Making the most out of grass provides a huge opportunity to increase profits in a sustainable way, and it is one that Lockerbie-based Cumrue Farm, is capitalising on with their grass-based New Zealand style of farming.
Cumrue is one of eight dairy farms run by the Farming Partners brand formed between the Muldowney and Beattie family and a group of talented young farmers. Cumrue was converted to a grassland farm 12 years ago, and John Collier took on the manager role in January 2020, and is also a shareholder, owning 13% of the herd.
The main aim of the partnership is to farm together on a number of dairy and heifer rearing units in Scotland and Ireland, specialising in grass-based systems. Each farm looks to grow as much of the green stuff as possible and turn it into high quality food in the form of milk from cows.
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Following the grass growth curve – as the grass plant stops growing in the winter – they calve all cows in the spring as grass starts to grow, and aim to have the herd dried off just before Christmas.
“We love the way we farm and while this approach sounds simple, working with mother nature and the various seasons takes a lot of determination and skill. The partners have invested heavily in their farms to allow us to do this efficiently,” said John, who is running a 700-Jersey cross cow herd which grazes outside most of the year, being brought inside to dry off in December, and back out once they calve in the spring.
“The grazing system is a sustainable system for producing milk at a low cost. Cows like to be out at grass, and it is the cheapest and most nutritious feed you can give a cow,” said John who pointed out that Irish and New Zealand genetics are used throughout to ensure a hardy type that can survive outdoors.
Producing that cheap, well-managed grassland for the cows takes a bit of work though.
“We treat grass like feed, we need to budget it for the year as well as ensuring all the right nutrients are active,” said John, who works with a spring rotation planner – a tool to plan their first grazing rotation.
The planner is done through Agri Net, working out when the grass is grazed early enough to allow time for re-growth for the second rotation and to ensure the grass does not run out before second rotation. At Cumrue it tends to take 60 days to graze the 254-hectare farm, meaning they will go into their second rotation around April 10, depending on the weather and grass growth.
Electric fencing ensures the cows stay in their designated paddocks. Grass is also measured twice a week at peak season to keep on top of quality as when it starts to seed, months of quality grass can deteriorate very quickly.
“The most important objective is keeping grass growing in front of our cows and that of course is through fertiliser and slurry. We have tried to reduce our nitrogen intake over the last two years and make better use of our slurry, however nitrogen is something we still need and in our system it is worth spending the money on it.
“We need to be able to manage our surplus or deficit grass. In a good year we will have a surplus couple of fields which we’ll bale for feeding through the winter,” added John.
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Cows are dried off when they come inside in December where they are housed in cubicles bedded with sawdust before moving onto straw bedded courts closer to calving. They are fed silage through the winter, and when milking are supplemented with two to three kg of bespoke meal fed through the parlour.
At Cumrue there is no time wasted feeding cows as the team get contractors in to feed cattle and all things machinery.
“Not only is machinery very expensive, but it requires staff to work it and we simply need all hands-on deck to look after the cows. We can’t justify losing a man to feed cattle when they are only housed for four months of the year,” said John, pointing out that contractors, John Watson and Lindsay Reid, do such work at this time.
Cumrue produces 15 tonnes of grass per year which is turned into 5865 litres of milk per cow for the 700-cow herd, that achieves butterfat and protein percentages of 4.8 and 3.72 respectively.
All milk is sold through Lactalis, which favours high milk solids and therefore is geared towards Jersey-type cow. However, with a spring-block calving herd and no milk produced after Christmas for three months, the herd is penalised slightly.
“We might not produce the highest quantities but we can certainly produce the quality. We believe the Jersey cross cow is the most efficient and hardiest cow for producing milk in our system. Our cows will weigh only 540kg but will produce their weight or more in solids,” he said adding that cows are milked twice a day through a DeLaval 44 point swingover parlour.
The herd spilt is split into two groups by age to prevent the older cows bullying the younger females. It also means the herd doesn’t have to stand the full two hours it takes to milk them.
Cows at grass are only ever a 2km maximum away from the parlour, with the further away paddocks used to grow silage.
“The Jersey cross stands up to our system well, being a smaller hardier animal that is better suited to walking the long distances daily from outdoor paddocks to the parlour. The herd has been bred for this system and are well used to the walk,” said John.
The farm infrastructure was also built to suit the system with two under passages as well as artificial turf on the roads to cut down on the number of stones and help reduce lameness.
Lameness is something that could pose problems on such systems, but the team is on board as soon as they see something visibly wrong with individuals and the foot trimmer in four times a year. The main aim is always to ensure cows are as healthy and as fit as possible for getting back in calf. All are AI’d through Cogent.
“By block calving we can match the cow’s appetite with the grass growth curve to depend on the grazing system,” said John adding that the top 30% of females are AI’d using sexed semen to breed replacements with the remaining 70% AI’d to beef sires.
At Cumrue, the whole herd is dried off by December 23, with spring calving split between two batches for calving in March. At present, 85% of the herd has calved, with the team aiming to have a full milking herd by the end of April.
Calves are given their first dose of colostrum at Cumrue and picked up twice daily to go to the youngstock unit at Over Garrel, run by the farming partners brand. Heifer calves are reared at Over Garrel, and AI’d to calve at two years of age when they are then returned to Cumrue in calf.
“The system works well for us as the youngstock can be prioritised at Over Garrel and return in their best conditions, we are also at full capacity for cow numbers and wouldn’t be able to run as many milking cows if we had to keep all the youngstock as well.
“We aim to keep on improving in what we do, and with the eight different units owned by the farming partners, it is always good to hear other ideas, as well as giving us a bit of competition to be the best.
“We are spoilt to be working in a group as it makes everything a lot easier having such good back up which says a lot about the partnership,” said John who added that staff issues are not a problem, when people find the farms interesting places to work.
The farm also hosts training days for the team to help improve their people and grow the business. Previously this resulted in a lot of relief milking students returning for a career or a full-time job as well as two becoming managers and partners on two different units.
“I enjoy what we do, and I believe most people that work here enjoy it too as it is a totally different system to a lot of other farm businesses. We have to think out of the box and do something different and there is so much we can all learn and improve on which is great.
“The business is strong across the full partnership, but we just don’t know what is around the corner. The next two years are however going to be tough when we have witnessed record high prices for the last two years. Unfortunately with all highs, the lows tend to follow.
“We are hopeful that we have a strong sustainable business that can withstand the crashes that do come,” John concluded.
FARM FACTS Business: Part of the Farming Partners brand, formed between the Muldowney and Beattie family and a group of talented young farmers. John Collier is a manager and a shareholder, owning 13% of the herd. There are four full-time staff on the unit, plus relief milkers.
Livestock numbers: 700 milking cows.
Farm acreage: 256 hectares.
ON THE SPOT QUESTIONS Best investment? Cows
Best advice? Focus on doing the basics brilliantly.
Biggest achievement? Creating opportunities for people in farming.
Biggest challenge in the industry? Attracting the best talent into the industry.
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