utilisation of grass,particularly in spring.

We can buffer some of thehigh-yielding cows when the grassis still short in March. Were usinggrass as a concentrate at this timeof year because weve got ourmain sight set on keeping groundshut up for our first-cut silage,declares Stuart.

We want cows to go out andtake say 10-12 litres off grass andthat lets us pull back on concen-trates in the parlour.

By keeping the herd split,weve got more control over whogets what in terms of grass.

Low yielders follow the highyielders around the farm. Wedont have many in the low-yielding group giving below 18

Despite yields going up to just under 9000 litres, Stuart Yarwood is stilllooking to take 4000 litres from forage.

Stuart and Andrew Yarwood run the 250-head herd which, along withthe calves, meets the welfare criteria imposed by their Tesco contract.

***DF Sep p10 11 On Farm 11/8/11 12:48 Page 1

ON FARM


litres, but when the grass is worth18 litres, we want to avoid cowseating grass that their yielddoesnt justify.

The highs and lows are puttogether from the beginning ofMay at the time of first-cut, saysStuart, who was taking around 18litres off forage grazed grassand a buffer feed of grass silageand wholecrop from mid-April.

No grass silage fed last winterwas under 11ME. Cows areoffered 45kg/head/day of a mix offorages, which includes 8-10kg ofwholecrop and 4kg of blend.

The wholecrop has a dilutioneffect on the protein, so we aimto get the outside ration toaround 16% and balance thatwith an 18% cake in the parlour.

We feed up to 8kg of cake inthe parlour in winter and up to12kg in summer because wehavent got the acid load to copewith from the silage.

By mid-June, the all-year-roundcalving herd was averaging 30litres/cow/day.

But as consumer awarenessheightens, this Cheshire herd istaking every opportunity to meetthe highest standards of cowwelfare to satisfy premium price

supermarket milk contracts.The farms milk is supplied to

Tesco. Weve got a good teamworking here and at my brotherRichards farm, and were allembracing the standards requiredto meet the criteria of the Tescocontract, explains Stuart.

Red TractorIts presenting us with a challe-nge. As a keen NFU man, I believethe Red Tractor is a benchmarkthat represents a high standard ofproduction, and one that isrecognised by retailers.

The main supermarkets want

to ratchet things up to a newlevel. Tesco is driving forward itsmilk production criteria based oncow welfare mobility, mastitis,fertility and calf rearing. Ifsupermarkets adopt a marketingstrategy for milk based oninforming the public they areselling milk produced from cowsmanaged to the highest standardsI agree with that, rather thantrying to boost sales by retailingmilk as a loss-leader.

Its important we, as farmers,have the opportunity to educatethe public about cow welfare,rather than them getting that

information from outside theindustry, he says.

Slurry storage capacity at LowerMedhurst Green Farm has beenincreased by around 60% to1.4m litres by extending anexisting earth bank store.

Working with the EnvironmentAgency, the extension cost around50,000 and provides up to sevenmonths storage.

Were on clay soil and the sitewas suitably situated to usegravity to move slurry from thebuildings to the store, so therewas no need for a pump. It wasby far the cheapest option, saysStuart, who aims to produce 4-5%dry matter slurry.

When we constructed theextension, we took great carewhen the top soil was removed. Itwas stacked separately so it couldbe replaced to help the top of thelagoon become stabilised andencourage grass coverage.

According to Andrew Penton ofthe Environment Agency: Allstorage structures should be builtto have a 20-year life expectancyand be more than 10m awayfrom watercourses. Farmers mustinform us of any new structurebefore it is used.

The slurry lagoon has been extended to cope with cow numbers.

***DF Sep p10 11 On Farm 11/8/11 12:49 Page 2


POTTERS VIEW

This month Ian Potter looks at the liquid market, wonders at the growing riftbetween DC and DCD, and keeps DairyCo and Dairy UK firmly in his sights.

Ian PotterIan is a specialist milk quotaand entitlement broker.Comments please to [email protected]

How liquid market isfailing our producers

Direct supply contractshave increasinglycrossed my radar inrecent months, such asFirst Milks Eilers and

Wheeler (FM/EW) contract andsome from Dairy Crest.

The FM/EW contract, which Iknow was taken by one 20,000-plus litre a day man, guaranteedhim a net price of more than30ppl for a three-month period,including a volume bonus.

Its a tempting market-relatedprice, more akin to the level mostproducers feel they should beachieving in the current market.

Then theres Dairy Crest, whichis certainly keen to secure (orretain) a greater literage on directsupply. Normally this recruitmentwould have been carried outexclusively through DC Direct(DCD), but DC is now recruitingfarmers outside of the DCD family.

I am not clear where this milkprocurement policy leaves DCD,other than weakened (like TheWiseman Milk Partnership in itsrecent spat) and with a fight onits hands to avoid being sidelinedor even ditched.

DCs milk procurement strategyhas significantly changed with theoffer of special one off deals toselected farmers aroundDavidstow. Three large producersI have spoken to all claimdifferent prices around 30ppl.

Other groups of farmers havebeen offered similar deals, allunder the basis they have signedconfidentiality agreements, butwith one exception they areallowed to tell me!

The evidence from the DairyCoSupply Chain Margins reportconfirms liquid processors havehad their margins seriouslysqueezed.

The report, once again,confirms retailers make a healthymargin from milk, while farmersand processors are squeezed hard.So far the cheapest is believed to

Central Suffolk and North Ipswich,as reported in my July article (seewww.ipaquotas.co.uk and click onWestminster Discussion).

Director General of Dairy UK,Jim Begg, put a blustering pen topaper in response, stating thatnormal practice in the UK is forcontracts to leave pricing to thediscretion of milk buyers, withone of the reasons stated for this

evolution ofcontracts being thefact dairy farmersneed to sell theirmilk on a daily basis.In other words,youve been got bythe short n curlies.

Dairy UK statedthat unless milkpurchasers continueto pay a competitive

price, farmers will resign. Thatmay be the case with three-monthnotice period contracts, such asthose operated by Wiseman andMcLelland, but this is not anoption for those on up to 21months notice.

Sorry Jim, but your claim thatmilk purchasers continually adjusttheir prices to ensure they are inline with market developments,are competitive and the market isoperating effectively to protectfarmers is not backed by reality.

Liquid milk purchasers adjustprices so they remain competitivein comparison to other milkprocessors, not in relation tomarket developments.

The bottom line is the liquidmarket is failing GB dairy farmers,and liquid producers are relyingon the big cheese guns such asMilk Link to drive prices up.

The reality is that retailers andsome mainstream and middleground liquid processors areshafting dairy farmers. As forretailer-aligned contracts mostare holding prices down now.

If only Akkerman had built his(export-orientated) cheese plant,

or FFAs planned plant was up andrunning, things might be different.

Some commercial dairy farmers such as the FM/EW man wouldtake a chance on world marketsand take a chance on higherprices and transparency in returnfor volatility, and other processorswould be forced to take notice.

In his letter, Jim Begg says milkcontracts operate to the benefitof both producers and processors,and that they should not besubject to regulation.

While I agree regulation couldeasily result in more volatility withshorter contracts, if the maximumproducer notice period werelimited to six months and/orlarger producers had the facilityto sell to two milk buyers, thegame would change and somemilk purchasers would have tosharpen up their act.

Its not healthy or sustainablefor everyone in the GB dairyindustry to hide from the fact themarket is failing farmers.

Dairy UK claims (laughably asfar as the NFU and its ardentfollowers are concerned) to beThe Voice of the Dairy Industryand is commendably striving forpeople to be Proud of Dairy.

Well, market failure is nowt tobe proud about, frankly, andtrying to justify the unjustifiablewill get Dairy UK nowhere.

Dont miss the chance tonegotiate fairer deals for hardworking dairy farmers becausethe consequences will be an evengreater blood loss of dairyfarming families and everyonewill pay the price.

Finally, I am hoping to visit thisyears NEC Dairy Event but a priorengagement in Bulgaria mayrestrict my visit!

be Dairy Crests Country Life Milk,sold for 16ppl to customersvisiting the Johal supermarket inthe Midlands.

So its 30ppl to special farmerson one hand, and half that ifyoure a special retailer buyingthrough a special Bottle MilkBuyer. One wonders if DC is usingprofitable world markets tosubsidise the middle ground!

However, whileDairyCo is to beapplauded for itssupply chainmargin work, Ithink it needs tosharpen up onother areas.

For example, inthe week ourposition as thelowest paid dairyfarmers in Europe was confirmed,DairyCo failed to report this factand decided to lead with a storywhich trumpeted the fact theDefra average farmgate price forMay was the highest on record.

Within days, its next DairyMarket Update lead story washeaded: Have wholesale marketspeaked?, implying wholesalemarkets were falling. As oneprominent dairy industry personstated in an exchange of emails tome: What the heck is going onat DairyCo?

With liquid processors andretailers examining the evidenceto support liquid milk price risesof around 2ppl, it will be music totheir ears to learn the oneorganisation working on behalfof Britains dairy farmers with aremit to solve market failure inthe dairy industry believes priceshave peaked. DairyCo did hold itshands up for failing to report ourEuropean league position butreally it must get a grip.

Now more on the excellentWestminster debate on the futureof British dairy farming asprompted by Dan Poulter, MP for

So its 30ppl to specialfarmers on one hand,and half of that if yourea special retailer buyingthrough a special Bottle Milk Buyer.

***DF Sep p12 Potter 11/8/11 15:06 Page 1

BOCM WP DF 11/8/11 10:43 Page 1


CONFERENCE

Leadership skills set the best apart from the restHow to manage staff and get the best out of them was one of the key topics at the first national LKLherdsman conference at Harper Adams University College, Shropshire.

As the UK populationgrows to 70 millionthere will be a demandfor an additional twobillion litres a year of

milk at todays consumption rates,according to Somerset farmersson and agri-business expertDavid Alvis.

Speaking at the LKL NationalHerdsmans Conference, he citedthe Perfect Storm from thegovernment-commissionedForesight Report: The Future ofFarming and Food namely risingglobal food demand, decliningfossil fuel supplies, and finiteavailability of land and water asthe basis of a positive outlook forUK milk production.

Rabobank confirmed globaldemand for dairy products isgrowing, he said. It alsosuggested supplies from countriestraditionally known as low-costproducers are becoming constra-ined, creating an opportunity forhigher cost producers, including

THE short answer, according toKW nutritionist Dr MichaelMarsden, is yes. The questionarose, he said, due to thechanging global balance ofsupply and demand.

Global production of soya isstill rising, but consumption isoutstripping it, led by China andIndia, he explained. In the mid-1990s, China was roughly self-sufficient in soya at just over 10million tonnes a year. This year,imports are predicted to be 58mtonnes, a 6.4% increase on2009/10. In India too, soyaconsumption more than doubledbetween 1996 and 2010. So awise assumption is soya may wellprice itself out of contention inUK dairy cow diets, he said.

Here in the UK, Dr Marsdenoffered two specific alternatives

to soya which his company hadresearched. One was wheatdistillers grains, a by-productmainly from bio-ethanolproduction and available inincreasing quantities. Nutriti-onally, it offered the same MEand protein content as a 55:45mix of soya:wheat. A trial atGlasgow University gave aninsight to the potential where 4kgof soya/cereal was replaced by4kg wheat distillers from whiskywith no impact on milk yield andimprovements in milk fat andprotein percentages. (Table 1).Since then much research hasbeen done on maize and wheatdistillers from bio-ethanol produ-ction showing similar opport-unities with higher yielding cows.

The other direct replacementfor soya recommended by Dr

IS THERE LIFE WITHOUT SOYA?

this country, to fill the gaps.The theme was taken up by

Promars Andy Thompson but hecautioned that average bycurrent standards was unlikely tobe good enough. For example,data from full farm accountscompiled by his company showeda 3000 litres/cow difference inmilk yield between best and worstherds at the same level ofpurchased feed use. Yet the secretof success was actually no secretat all, he told delegates.

Its really quite dull, he said.The top performing herds do the

basics well. Their owners andmanagers decide what they wantto achieve, set performancetargets, and involve the wholeteam in their pursuit. They spotproblems early and tackle themurgently, the aim being to defeatthem quickly. Lameness, infertilityand mastitis remain the bigproblems crack these first, thenmove on to more diverse issues.

On the matter of leadership, MrThompson asked the 100 herds-people present whether they hada written job description. About7% raised a hand. Then he askedwho had clear written perform-ance targets, and only three handswent up.

There is a critical need to beclear about business objectives,have data about current and recentperformance, to be clear amongthe team about responsibilities andpersonal targets, he said. Regulartraining in work time needs tobecome the norm, like it is in othersuccessful businesses.

According to LKLs managingdirector George Gordon, whateverthe target yield per cow or theproduction system, the commonfactor on which success dependedwas people.

Farmers and herd managers whoworked on their people skills foundthey got better results, he said, andthis applied to handling suppliersand advisers as well as staff.

Dont assume people aretelepathic, he said. Be clearabout objectives and priorities andcommunicate. Explain yourexpectations and other peoplesresponsibilities, and put targetsand feedback reports on the dairywall so everyone can see howthings are going. Improve teamcommunication by developingyour listening skills and encouragebetter communication fromeveryone in your business. Dontforget to say thanks for a job welldone and give encouragement tomake your team realise yourecognise their achievements.

Table 1: Trial 1 Trial 24kg soya/ 4kg wheat 4kg soya/ 4kg wheat cereal distillers cereal distillers

Milk yield (kg/cow) 22.8 22.6 23.8 23.6Milk fat % 3.84 4.03 3.94 4.13Milk protein % 3.09 3.20 2.99 3.06

Table 2: 3.6kg/cow 2.4kg/cow heat-treated rape soya meal

Dry matter intake (kg/cow) 20.8 20.5Milk yield (kg/cow) 30.1 28.5Energy-corrected milk (kg/cow) 32.8 32.1Fat % 4.73 4.99Protein % 3.34 3.38

Marsden was heat-treated rapemeal. A trial in 2007 found verysimilar results from 2.4kg soya and3.6kg heat-treated rape. (Table 2).

KW has been putting this intopractice at two of its CompassFarms, where cows are averagingmore than 30 litres per day with

no soya bean meal but with up to1kg of SoyPass which has doublethe rumen by-pass of soya beanmeal. Theres no magic in soyaand it is difficult to defend its usewhen alternatives are availablewhich are just as good and lowercost, said Dr Marsden.

Andy Thompson: involve team.

***DF Sep p14 Conference 11/8/11 15:07 Page 1

For further information please contact your veterinary surgeon or Pzer Animal Health, Walton Oaks, Dorking Road, Walton-on-the-Hill, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 7NS.

1. Dingwell RT et al. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 63 (2004) 7589. 2. Bennett R.M. (2003) Journal of Agricultural Economics 54 Pp 55-72. 3. K. Mtze, Comparing the Effect of an Application of a Long-acting Dry Cow Antibiotic for Drying off with the Combined Application of a Long-acting Dry Cow Antibiotic and an Internal Teat Seal on Udder Health of Dairy Cows State up to 100 days. Postcalving, Proceedings of the 25th WorldBuiatrics Congress, 2008 - Budapest, Hungary. For animal treatment only. A reduction in clinical mastitis is shown when OrbeSeal is used in combination with Orbenin Extra Dry Cow. OrbeSeal contains 65% bismuth subnitrate in a mineral oil vehicle. Withdrawal period: nil POM-V

Use medicines responsibly (www.noah.co.uk/responsible/index.htm) AH675/11

Up to 50% of teats fail to form a natural keratin plug1

And on average a case of mastitis costs 2032

OrbeSeal can cut cases of mastitis by as much as 40%3

THE BEST WAY TO AVOIDMASTITIS IS NOT TO LET

IT IN IN THE FIRST PLACE. . .

Use OrbeSeal in conjunction with ADCTthats mastitis

risk reduced!

the only licensed internal teat sealant on the market

Visit Pzer onStand number

AH157, Hall 18 onthe 6th and 7th

September

Pfizer WP DF 12/8/11 11:40 Page 1


MILK FEVER

Do we really knowabout milk fever?

RICHARD COOPERBVSC, CERT CHP, MRCVS

Over the next four months we will be looking at milk fever in more detail and examining theimpact it can have on animal health and productivity. Here, in the first of the four articles,Richard Cooper, a veterinary surgeon from the Evidence Based Veterinary Consultancy, examinessome of the popular misconceptions about this very costly, yet preventable disease.

There are very few farmswhich can claim they havenever seen a case of milkfever (hypocalcaemia).While clinical cases of milk

fever are the ones we tend toremember, from a cost and healthperspective these only representthe tip of the iceberg. Subclinicalmilk fever is an extremelycommon finding on farms and thelosses it brings in terms ofproduction, reduced fertility andother metabolic disease shouldnot be underestimated.

Many farmers just accept theodd case of clinical milk fever, butneed this be the case?

THE articles appearing in the nextthree issues of Dairy Farmer willcover the effect of milk fever on: Clinical mastitis Dairy cow fertility Herd health planning.

Sources: i Mulligan et al (2006) Irish Vet J. Vol 59 (12) 697-702; ii Houe et al (2001) ACTA Vet Scanda 42, 1-29; iii Houe et al (2001) ACTA Vet Scanda 42, 1-29; iv Degaris, P et al (2009) The Veterinary Journal 176, 58-69.

Next time...

Grass silage (bad)

Grass silage (good)

(Brewers grains)

Maize silage

Whole crop silage

Straw

Grass (late cut, little K fertiliser) = goodGrass (early cut, lots of K fertiliser) = bad

Misconception Administering calcium to animalswithout milk fever around thetime of calving can increase therisk of milk fever problems.

Truth Injectable calcium could havethis effect by dampening downthe cows natural mechanisms tomobilise calcium reserves (bonesand guts). However, oral calciumdoes not cause these problemswith the right balance of calciumsalts. Injectable calcium is vitalwhen a cow is showing clinicalsigns of milk fever to provide life-saving calcium directly to where it

is needed. In addition to thebeneficial effect of providingsupplementary calcium,administering oral calcium bolusescontaining calcium chloride andcalcium sulphate potentiallyincreases access to calciumreserves in bone by making thebody more acidic. Administering acalcium bolus is therefore goodpractice, particularly in at-riskanimals around the time of calving.

Misconception The occasional case of clinicalmilk fever is normal, just as arethe occasional cases of mastitis.

Truth Milk fever is largely preventable,so there is no need to put up withthe occasional clinical case. Dietmanagement, particularly duringthe transition period, andminimising other stressors aroundcalving are important. Use ofsupplemental oral calcium in at-riskanimals can also help in reducingrisk at an individual cow level.

Misconception Milk fever is just a transitoryproblem around calving and oncethe cow has recovered there areno lasting effects.

Truth Yes, the results of administeringintravenous calcium to a clinicalcase are essential for recoveryfrom a clinical case. However,there are long-lasting detrimentaleffects of animals experiencingclinical or subclinical low bloodcalcium. Consequences includei,ii: Lowered immunity. Slower rumen, abomasal and

gut turnover. Reduced uterus contractionstrength during and after calving.

The result of these is an increasein risk of early lactation conditionssuch as metritis, dystocia, retainedplacenta, LDA, ketosis andmastitisiii, and reduction in yieldand fertility in that lactation.

Misconception Milk fever is only an issue whenyou see a downer or wobbly cow.

Truth Clinical cases are the oneswhere you can see the symptomsof low blood calcium, such asdown cows or unsteadiness onher feet. However, for everyclinical case there are likely to be3 to 6 sub-clinical cases in theherd. Most dairy cows suffer somedegree of hypocalcaemia atcalvingiv with lowest levels beingseen the day of calving or the dayafter. Sub-clinical means you willnot see any symptoms, but theanimals health and productivitywill be suffering as a result of lowblood calcium and may notdevelop into clinical milk fever. Itnormally takes around 4 days forcalcium levels to recover. Herdscan suffer from the sub-clinicalform with no clinical cases at all.

Misconception It is better to wait to see a caseof milk fever before taking action.

Truth By the time you see one clinicalcase there will be other animals inthe herd suffering sub-clinically.Managing milk fever should formpart of your farm feeding andhealth plan it is a cheap diseaseto prevent but a costly disease tolive with. Dietary management ofall dry cows, and use of oralcalcium boluses to reduce the risk

of milk fever are effective andpractical ways to address it.Routine monitoring of fresh cowblood calcium, or urine macro-mineral testing of transition cows,can spot potential problems early.

Misconception Cows are designed to eat grass,and this makes for a good diet fordry cows.

Truth Modern farming practicesdesigned to promote leyproductivity have resulted in grasssilage and grazing that is high riskfor milk fever in particular theuse of potassium-rich fertiliser(potash and slurry/manure).

If using grazing or grass silage,try to assign fields for dry cowforage production and grazing,and minimise K application.Later cuts tend to be safer and, ifat grass, keeping grazing closeparticularly during spring andautumn flushes to reduce risk.Alternative forages, such asmaize, wholecrop and straw, arenaturally lower in potassium (theroot of most milk fever problems),and can be used to dilutepotassium intake from grass silage.

***DF Sep p16 Milk Fever 11/8/11 10:53 Page 1

DAIRY EVENTA 45-page special event preview

MILK DEBATE: Join us and our expert panel for our milk debate 2-3pm each day details p18

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01264 334747www.amc.co.uk1.5p is based on a 250,000 loan repaid over 20 years on the current variable rate of interest (3.55% as at 1st June 2011) for a 150 cow herd, yielding 7800 litres per cow.

The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation plc, Charlton Place, Charlton Road, Andover, SP10 1RE. Secured loans available forbusiness purposes only. Minimum AMC standard loan 25,001. Lending is subject to status.

Inside

Win this crushPage 20

MilkPages 22-28

BreedingPages 30-36

Forage &GrasslandPages 38-42

Health & NutritionPages 44-50

MachineryPages 52-58

FinancePages 60-61

Milk debatePage 18

& LIVESTOCK SHOW 2011

***DF Sep p17 DE Cover 12/8/11 11:42 Page 1

DAIRY EVENT & LIVESTOCK SHOWINTRODUCTION


Most would probably agree that thepresent milk pricing arrangement is notonly chaotic and unpredictable butabove all unjust.

The question is what can we do to bring aboutchange to this dysfunctional mechanism toachieve a degree of transparency and fairness?

To that end we will have a panel of fourdistinguished speakers who will briefly outlinetheir chosen solution for taking the industryforward, and that will be followed by yourquestions to them. Do not hold back!

Dont forget this is your opportunity to question thepanel on their views of how we can devise a policyto take us forward into the future, and how we cancorrect the many shortcomings of the presentdysfunctional supply chain. DONT MISS IT!

MILK DEBATE: WHICH WAY FORWARD?

ANY QUESTIONS?

KENNY CAMPBELL

MANSEL RAYMOND

DAVID HANDLEY

Join us on the Dairy Farmer/Farmers Guardian stand on thegreen between the main hall and the cattle hall.This is your opportunity to put your questions to our panel ofspeakers.Chaired by Peter Hollinshead Time: 2-3pm each day (6/7 Sept)

BIG MILK DEBATE

DAIRY FARMER OF THE FUTURE AWARD 2011 But just before you join our Milk Debate why not come along to meet thefinalists and see who takes home this prestigious award. Stand AH-167 at 1.00 on Tues, Sept 6.

KENNY is the NFUS milk committeechairman who has been working on theirapproach to predictability andtransparency by linking the producerprice to the return from the skim, butterand cheese markets. Kenny is at the sharp

end of things and runs 450 Holsteins atCastle Douglas.

But how do the sumswork out, what sort ofreturn will we get, andwhat happens whencommodities are notriding so high?

MANSEL is chairman of the NFU milk committeewho sees better contracts as the way forward toseize some power from the processors, a factwhich has been endorsed by the recent EFRAcommittee findings. He also advocates

flexibility in contracts allowing producers tosupply more than one buyer, thereby making

sure that processors and retailers are kept ontheir toes if they wish to guarantee their supplies.

But why have we made so little progressto date, why cant we supply more thanone buyer now, and what can be done toovercome the prevailing pricing asymmetrywhereby any rises are slow to comethrough while falls are there next day?

YOU all know David from his FFA activities andthe sterling work done there. His proposition isthat a gigantic fractionation plant would securegood returns and tighten the market, butwhile researching that he has identified othergreat opportunities on the world market whichwe are currently missing out on.

But who is going to finance thismajor investment, what othermarkets can we get into, and canwe now band together under EUruling to exercise more power inour domestic market place?

JOHN is a managing partner of therespected Kite Consulting and hasbeen heavily involved with its latestvision document predicting anopportunity for 15bn litres by 2020.

But what signals do we needto get there and rejuvenate

the dairy industry tomeet this exciting

objective, and what isthe likelihood wewill ever get them?

JOHN ALLEN

***DF Sep p18 Introduction 12/8/11 11:31 Page 1

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DF_09_P21 11/8/11 10:56 Page 21

Friesian Farm budgets (ppl) 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13(actual) (actual) (estimate) (forecast)

Milk output 24.8 25.8 28.6 29.3Total output 27.2 28.3 31.0 31.7Variable costs 11.8 12.9 13.9 13.3Overheads 10.5 10.7 11.2 11.4Rent, finance and drawings 5.0 5.1 5.3 5.4Cost of production 27.3 28.8 30.4 30.1Margin from production (0.1) (0.4) 0.6 1.6Single Payment and ELS 2.6 2.4 2.4 2.4

Business surplus 2.5 2.0 3.0 4.0


MILK1

Financial figures take onslightly healthier pictureWhile recent milk price increases look like restoring some profitability, nevertheless costs are rising andsoaking up a large part of that higher revenue. Richard King from Andersons Business Consultants givesus his predictions for the next couple of years.

Fortunately the prospectsfor 2012-13 do look a littlebrighter than we havebeen seeing in the pastfew years, but this relies

on the market delivering furtherprice increases and costs abating.

These are the figures we arefinding from our own model farm Friesian Farm and which areupdated annually. Our FriesianFarm is a notional 100-hectare(247-acre) holding in the Midlandsrunning 150 cows on a liquid milkcontract.

The table below shows thefarms performance for the twoprevious milk years based onactual returns and costs, and thenwe work out an estimate for thecurrent 2011-12 year and aforecast for 2012-13.

The two years prior to 2009-10had produced a positive marginfrom production in the range 1.7-1.8ppl, but stagnant milk pricesand rising costs have meantFriesian Farm has had a difficultcouple of years. The saving gracehas been the Single Payment andELS money and it has taken theseto produce a positive businessreturn.

There have been significant milkprice rises over the last year and itis believed further increases shouldbe forthcoming during theremainder of the year. This willpartly be driven by the whole UKmilk market belatedly catching upwith booming global commodityprices. It is also envisaged that

payments under standard liquidmilk contracts (which Friesian Farmis on) will increase to reinstate thecustomary premium above milkgoing for commodity uses. This isto reflect the higher costs involvedin achieving level production, butalso to secure supplies as milkproduction contracts.

Thanks to these milk price rises,the average price for the currentproduction year is estimated to bealmost 3ppl higher, but unfortun-ately this will not translate directlyinto higher profits.

That is because variable costsincreased compared to last year.This is largely driven by rises infeed and fertiliser prices, butoften overlooked is inflation inother variable costs such asstraw, vets and medical, seedcosts, and dairy consumables. Interms of overheads, fuel andelectricity contribute to the costincreases. The farm has also had

to replace its main tractor thisyear adding to machinerydepreciation. Wage costs alsocontinue to rise as the farm has topay a competitive rate forincreasingly scarce herdsmen.

The net effect is a positivemargin from production butonly at very low levels. Adding inthe Single Payment and ELSprovides a return of 3ppl (itshould be noted the farmersdrawings are taken out beforethe margin figures). Based on thecapital employed in this business(including the owned property),the return on capital is around2.5%. This is obviously too low forlong-term sustainability, and justgoes to highlight the need forbetter returns from the market.

Currency movesLooking to the future, it isbelieved milk prices may increasea little more for the 2012-13 year.Whether this happens isdependent on how the poundmoves against both the dollar andeuro, and currencies are presentlyvery unstable. However, thefundamentals of global dairycommodity markets seemreasonable for the immediatefuture.

There is some hope costs mayabate for next milk year, albeitmarginally. Fuel and fertiliservalues may not reduce much, butfeed costs could fall and there arealready signs cereals markets areweakening. However, any

reduction in raw material costs isunlikely to have a great effect onwinter 2011-12 feed costs, so animprovement for 2012-13 isperhaps more realistic.

Overall, profitability is predictedto increase compared to thecurrent 2011-12 year. Howevermost of the business surpluscontinues to come from supportpayments. By 2012, the discussionin Europe over the future of theSingle Payment and environ-mental schemes will be in fullflow. If support is to fall, whichseems likely given the currentproposals, then this income willneed to be replaced.

The dairy supply chain needsto recognise higher prices needto be paid to the primaryproducer if milk supply is to bemaintained. But at the sametime, dairy farmers can do agreat deal to help themselves byimproving their businessefficiency. This should begin withoperating a system which fits inwith the characteristics of thefarm, and also the milk contractthe business is supplying. Contro-lling costs is then key. With thecurrent high price of all inputsthere is an increased focus onproducing milk from grazed grasswhich, afterall, is the cheapestway to feed cows.

An increasing trend within thesector is for joint venturearrangements. These not onlyproduce cost savings but allowstructural change within theindustry allowing the bestbusinesses to grow, while alsooffering those who wish to exitday-to-day dairying a greaterrange of business options.

Andersons will be available atthe Dairy Event and LivestockShow in the Business Manag-ement section to discuss how yourdairy businesses can prosper nowand in the future.

LStand BM-254K

Richard King: controlling costs.

***DF Sep p22 Milk Friesian 11/8/11 15:13 Page 1

DAIRY FARMER SEPTEMBER 2011 23

DF_09_P23 11/8/11 09:13 Page 21


MILK1

Starting point must beto look at use of forage In the drive to greater profitability you are inevitably faced with where you can take costs out and whereyou can be more efficient. Promars regional consultant Danni Cooke considers some solutions for dairyfarmers in the light of the volatile global markets.

Market volatility is afact of life andglobal forces arehaving an increasingeffect on prices in

the UK. Supply and demand isbehind the increases we are allfamiliar with such as a 20%increase in fertiliser price, morethan 30% increase in red dieselprices and more volatile feedprices.

The one thing which iscertainly true is that there is alimit to what individual dairyfarmers can do to influence thispicture, so now more than everbefore, the key to businesssustainability is to concentrate

on the things you can controland to drive the best returnfrom them.

How can you limit yourexposure to market volatilityand reduce the risk in yoursystem? Answering thesequestions can help to develop amore sustainable business, andthere are many successful dairyfarm businesses which haveadopted this approach.Individual farm prospects willlargely depend on how well youcan manage your exposure tooutside forces.

The key is to look atmaximising the efficiency of alloperations. Ask yourself how

can you do things better? Wherecan you take cost out of thesystem without losing output?

In all this it is essential to focuson profit. Many farms are havingto make some big decisions aboutinvestment, expansion, changes tothe system etc. Any businessdecision needs to be taken withan end result and a profit increasein mind. Everything you do shouldbe geared to increasing businessprofit.

Turnover Recently we have seen success bychallenging farmers to calculatethe total profit they require andthen to work backwards from

there to determine the turnoverand technical performancerequired to deliver it. Within thisprocess it is also important toassess the risk to the plan ofprice changes to core inputs.

For many farms the startingpoint must be to look at forageuse. We have seen a period ofmilk yield increases largely as aresult of increased purchasedfeed use. Yield from forage hasdeclined, yet it is strongly andpositively correlated to profit.Farms which produce more fromforage are more profitable.Furthermore, producing morefrom forage reduces purchasedfeed requirements, so helping

***DF Sep p24 25 Milk Promar 11/8/11 15:16 Page 1


MILK 1

Promars DanniCooke claimsthere is a clearlink betweenmilk from forageand profit.

Table 1: Comparison of average and top 25% of FBAherds ranked on yield from forage per cow

Average Top 25%Milk yield per cow (l) 7714 7601Concentrate use (kg/l) 0.38 0.29Milk from forage/cow (ltrs) 1094 2783Feed cost (ppl) 7.9 5.9Gross margin (ppl) 15.6 18.1Operating profit (ppl) 7.1 10.2

Table 2: Comparison of top 25% of farms ranked onmilk yield and top 25% ranked on yield from forage.

Top 25% by milk from Top 25% by milk forage per cow yield per cow

Milk yield per cow (litres) 7601 9164Yield from forage/cow (ltr) 2783 870Concentrate use (kg/l) 0.29 0.39Feed cost (ppl) 5.9 8.6Gross margin (ppl) 18.1 14.6Operating profit (ppl) 10.2 6.4Operating profit/cow () 775 586

The farms producing more from forageproduced very similar yields per cowcompared to the average but at a far lowerfeed rate per litre, so resulting in 1700 litresmore milk from forage per cow. Feed cost perlitre was 2ppl less.

By the time the gross margin is calculatedthe benefit was an extra 2.5ppl, due to othercosts being lower, suggesting farmers lookingto maximise forage use also control othercosts carefully, and this is confirmed by thehigher operating profit.

The high yield from forage farms producedan operating profit per litre 43% higher thanaverage, which clearly demonstrates the linkbetween yield from forage and profit.

It is also interesting to compare the high yieldfrom forage herds with the highest yieldingherds. When we analysed the data comparingthe top 25% ranked on yield with the top 25%ranked on yield from forage, the resultsconfirmed the benefit of making full use of yourown resources. The high yield farms produced1563 more litres per cow but operating profit perlitre was 3.8ppl less than the top 25% of farmsselected on yield from forage. (Table 2).

StrategyThis suggests a strategy of chasing marginallitres while increasing output did notnecessarily increase profits as much as astrategy of focusing on how milk is produced.

When converted to profit per cow, thefarmers who focussed on yield from foragerather than driving milk yield generated anadditional 190 profit per cow despite alower milk yield and turnover.

By focusing on the areas within theircontrol, successful businesses will be able tooffset some of the impact of rising inputprices. This might include making better useof slurry to drive down fertiliser use, spendingmore time shopping around for inputs ortaking steps to improve grassland output andutilisation. Whatever approach is chosenthere should be scope within most businessesto develop plans to minimise the exposure tovolatility and improve profit levels.

protect the business from price volatility.We recently analysed the data for a group of more than 240 dairy

farmers, costed using Promar Farm Business Accounts, which gives an in-depth breakdown of farm finances and technical performance. Farmswere ranked based on the yield from forage per cow and the results forthe average and top 25% of the sample are shown in Table 1.

***DF Sep p24 25 Milk Promar 11/8/11 15:17 Page 2


MILK1

NMR/RADBDF Gold Cup finalists (production year ending September 2010)

FINALIST Breed Qualifying Yield Fat Protein SCC Calving PLI Timeslactations (kg) (%) (%) 000/ml interval (days) () milked

Tom King, Vortex Holstein 218 11568 3.9 3.03 89 412 60 (LDY 3xHolsteins, Dorset 14.64kg)Tim Gue, Huddlestone Holstein 308 10655 3.83 3.15 153 406 59 (LDY 3xFarmers, West Sussex 12.78kg)Chris Gasson, Redlands Holstein 303 10282 3.77 3.13 140 413 41(LDY Farm, Oxon 15.69kg) 2xMike Miller, Shanael Holstein 214 11801 3.7 3.15 186 423 31(LDY 3xFarms, Worcestershire 15.22kg)Chris Simmons, Folly Holstein 299 11223 3.84 3.29 172 404 13 (LDY 3xFarm, Gloucestershire 17.44kg)Kevin Jones, Bryn Holstein 220 10308 3.77 3.22 168 416 44 (LDY 2xMawr Farm, Clwyd 13.95kg)

Six finalists battle it out to take Gold Cup trophy Following thorough questioning by the judges, six producers have made it through to the finals and waitwith bated breath to see if they will be taking home the industrys coveted NMR/RABDF Gold Cup.

The announcement of the winner willtake place on the NMR stand at theDairy Event and Livestock Show onTuesday September 6, at 4.30pm,along with the winner of the Chris MayMemorial Salver which will be awardedto the Gold Cup qualifying herd withthe highest average lifetime daily yield.

Who will win?

This years judging panel was headed upby David Cotton, chairman of theRABDF, Trevor Lloyd (non-executivedirector for NMR) and Nick Cobb, winnerof the Gold Cup competition in 2008.

Judging panel

AS part of their commitment tomilk production, the Jonesfamily has made some dramaticchanges that their ancestors,who took on the farm fivegenerations ago, could nothave imagined possible.

In 2009, a new slurry storewas erected at a cost of justunder 100,000, giving fivemonths storage and saving a30-tonne lorry load of fertiliser,costing 11,500.

A further 25,000 has beeninvested in 43 solar panels,generating 10kW of electricity,and a pump brings water froma spring under the farm forstorage in an old milk tanker,saving a further 10,000 inwater bills. This is furthersupplemented by rainwatertanks collecting from roofs.

The next project is forthermal roof panels to heatwater for washing out, saving40% more on electricity costs.

THE emphasis here is on fine-tuning herd health and prod-uction. While Chris Gasson isnow taking over from his father,Ray, both have had jobs off thefarm Ray is a retired agricult-ural consultant and Chris is a vetin Somerset.

As a result the day-to-day

Kevin, Anne and Glyn Jones.

John Peck, Chris Gasson, EdWilliams, Stan Peake and Ryan Hall.

FEEDING and fertility are toppriorities, and his meticulousattention to feeding detailmeans this high production herdhas doubled its milk from forageover 12 months.

Now 3139kg of milk comesfrom forage (rolling 12 monthfigure) and the high-yieldinggroup has a dry matter intake of27.5kg/day.

The calving index is just 393days, emphasising how herd

fertility is intrinsically linked to itsoverall performance. Chrisbelieves a short calving index

Chris Simmons, Simmons Farms, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire

helps maximise milk from forageand daily lifetime production.

The Kingsfoll herd has repeat-edly been among the UKs bestand has earned the NMR/RABDFaward for the highest lifetimedaily yield among qualifyingherds on two previous occasions.

A new 120-cubicle shed andearth-banked slurry lagoon isnow under construction, withthe aim of supporting a herd of370 by the end of the year.

running of the 340ha (840-acre)unit is down to manager JohnPeck.

In the next 12 to 18 monthsthere are plans to replace theolder 200 cow kennel cubicleswith a new single-span buildingto improve the housing.

The almost closed herd isvaccinated for IBR, BVD andleptospirosis. Sexed semen isused on heifers and high PINbulls used on the top milkingcows with beef semen on thelower end. A beef sweeper bullis the only purchased stock andhe has to come from a Johnesaccredited herd.

As well as Waitrose demand-ing high health and welfarestandards, the farm is in theWild-Care scheme whichrequires at least 10% of the unitto be used for wildlife habitats.

Christopher and Ray Gasson, Redlands Farm, Hook Norton, Banbury

Kevin and Ann Jones,Bryn Mawr Farm,Northop, Flintshire

***DF Sep p26 27 Gold Cup 11/8/11 12:55 Page 1

MILK


1

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dairy farmer august 2011

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