You could almost be forgiven for forgetting what a horribly wet winter/spring it has been but it was quite telling how fields across Stewartry seemed to go from yellow stubble to brown earth almost in a week at the end of April, as folk rushed to get their spring crops in.

Followed quickly by swathes of dark green grass becoming pale green over the course of four days as a large number dairy farmers took their first cut silage at the same time. With the pale green quickly turning a bit browner as everyone rushed to relieve the pressure on the slurry stores caused by all that rain. What a time to be a contractor!

In truth we were pretty much dead on our normal timing for first cut. Seemed a pretty decent crop although proof will be in the analysis in a couple of weeks’ time. In the meantime, the cows are on last year’s third cut which seems to be feeding out pretty well with the overall milk solids holding up well at around 3.15kg MS/cow/day. We are however seeing a bit of a reduction in milk quality which has dropped from 4.17 to 4.05%BF and 3.44 to 3.37%P while volumes have seen a commensurate rise.

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In all likelihood this shift in the milk is unrelated to the diet change as we always see a shift from quality to quantity at this time of year, possibly it’s an evolutionary adaptation with the cows trying to give their 'calves' more fluid to stop them getting dehydrated in the summer. Whatever the cause, it’s problematic for two reasons. Firstly, although we’re still delivering the same amount of protein to the cheese factory we’ll get paid less as we’ve dropped under the premium level of 3.4%P.

Secondly, we will run the risk on being penalised later in the year as our milk buyer runs a psuedo-quota (A/B pricing) system. At the start of the year, we agree the volumes to be supplied each quarter and if these are exceeded the excess is essentially paid at the lower of their standard price or the spot price. So, in effect the lower milk quality will be a double whammy to our income.

To be honest though, the bigger problem with the A/B system is that the agreed volumes have remained constant for the last two years now which makes it difficult for farms to look ahead and have confidence to put plans in place to improve let alone expand. In fact, in extremis, you could imagine farms actually reducing cow numbers as they increase efficiency to keep within their allocated volumes.

At least under the 'old quota' system people could factor buying quota, if necessary, into any expansion. Some people will point to the upcoming Milk Supply Regulations which in theory give the option of selling surplus milk to a second processor. However, this is a bit of a white elephant as we won’t be able to just sell off a day’s milk elsewhere at the end of the month to stay within 'quota' (understandably as the factory wants consistent supply) and which second buyer is likely to come in throughout the month to pick up a couple of hundred litres at a time?

The thing is, with the rate that technology seems to be progressing standing still, it really is the equivalent of going backwards. Take for example 'wearable' technology – it is about 20 years now since the first collars were introduced for heat detection, and now we’ve got devices to monitor not just activity but also temperature, rumination, water intake, and also a sort of cow GPS to find them in the barn.

The most vivid example I’ve seen recently of how the next revolution in artificial intelligence and machine learning has the potential to change things on dairy farms is the Pedivue system from Hoofcount. They’ve added a camera to the end of the footbath and as the cow walks away the system identifies each foot and can spot even the very early stages of digital dermatitis (M1 lesions) so that they can be targeted for early spot treatment to prevent it developing further.

Watching the video stream from the camera it is easy to imagine how they could take the technology further and flag up other problems with the hooves. When you think back to the strides, we’ve made with mastitis over the last 10 years or so, hopefully technology like this will help us tackle lameness with the same vigour.

On the subject of technology, those of you with good memories will remember that back in the summer of 2022 after several years of getting more than 10% bulls from the 'sexed' semen provided by a well-known semen company, we decided to try some other companies and see if we’d have better 'luck'. So, we’ve now had a year’s worth of calves since we moved and it’s quite striking.

We’ve had a total of three bull calves from the last 70 calves born. One of those was a result of a straw from the original company which I’d found in my tank and unfortunately decided to use up – could I have had worse luck? And the other two were a pair of twins, presumably given the rest of the results they came from fission of a single egg, so in reality it is one bull from 68 conceptions since we moved or <2%.

I suggest that maybe the company we had used previously needs to work a bit more on their technology or maybe change their marketing and call it 'sex enhanced' rather than 'sexed' semen as there is a world of difference between 10% and 2%.

FARM facts

John, his brother Stuart and their mother Margaret, own and manage the Killywhan herd at Drum, Beeswing, Dumfries. The all-year calving herd is milked three-times daily and has won several awards both for herd and individual cow's production. Currently the herd is averaging over 41.5litres sold/cow/day, at 4.05%BF, and 3.37%P, with a calving index of 401.