I had the pleasure to visit John Sansom’s Blacknor Herd today in Dorset, where Ian Crouch is developing an outstanding herd. The system at Blacknor is at the other end of the "technical " scale to Brymor in Yorkshire, but there are certain similarities.
The Milking parlour has been in twice daily use for over 50 years, and is an 8 stall Abreast parlour, the stall work and concrete steps are original but vacuum operated concentrate feeders and Automatic Cluster Removers have been added since Ian arrived six years ago.
The feeding of silage was changed to a TMR system delivered to Bunker feeders on the open yard, 3 years ago using a second hand Keenan mixer wagon, and the cows enjoy a deep straw bedded yard.
The farm extends to 380 acres, 160 acres of Cereals, 18 acres of Forage Maize and for the first time this year 18 acres of Triticale (a hybrid Cereal crop that has been undersown with grass). The remaining acreage is down to Grass and includes 80 acres of permanent pasture that surrounds Chettle House, who are the landlords.
Production per cow is now averaging 7000 litres annually at 5% Butterfat and 3.8% Protein which may well set new record levels for Fat +Protein in the UK and is leaving a margin of £1150 a cow.
Ian has adopted a policy of using a series of Natural Service sires and this has introduced a great degree of uniformity to the herd, the most successful so far being a Luxury son from the Slindon Lily family, and his daughters have won every Group and Pair prize that they have contested this show season.
In addition Ian and his father David and John Sansom have invested in a few outstanding individual cows and these include Wardour Hilarious EX 91 now in her sixth lactation and yielding over 9000 kgs with her 5th calf. She was bred locally by Richard Arundell, as was Wardour RO Fawn 2.
This J P Royal Oak daughter has had three different homes in each of her first three lactation’s, as a heifer she was one of 20 purchased by Steven Medlicott for the Chiltern Vale herd in Bucks, when that herd had to be sold she moved into a Holstein herd with Roy Cogman who had been the Chiltern Vale Herd manager, in this herd she was the leading individual out yielding her Herdmates for weight of Fat +Protein and was the second highest yielding Guernsey within the UK in 2003 with over 11,000 kgs at 5% BF.
Roy moved to a different Holstein herd which offered much lower inputs and Fawn started her third lactation there before moving to Blacknor in March and she has yielded over 11,000 kgs again despite the move. Fawn was 2nd to the Champion and Hon Mention at the Bath &West and then again at the Dairy Event found herself in the same position.
I mentioned there were similarities between Blacknor and Brymor and they are the dedication to detail at both farms with the cows needs coming first, the quality of the TMR diets that allow the cows to produce high yields and the fact that one or other of these herds will soon set a new UK Guernsey record for Weight of Fat + Protein eclipsing the long standing mark of 610 kgs set by the Shalford herd.
