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Lackham farm belongs to an organisation called the Kingshay Trust which analyses the performance of our dairy herd and compares us to similar farms The comparison helps us to monitor our performance and see where our performance is better or worse than comparable farms a process known as benchmarking.
Each month our performance is analysed and you can see how we are performing. To make a fair comparison of our performance we record both how much milk we sold and how much we feed to the calves, these add up to give a figure of how much the cows produce per month.
Weather has a big effect on farm performance from month to month but we can monitor our performance against other farms to see if our management of the herd is as good as others.
The number of cows in milk varies from month to month as some go dry and have 8 weeks rest before calving again. The herd mainly calves from September through to April.
Yield from all forage per cow is a measure of how effectively we are using out home grown grass, grass silage and maize silage to not only provide maintenance but also give the animal enough energy and protein for milk production. The summer drought in 2003 resulted in the cows not getting enough forage to provide nutrients for milk production, but usually forage provides 5-15 litres of milk per day.
The yield from grazed forage gives an indication of how effectively the cows make milk from eating fresh grass. This will depend on grazing management and the weather. It is usual for Lackham to have dry summers with little grass growth and so this figure will usually go down in mid summer.
Hygiene - The aim is to have as low a bacteria count as possible. For milk of the highest quality the Bactoscan count must be below 100. We gain a bonus on our milk price if the milk we produce is below 50.
Cellcount - is a measure of the level of mastitis infection in the herd. If the figure is below 250 there is little yield loss in the herd due to mastitis infection of the udder.
Butterfat and Protein levels are very important for determining milk price. They vary with the stage of lactation of a cow, time of year and feeding regime. Breeding and feeding policy is aimed at improving or maintaining levels of these in milk.
Milk price varies from month to month over the season and with milk market conditions - supply and demand for milk. Autumn calving of cows is aimed at producing milk in the winter months when the milk price is at its highest.
Concentrate use per cow will vary with the yield of the cows. Cows yielding 9000 litres per year will need to eat a lot of concentrated food to gain enough energy and protein to sustain their yields.
Concentrate use per litre is a measure of how efficient our cows are at converting expensive bought in feeds to milk.
Other purchased feeds are for example brewers grains, sugar beet pulp, which are added to the ration to stimulate appetite and ensure a balanced ration.
MOPF - Margin over purchased feed for the herd gives an estimate of how much money we will have made from milk production after we have taken away the money needed to purchase extra feed. This margin is needed to pay for all other expenses such as growing costs for grass and maize, fuel, energy, labour costs and all other overheads. Other enterprises such as beef and sheep will also contribute towards paying for these overheads.
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