News

Maximising cow health and performance through improved infrastructure

29th April 2025

Utilising the cow signals diamonds, we can identify six key freedoms of a cow; Feed, Water, Light, Air, Rest and Space. The concept is simple; understanding and rearing yours cows’ behaviour with the aim to improve surroundings, leading to increased yields, improve herd health and improved fertility rates.

Sustainable Nutrition for Award-Winning Herd

11th April 2025

Located within the grounds of Dunham Massey National Trust, just outside of Altrincham, tenant farmer Stuart Royale runs Home Farm and the Dunham herd, a 213-acre award-winning farm. Stuart and the team milk the 130 Pedigree Dairy Shorthorns twice a day, with a rolling average of 6,800 litres, 4.6% fat and 3.25% protein. The herd is grazed between Spring and Autumn, with 110 acres used for grass silage and 40 acres for spring barley, which is reseeded after harvest in August ready for the following spring.

What is Grass Worth?

27th March 2025

As yield per cow increases, sustaining high yields at grass becomes more difficult. Grazed grass is still a cheap way of feeding dairy cows as long as a strict grazing policy is in place along with excellent grassland management and appropriate supplementary feeding to high yielding cows. The key to good grassland management is matching grass growth with grazing time and stocking rate. Measuring grass heights with a grass stick or plate meter will give a guide to grass availability over the grazing season and allow for better planning of the grazing cycle. Research has shown that milk from grass could be as high as 29 litres. However this requires the cow to consume almost 20kg of grass dry matter per day! More realistically we should expect between 15 to 18 litres from grass in good grazing conditions. This milk yield requires a cow to consume 15kg dry matter of grass per day. With grass at 18% dry matter, this equates to 83kg fresh grass per day. As milk yield and supplementary feeding increases the opportunity to consume grass decreases.