Maxwells enjoy Jersey cattle at Scroggiehill, Castle Douglas

Very much a family affair, the farm is run by Fraser, his brother, Grant, and their parents, Graham and Anne, who run 150 milking cows, alongside a herd of 50 suckler beef cows, across 350 owned acres and 120 rented.

The 120-cubicle shed is currently being extended to add a further 62 cubicles to house more Jerseys, with the feed passage up the centre of the shed to avoid having to push the silage in

Having been at Scroggiehill for 35 years, the business was initially managed by Graham and his brother Iain, but it was split two years ago, to allow the two brothers to go their separate ways with Iain now dairying on a neighbouring unit.

“Building up a dairy herd has certainly had its challenges, and the pandemic made it even more difficult,” said Fraser.

“Securing a contract was the most difficult part when demand for milk took a knock, but we finally managed to get one through Grahams for Jersey milk, which took a lot of consideration when we were used to Holsteins.”

Cow comfort is essential for the Jersey herd to produce more milk

Two years down the line and the Maxwells are impressed by the Jersey breed which is proving to be extremely efficient averaging 1.83kg energy corrected milk/kg dry matter fed, with a feed rate of 0.33kg concentrate per kg of milk sold.

Yields are sitting at around 24.89litres per day, or 7350litres per year at 5.9%BF and 4.1%P.

“When we looked into the Jersey breed, the figures on paper more than match those of the Holstein when you take into account the milk price, longer lasting cows, less feed intake and less slurry production,” said Fraser who imported the first 100 heifers in calf from Denmark in 2021.

Since then, additional Jersey females have been purchased at Skipton and local herd dispersals in Ayrshire.

Two robotic milking machines were also installed in 2021, with a third put in earlier this year to allow for herd expansion to 185 cows milking all year round.

The DeLaval robots were purchased through Mathers Dairy Utensils in Dumfries. Cows average 3.4 milkings per day, with the aim being to reduce this number to 3.1 as cow numbers increase.

The heat detection system provided through cattle Sensehub collars has provided the ultimate reproduction management tool, allowing more control and accurate and valuable decision making on farm.

The Jersey breed has proven to be very efficient for the herd

“It was a huge learning curve for us, we had a lot of information at the start which we didn’t know what to do with. We were always double checking the cows with our own eyes, but have now got full faith in the robots as we have found them to be more accurate,” said Fraser.

Dairy tech consultant from Davidson Animal Feeds, James Bendle, also helped with the transition to a robot diet.

“You need to get the balance right feeding in the passage and in the robots to encourage them to go to the robots and James really helped with that.

“All we knew was parlour milking but James had a better understanding of robotic milking and the software used. Quite often he would be on the phone at 6am generating different reports or alerts which made the transition to robotic milking a lot smoother than it could have been,” said Fraser.

Davidsons also provide a bespoke meal for the milking herd which is fed via a TMR alongside home-grown silage and wholecrop. Cows also receive an average of 4.5kg per day, fed through the robot, according to yield.

Around 40-50 acres of wholecrop are taken annually, and 190 acres of silage. They aim to take four cuts of silage every year when the cows are housed all year round on cubicles with mattresses and a dusting of sawdust.

To make way for more cows, the original 120-cubicle shed has been extended to add a further 62 cubicles, with the feed passage up the centre of the shed.

Cows are housed all year round and milked through robots

Automatic scrapers push the slurry into the 300,000 gallon store below.

Cows are dried off 50 days pre-calving with far off cows grazed from April to October, and brought back into inside to a straw-bedded box closer to calving.

Heifers calve down at 22-24 months of age and all females are AI’d to sexed or beef semen.

“Since we brought in the heat detection collars it has been pretty straight forward, and the Jerseys have a good temperament so I can AI them in the cubicles,” Fraser said adding that all heifers are retained to help build up numbers.

Eventually, the Maxwells are looking to a 25-30% replacement rate, with additional heifers sold as in-calf heifers or bullers either through Carlisle mart or privately.

Calves are reared in individual pens for two weeks, before going into batches of five when they are introduced to an ad-lib concentrate and straw ration for weaning at 10 weeks of age. At this stage silage is included in the ration, or during the summer, youngstock get out to grass.

“Jersey calves are definitely more difficult to rear – it has been a real learning curve for us. They have a lot less body fat percentage than a traditional black and white calf, so their first few days are critical. They don’t have as much resilience so are under heat lamps and given jackets for up to 30 days during the winter to give them that extra boost,” said Graham.

Fraser added: “It is more frustrating as we are doing a better job of the calves and spending more time with them than we ever did with black and whites and were initially achieving poorer results.”

When the imported heifers came over the herd experienced health issues with crypto and calf scour which they found difficult to comprehend when the cattle and the calves were housed in a new building.The Maxwells also run 50 Aberdeen-Angus cross suckler cows, with replacements bought in although the intention is to breed from the Jersey cow in the future.

“We have ground suited for them, but realistically as we are moving forward with our dairy, we need to ask the question if they have a place here or if we need to prioritise the dairy side of the business,” said Fraser, who pointed out that all heifers go to an Angus bull while the cows are bulled to a Charolais bull.

Calves are fattened and sold through Stoddarts, along with beef cross calves from the dairy herd and purchased store cattle.

The family also fatten 900 store hoggs per year, buying in 350 North Country Cheviots from Dingwall and up to 500 Beltex cross Texel crosses locally, sell from November through to March. Turnips, kale or rape is sown after barley for the overwintering the hoggs.

“It really helps clean up the grass and is an extra bonus for us,” said Fraser, adding that all their hoggs are sold through Wallets Marts, Castle Douglas, where Anne is a director.