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started selling females and the first we sold went for £ 7500 . We were really chuffed with that . We have sold tups regularly at Skipton and have had champion tup at the Beltex Show & Sale , which went on to make £ 2200 . That tup was Heber Park Sexpot .’
‘ The Beltex is a high maintenance breed and the longevity of some of the genetic bloodlines isn ’ t brilliant . We breed our own replacements . Ideally it is nice to lamb twins . We average around 150 per cent prolificacy , but we also undertake embryo transplanting using Mules as recipients .’ David has upped cow numbers at Gargrave over the years . When he and Karen married he was milking just 220 cows and before foot and mouth disease year of 2001 he was milking just 90 .
‘ We updated our milking parlour 14 years ago , so that we could milk 50 at a time , 25-a-side , and that made life easier . Milking takes three hours in a morning and just over two and a half hours on a night . I have five lads in a morning and four on a night . One lad stops with me during the day four days a week .’
‘ David has the dry cows out in summerbut the milk cows are inside 24 / 7 where they have comfortable accommodation and are fed a good balanced diet ’ |
‘ Our cows are Holstein Friesian X and are all in-calf when I get them . I go to Gisburn every Thursday and buy some out of other marts and off farms . They are all heifers with a few new cows , but mainly in-calf heifers . We AI with the Belgian Blue on a Genus RMS system which sees an inseminator coming every day to AI anything that is in season . All our calves are sold at about 8 weeks .’
‘ We are very lucky to have so many good dairy sales in our area with J36 , Leyburn , Bentham , Gisburn and Skipton all selling quality stock .’
David replaced a sizeable chunk of his dairy herd last year . He has a theory that has served him well on when to buy .
‘ Last year I bought 220 which was more than I would normally but I believe that if cows are cheap as they were at the time then it is appropriate . If they are expensive I will hang on to them a little more .’
‘ We have a pretty good profile and calve all year round . Our cows average around 9700 litres and we don ’ t push them . Cow health is really important .’
David has the dry cows out in summer but the milk cows are inside 24 / 7 where they have comfortable accommodation and are fed a good balanced diet using TMR from a JF Stoll mixer wagon .
‘ We have better cow health with them being inside . When they are outside you
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have the issues of inconsistent grass whereas indoors it is a complete diet where we have full control . You can also have issues outside with cows ’ feet on tracks . Inside the calving cows have plenty of straw and all the dairying cows are on mattresses . There ’ s plenty of sawdust too .’
‘ We used to let the cows out and they would rush outside , frolic and play for an hour but then that would be it and they would want to come back in and eat the silage and lovely food we chopped up
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and prepared for them . It ’ s like being either looked after by a chef or told to get out and please yourself . They chose the easier of those and who wouldn ’ t ? They are really better looked after than we are !’
‘ And on warm days when cows can suffer from heat stress by being outside ours are inside not just eating in comfort but also enjoying temperature-controlled buildings with fans .’
Continued on page 66
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