The University Farm and Estate

Transcription

1 The University Farm and Estate Harper Adams University was founded by Thomas Harper Adams in 1901 on the original farmland of the Harper Adams Estate. The University estate includes amenity areas, woodland, and a commercial farm of over 500 hectares. Cropping is based on cereals, oilseeds, forage maize and grassland. Livestock enterprises include a dairy herd, sheep, beef, pig and poultry units. The farm exhibits a range of soil types, taking a North/South line through the main farm; the University site is situated in a shallow basin, with land rising gently to the South where the poultry unit is located. To the North the land is relatively level, the lower ground is mostly heavy clay with a large peat basin on the western edge of the farm. This land has a short machinery working season and is liable to structural instability. Considerable care is taken to minimise winter traffic of farm machinery on these fields. As the land rises to the South the soils become increasingly lighter and sandier over shallow sandstone. The Dairy Herd The University Dairy Unit herd of Pedigree Holstein- Friesians was started in 1955 by grading up of the existing Ayrshire herd. It expanded gradually from 80 cows to the current 350 cow herd. During the winter of 2008/09 the herd moved into a new state-of-the-art dairy unit on a Greenfield site with capacity for 400 cows. The unit has been developed to allow scope for further expansion, with a potential capacity for 600 cows. The herd is recording an average lactation yield of 8,903 litres per 4.01% fat and 3.25% protein (NMR May 2013). concentrate feeders. The unit is equipped with a 40 point Westphalia internal rotary equipped with auto I.D, activity meters, auto segregation and yield meters all of which are integrated by a computer system. In addition the dairy unit contains dedicated facilities for research work which includes individual automated forage feeders and out-of-parlour Calving Pattern The herd calves all year round (AYR) with the target of calving 20 plus cows and seven heifers a month. The farm is on a liquid milk contract (Tesco Wiseman) which encourages a level supply of milk all year round. Therefore the herd calves all year to maximise milk production throughout the year. Furthermore this allows for limited calving accommodation and calf rearing facilities not to be over pressurized with large numbers at any one time. Currently the calving interval for the herd is 406 days, which is just below the national average of 410 days, however the farm is targeting to bring this down to 400 days. Herd Management - Winter The unit comprises of cubicles (Bateman) for 300 cows and straw bedded yards for 80 cows. The cubicles are fitted with foam mattresses (De Boer) which are limed twice a week and bedded with kiln dried sawdust three times a week. During the winter the herd is fed a totally mixed ration (TMR) depending upon yield and parity. This is fed via a 26m 3 twin auger mixer

2 wagon to groups of highs, heifers, fresh and low yielding cows. With the highs, heifers, and fresh cows receiving the same ration and the lows receiving lower energy density higher forage based rations. The feed barriers have head locking yokes (Bateman) to facilitate cattle handling and treatment. The forage portion of the TMR is primarily based around maize and lucerne with shortfalls being made up from grass silage. Currently the ration is based on approximately 50% maize, 25% grass silage and 25% lucerne. These are supplemented with concentrates (many of which are by-products from food processing) which are premixed on farm to make a premix blend. These include sweetstarch, a protein blend of Hipro soya, rapeseed meal and maize distillers, soya hulls, Spey syrup, Megalac (a protected fat) Biotal yeast and minerals. Rations are formulated by an independent nutritionist (Hefin Richards) and monitored on a weekly basis. Dry cows are fed the same ration but are split into two groups, recently dried off (Far-off) and cows that are within 3 weeks of calving (Close-to). The Far-off cows housed in cubicles and are then transferred into the straw yard 3 weeks pre-calving in order to ensure a smooth transition and to reduce stress around calving. They are primarily fed a low energy straw based diet designed to maximise rumen fill precalving and to avoid excessive weight gain before calving. The straw for this ration is prechopped through a hammer mill to reduce the risk of cows sorting through the ration. Slurry is automatically scraped by a cable system (De Boer) into a gridded channel and flows by gravity to a reception pit. It then passes through a screen separator where a proportion of solids are removed before being pumped to the Anaerobic Digester (AD). Herd Management Summer During the summer high, heifer and fresh cow groups will be fed the same TMR, but with the highs having access to a loafing paddock beside the dairy. The Low yield group will be targeted to maximize milk production from grazed grass with no buffer feeding. This will allow milk production to be maintained will reducing the cost of milk production for the low yielding group. The grazing season typically runs from mid to late April through until late September, depending upon the grazing and weather conditions. With grazed grass being able to supply between litres of milk per cow per day. Considerable investment has been made and continues to be made to improve the grazing infrastructure on the farm, improvements have included water supply, electric fencing and the installation of cow tracks. Grazing fields are divided into paddocks using temporary electric fences with cows being rotationally grazed around them. Cow tracks have been constructed using reclaimed concrete railway sleepers. A small proportion of purchased nitrogen fertiliser is applied but the majority of nitrogen and all P and K are applied through organic fertilisers, mainly in the form of digestate, separated slurry solids or through farm yard manure.

3 Post Calving Routine Every cow that calves receives a 24 hour post calving check. The cow s temperature is taken and a vaginal inspection is conducted to ensure that all the foetal membranes have been expelled (cleansed). This is then repeated for the next 10 days with a blood BhB check being conducted at around day 5 to monitor ketone levels. If a cow has a high temperature (<39.2 o C) then a broad spectrum antibiotic is administered for 72 hours and cows suffering from ketosis being treated with glycol. The dairy staff s priority is to get each cow off to the best possible start after calving. Each cow is checked to see if she has fully cleansed, if this is not evident after 4 days she is presented for attention. Tails and udders are clipped at calving to assist in overall hygiene and cleanliness. Breeding Policy & Herd Fertility Approximately 80% of the cows are served by Artificial Insemination to high genetic merit dairy bulls, with sire selection being based on a range of health, fitness and type traits. The farm has been attempting to breed a more balanced, functional and profitable Holstein cow, with a strong emphasise to lifespan, PLI, fertility and functional type. To increase the rate of genetic improvement the majority of maiden heifers are served using sexed Holstein semen. The bulls, with their current proofs, being used in 2013 are shown in table 1. Table 1 Herd sires for 2013 Fat kg Fat % Protein kg Protein % Rel % PLI Type Milk Coyne-Farms Dorcy Bassingthrope Drayman Coldsprings Ponder Ballycairn Oman Pello Ballycairn Tiergan Cervi Allemar Sabbiona Goldfarm In addition to the above bulls some Holstein test bulls are being used on a proportion of the herd on the Genus Cornerstone and Cogent Visions programmes. All the cows are fitted with a pedometer which measures activity. This forms the basis of heat detection along with visual signs. Any cow not seen on heat by 45 days is presented to the vet and any cow not served by 80 days is enlisted onto an ovsynch programme. The farm is currently targeting to serve 85% of the herd by 80 days in milk. Beef bulls The remaining 20% of the herd are put in calf to a beef bull using either AI or by natural service with the farm s Hereford bulls.

4 HAU beef stock bull The University farm has two Hereford bulls which are used to sweep both the maiden heifers and the dairy herd during the summer. Both these bulls were purchased in 2013 with the assistance of the Hereford breed society their offspring are extensively reared to produce beef for the kitchens within the University. Herd Health The herd is vaccinated for BVD, IBR, Leptospira Hardjo and all pregnant cows are vaccinated for Rota and Corrona virus at drying off. The herd is also quarterly vaccinated for Ecoli mastitis using Startvac. The herd is currently under TB restrictions and undergoes routine short interval testing every 60 days. This will continue for the foreseeable future until the farm can obtain two consecutive clear TB tests. Johne s disease is present within the herd and an active plan is being pursued to test and clear animals that are known to carry the disease. The vet visits the herd according to a regular routine and deals generally with fertility problems, pregnancy diagnosis (PD s) and conducts post natal check 35 days after calving. The milking routine consists of pre-stripping, pre- dipping and dry wiping every cow at each milking. This is done by two operators in the milking parlour at fixed points. The routine has been designed to maximise milk let down and reduce bi-modal milk flow. Post milking, an emollient teat spray is applied via a walk over spray rail at the exit of the milking parlour. The milking parlour is also fitted with a cluster flush system which sanitises each cluster after milking. Dry cow therapy is used routinely and individual somatic cell counts are monitored from monthly NMR sampling. Each cow is dry cow tubed and teats treated with Orbeseal which seals the teat from infection close to calving. Cows with high somatic cell counts undergo an enhanced dry period which is extended from 49 days to 60 days and are treated with either Micotil of Tylan at drying off. Cows with chronic mastitis and persistent high cell counts are culled. Each cow has her feet routinely trimmed by a contract foot trimmer (Simon Lloyd from The Hoofman Limited) at 100 days post calving at drying off with overgrown/lame cows being treated as required by farm staff. As with all other farm activities data is collected in great detail. This information, both current and historical is available to all staff and students. Future Developments The utilisation of grassland will be further enhanced through continued improvements in cow tracks, paddock fencing, water supplies and the development of a grass growth monitoring and allocation system. Herd size will be increased to the capacity of the facility and output increased beyond 9,000 litres per cow. Development of a greenfield young stock rearing facility to accommodate calves through to in-calf heifers

5 Herd performance Herd performance is monitored by Kite and we are therefore able to benchmark against other high yielding herds. A summary of some of the main performance measures are shown in table 2. Table 2. Kite Dairy Manager Results 12 month rolling results to April 2013 Year Yield/cow (l) Yield from forage % Yield from forage Butterfat (%) Protein (%) SCC Milk price (p/l) Concs (kg/cow) Concs (kg/l) MOPF per litre (p) MOPF per cow ( ) Targets for 2014 The following targets have been set for 2014: A herd yield in excess of 9,000 litres, with 30% from forage. Milk quality maintained at 3.9% butterfat, 3.3% protein. A concentrate feed rate of less than 0.32 kg/litre. Maximise the utilisation of home grown forages. Maintain milk hygiene in the premium bands i.e. SCC below 250 and TBC below 50. To continue to keep the herd replacement rate below 30%. Expand unit to 400 cows. Developments Further development has seen the expansion of the farm to over 640 hectares through a combination of tenancies, contract farming and contract growing arrangements and land purchase together with the introduction of two new enterprises; an extensive beef finishing system taking beef crosses from the dairy unit and generating beef carcases (31 head/year) for direct supply to the University College kitchens; and a pedigree Lleyn flock to generate high health status breeding ewes for sale and lambs (208 head/year) for the kitchens. The University College s catering department has won several national awards for the local sourcing of food from the Harper Adams Farm. Arable Enterprises

6 The arable enterprises cover about half of the farm area; arable crops are made up of 1 st Wheat, Oats and Triticale together with break crops such as Oilseed Rape, Forage Maize and Lucerne. The cropping mix is largely driven by trial site requirements and the feed requirements of the dairy herd. Sustainability In 2010 construction began on a 500kw anaerobic digestion plant based on food waste and livestock slurry. The plant opened in the early summer of A critical part of the AD operation is the utilisation of the 27,000 tonnes of digestate generated by the plant as a bio-fertiliser. This represents an enterprise in its own right requiring the development of a fledgling market for bio fertiliser among local farmers and the creation of logistic solutions for transport and application whilst working within the constraints of robust waste regulations. We are targeting the delivery of 40% of the Farm s nutrients from organic sources in the first year of digestate application. A further current project is looking at the conversion of agricultural waste into a fuel stock for an innovative pyrolysis (Pyroformer) based system, currently based on the Harper Adams campus. Biodiversity has been well served by a series of comprehensive conservation schemes and measures across the farm. The most recent chapter has been the establishment in 2012 of a Higher Level Scheme. Such was the commitment to this that we actually purchased a block of land specifically to provide a focus for our work. Increasingly, our biodiversity initiatives go beyond established schemes, notably a number of audits ranging from invertebrates to birds in order to establish the effect of our conservation measures. Other Farm based Facilities The Pig, Beef and Sheep Units are co-located on the Farm but managed separately within the Animals Group. The Farm staff work closely with the Head of the Animals Group and relevant livestock specialists (including the Pig Unit Manager) in their management. Some research projects are more appropriately superimposed on the commercial enterprises. Similarly, Farm staff work with the Head of the Crops Group in the area of Crop Trials and research work and with the Crop & Environmental Research Centre in managing land used for such work. In these cases responsibilities for management are closely defined.