By Karen Wright
A two-way crossbred herd, combining Holstein and Norwegian Red genetics, is proving the ideal combination for one autumn calving Lancashire-based dairy unit.
Father and son team, Richard and Will Clarke, have focused on establishing a uniform herd of cows to suit their semi-intensive system. Use of sexed semen has allowed them to establish strong dairy characteristics, and without diluting any of these benefits that can occur by using a third cross.
And the good fertility and health traits exhibited by these easy-care cows have made it possible for the two to expand the dairy business without any additional full time help.
In-built cow longevity keeps replacement rate low, at 16%, in this 240-cow herd, with plenty of fifth lactation cows which Will describes as ‘gold dust’, as they’ve paid for themselves numerous times.
“These older cows have a very low carbon footprint because of their good yields, health, fertility and longevity – they don’t owe us anything.”
Will joined his father at Cinderbarrow Farm, near Carnforth, in 2018 after graduating from Harper Adams University and working in New Zealand in 2017. He also spent his placement year on a high production Holstien unit in south Wales.
“This gave me experience of two contrasting systems,” he says. “I could see how bits of both would work, and so we’ve developed a crossbred system with a modern twist to suit our farm and that can maximise the potential of the hybrid cows.”
They want cows that can perform well off grass and off concrete. Cows are housed in winter and fed high levels of parlour cake and grass silage to maximise milk output, then turned out from March onwards and expected to maximise yield from grass as concentrate feed is cut back.
Will adds that at 575kg bodyweight, these lighter and more robust cows that replaced their Holstien herd cope well with an extended grazing season, without causing damage to the grass.
“Dad decided to move to crossbreds in 2010 after finding that the pure Holstein had got too big for our system, and were more suited to all year round housing. That wasn’t what we wanted for our farm.”
Richard tried various genetics in the crossbred programme, and for a while ran a three way cross system with the Friesian but found that this took too much size and milk out of the cows.
“The herd has really ‘blossomed’ now we’ve focussed just on Holsteins and Norwegian Reds,” adds Will. “We’ve doubled cow numbers since 2018, and we’ve improved our business resilience with healthier and more fertile cows. A reduced replacement rate means heifer rearing costs have gone down, and our vet and medicine costs, which are currently 0.26ppl, are much lower than they were five years ago. We’re now more in control of our costs.”
Their biggest input expense is parlour feed, with the average use at 2.2 tonnes per cow. Cows are challenge fed through winter, until turnout when rates are cut back, eventually to nothing in early to mid-summer just a month before drying off.
“This suits our Muller Co-op contract. We’re paid a bonus for autumn and winter milk. We’ve costed the extra cake and it’s a viable option for our system. We work closely with nutritionist Sam Wellock from Massey Feeds who formulates a balanced diet.”
A self-feed silage system and a new parlour with automatic feeders was introduced a few years ago, to update their operations and reduce labour input. They use contractors for silage making and reseeding grassland.
Average yields are 7,250kg of milk at 4.59% fat and 3.37% protein and 577kg of fat and protein on twice a day milking. “We get these milk solids from the cows without selecting for them – it’s the cow’s natural ability, coupled with home grown grass and parlour cake.”
And they’ve a share of exceptional yielders with two cows in the past two years achieving 100 tonnes of milk in their lifetime.
Peas in a pod
Both Richard and Will agree that they couldn’t manage the herd between them with high input cows. “Time and resources spent on managing lame or ill cows is no good for man or beast,” says Will. “We want a healthy and trouble-free cow, with few calving issues. In 2023, we only assisted with two calvings and our calf mortality is minimal. Calving ease and calf survivability in these crossbreds is great.”
Trouble free ‘invisible’ animals are ideal from calf to cow. “I’m looking forward to a genomics service for crossbreds - I’d like to better identify the blueprint of these invisible cows and have a herd full of them,” he adds.
Will selects two or three sires from each breed with help from Genus. “The good thing is that when it comes to strong feet, good fertility, high health status and good milk quality, that’s a given with the Norwegian Red ‘brand’, and yield and type characteristic supported by the Holstein.”
Each cow is bred with a sire that is a different breed to her own. “It’s as simple as that. And extremes in either breed are avoided. It’s just fine-tuning and matching the best sires for each cow. There’s now little difference between cow types and performance. “We now have to freeze brand cows to identify them.”
We’re fortunate to have a good team of Genus technicians that come straight after morning milking so cows are served within 30 mins of leaving the parlour and are back in the herd with minimum stress.
The first 120 straws used are sexed semen, on heifers and on eligible cows. Beef is used on the rest, with Aberdeen Angus the preferred breed. Beef cross calves are sold locally at three weeks old.
“It’s quite a cut-throat system, but we’re breeding from the most fertile cows and raising the benchmark.”
Game-changing collars
The addition of activity and rumination collars in 2021 has been a game-changer.
“We can now track pre-mating heats more accurately. This has allowed us to identify non-cycling cows sooner and cows with quiet heats. Our cull cow numbers Dropped markedly when we fitted collars, and it has also reduced the replacement rare and allowed us to grow the herd.”
Since investing in collars, the herd’s average calving interval has fallen from 412 days to 375 days and in 2023, and just 1.34 straws per successful insemination were used. Conception to first service currently stands at 42%.
This year, in 2024, 60 heifers will join the herd to allow for growth, calving on average at 24.4 years old.
Dry land
Grassland is prone to dry out on the 138-hectare grassland which sits on a gravel seam that runs from Kendal to Lancaster. They have only 42 inches (1,600mm) of rain a year so grass can be short in July and August, when cows are dry.
However, outside these times, maximum use is made of grassland. “It’s the most profitable feed for cows. We paddock graze for at least seven months a year and take three cuts of silage, making sure we produce silage of at least 10.5 to 11 ME and a D value of 65 to 66. It’s no good using ‘young’ grass on our self-feed system; we need the fibre to prevent it going straight through the cows.”
Healthy traits
The herd’s average somatic cell count is 140,00 cells/ml and the mastitis rate is 22 cows in 100 with more than 90% of cases occurring when cows are housed.
These levels will improve when their move from deep bedding to mattresses and sawdust occurs.
With limited health issues, and only 7% lame cows thanks to the Norwegian Red’s strong black feet, vet visits are rare and antibiotic use is minimal – they were ranked in the bottom 10% for antibiotic use among herds in their supplier milk pool group. . . “We’re very proud of this,” adds Will.
“It’s been a journey to find the sweet spot for us and to develop a herd of efficient cows to spread fewer costs over more litres. This must be the goal for all milk producers, but I think we’ve made good inroads into getting there.”
KEY FACTS
Farm size: 142-hectares
Herd size: 240 cows - target 260 and 100 replacements
Staff: Two full time
Breeding Holstein and Norwegian Red 2 way cross
Replacement rate: 16%
Calving interval: 375 days
LDY 13.25 litres/cow/day - increasing year-on-year
