Rethinking the dairy herd: Is the future dairy cow black and white?

Steve and Katherine are milking 350 cows on Wedfield Farm which has been home to the family dairy herd for three generations spanning almost eighty years.

The family have always been at the forefront of progression with Steve’s grandfather noticing the potential of introducing new breeds into the herd. In the late 1950’s he was one of the first farmers in the area to add British Friesians into their herd to replace the native Dairy Shorthorns and the longstanding Beef/Dairy breeds.

With Steve’s father taking control of the herd in the late 1960’s the British Friesian herd grew, along with the desire for more milk from each animal.

With the influx of the Holstein promising significantly more milk, the herd progressed to pure Holstein in the early 1990’s and continued with the pure breeding until 2019, a few years after Steve took over the management of the farm. By 2019, Wedfield Farm were milking 450 cows in an all-year-round (AYR) intensive system, averaging 9,700 litres at 4.20 % fat and 3.25 % protein.

“There’s always talk of ‘hybrid vigour’ around breeding, and that is something we immediately loved about the VikingRed and Montbéliarde calves,” notes Katherine. “From the day they hit the ground through to calving, they just want to survive and bounce back from any challenge. They are very healthy and full of vitality,” she adds. 

“We manage a consistent 0.95 kg live weight gain per day from birth to three months throughout the replacement group. We have noticed a significant drop in our cull rate from 35% to 25% with most culling now being voluntary and only a 1% casualty rate,” explains Katherine. 

The herd’s lameness rate has also vastly improved, which can be largely attributed to the consistent condition of the cows and the increased padding in the soles of their hooves due to the higher condition score of the cows.

“I can honestly say we only have 1 lame cow of the 350 in milk currently,” explains Steve.

Fertility rates have also vastly improved, with a current average of 1.8 straws per pregnancy, which is 50% lower than what was achieved with the Holsteins.

“Although in the short term we have sacrificed a few hundred litres of milk per lactation, the reduced vet bills, improved fertility, improved milk quality and vastly improved cull values have made the ProCROSS cows considerably more profitable than our previous herd. Pair these benefits with just simply being better to work with, I would champion the 3-way ProCROSS over anything else,” ends Steve.

Milking cows: 350

Producing: 8,900 litres, 4.55 % fat, 3.65 % protein

Milking: Twice per day through a 32/32 herringbone parlour

Calving: Autumn calving with turn out for 4 months of the year mainly due to wet ground conditions.         

Farm: 400 acres (162 ha) in total, growing 40 acres (16.2 ha) of cereals for transition/dry cow ration and four cuts of grass per year.

Staff: 2 farm workers, 2 milkers, Katherine, Steve’s wife, looks after all the youngstock.