52 WEST LODGE APR / MAY 2022 • farmers-mart . co . uk
STEADY GROWTH HAS BEEN THE KEY AT WEST LODGE
Chris Berry talks with dairy farmer Richard Dunkley at Topcliffe
ROBOTIC milking , a better milk price , a sustainable beef enterprise and the third generation on its way are all positives that give Richard Dunkley confidence over dairy farming ’ s future and his family ’ s at West Lodge Farm in Topcliffe near Thirsk .
‘ I ’ m the second generation here ,’ says Richard . ‘ My father John started from scratch here 56 years ago when he took on this farm in the 60s after having worked on other dairy farms . We ’ ve gradually expanded it to 400 acres part-tenanted , part-owned and have 150 acres of arable land growing wheat , barley and forage maize , and have 150 dairy cows .’
‘ My mum Ellen , dad and I are partners in the family partnership . I ’ m married to Jenny who is a dairy farmer ’ s daughter , her father being Frank Wood of Knayton and we have two daughters Emma ( 16 ) and Alice ( 13 ).’
‘ I never thought of doing anything else but coming into the farm and we are now just under the average sized dairy farm .’
‘ Dad started with Friesians and bits of all sorts but we are now all pedigree Holsteins . We produce all our own replacements using sexed semen on the cows and replace at a rate of around 20 per cent per year . Our cows generally average around four to five lactations , but like many others we have some cows that are on their eighth or ninth lactation and are still producing good calves .’
The investment in robots and change from the traditional milking parlour came three and a half years ago and Richard says it went very smoothly .
‘ Dad was getting a bit older and the previous parlour needed updating . We were faced with the dilemma over whether we expanded the herd in order to afford to bring more people in or go down the robot route .’
‘ Lely Longtown put in the first Lely A5s in the north of England . The cows got used to them very quickly and on average the whole herd milks 3.3 times a day with a herd average of 10,500 litres per lactation .’
‘ The dairy herd is largely kept inside and they are on a consistent ration that way which means they tend to milk better . We feed them on silage , maize and a protein blend with a little bit of molasses and dairy cake in the robot .’
Richard says the mix of producing replacement dairy cows and beef cattle through the dairy herd makes for a very sustainable business model .
‘ We put about 30-40 per cent of our dairy cows to Holstein AI and the rest to either Belgian Blue , Limousin or Aberdeen Angus AI for beef calves , but mainly Belgian Blue because it produces a decent beast that sells well .’
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