Just a little introduction to my farm…
I am currently farming 72 acres around my parlour, on which I keep my dairy herd and calves. I normally milk about 64 holstein friesian cows (non pedigree) and have a quota of 340k litres. I have a fairly dated 8 unit Dairymaster parlour with automatic feeders installed.
All cows are AI bred, and I run an Angus stock bull with the cows when 6 weeks of AI is completed.
I have a 40 acre out farm a mile away where I keep yearling replacement heifers and a few more yearlings that I finish for slaughter normally before 24 months. Replacement heifers are put in calf to high EBI and easy calving dairy bulls.
I employ a contractor to cut pit silage, the rest of the work I do myself if possible. I normally aim to reseed 10% of the farm annually, however in 2012 no reseeding was done due to the adverse weather.
Here’s hoping for a better 2013!!
Pat