Join us for a webinar exploring top tips in transition management, how to assess your transition and get your cows off to the best start after calving.
We will explore what measures you can bring in to get cows to peak yield quicker and reduce instances of metabolic disorders through good transition management.
Michael and Tony Ball of Coton Wood, an all-year-round calving strategic dairy farm in Derbyshire, will share their current transition management protocol.
Trouw Nutrition’s Mark Hall will review the results of Coton Wood’s current transition protocols and make recommendations for what can be improved through fine tuning management and decisions around transition on a high yielding AYR robot herd.
In this webinar you will learn:
- A review of current management practices
- What good transition management looks like
- How to assess your own transition management
- Small changes that could be implemented to improve your transition
Please note this webinar will be focused on all year round transition, however there will be an opportunity to listen to a block calving transition webinar on Tuesday 22 June with SDF farmer Phil Kinch of Buscot Wick Farm.
Who should attend this webinar?
If you’re responsible for managing cows, interested in exploring robotic systems, managing dairy cows on robots or benchmarking, then this meeting is for you.
For further information on this event speak to Hannah Lilburn on 07818723857 or email hannah.lilburn@ahdb.org.uk
About Coton Wood Farm
Michael and Tony Ball farm in partnership, running a 500-strong herd plus followers across three sites and operating an all year-round calving system.
Five years ago, a major investment was made into robots to increase cow numbers from 200 to 500 with the intention of making milk in the most efficient way possible with an emphasis on cow comfort and welfare.
They now produce 10,000 litres per cow per year on their 750 acres farm.
Originally autumn block calvers, the brothers faced increasing competition for labour and decided to move to all year-round calving with the installation of eight Lely robots in 2014, to manage the milking process. Completed in April 2016, the transition was complemented with automatic silage pushers, scrapers and calf feeders.
Commenting on their appointment, the brothers said “We are really excited to have been chosen as a strategic dairy farm. We want to share our experiences with other farmers and are hoping that becoming a strategic farm will focus our business direction and enable us to pay more attention to key performance indicators”.
Learn more about Coton Wood Farm.
About Strategic Dairy Farms
Strategic dairy farms help farmers learn from each other through regular on-farm meetings where we will share key performance data and showcase what the best farmers are doing.
They form part of the Optimal Dairy Systems programme which aims to help dairy farmers lower costs and increase efficiency by focusing on either a block or all year-round calving system.
The growing network of strategic dairy farms have calculated key performance indicators (KPI’s) for their enterprises which are shared at meetings and published online. These are physical and financial performance measures that are critical to success. Farmers can benchmark their businesses against these KPI’s and identify areas for improvement.
