Rob Slater Producer Report
In the rolling Staffordshire countryside ten miles west of the market town of Uttoxeter lies Lion Farm, home to the father and son farming team John and Rob Slater.
In common with all UK milk producers, the challenge for this typical dairy farm over recent years has been the constant battle to show a profit at a time of tumbling milk prices and increasing costs.
Attracted by the price premiums paid by cheese manufacturers at the time, a policy decision was made 10 years ago to specialise in producing milk for cheese, with the focus very much on improving milk quality.
All of the milk from the 180 Holsteins is now contracted to Heler’s cheese factory at Nantwich with minimum quality parameters of 4.1% butterfat and 3.25% protein and significant incentives and penalties built in to the to focus the mind on maintaining maximum levels at all times. With a healthy premium of paid for each 0.1% increase in protein, the emphasis on such herds has to be on consistent quality through out the year.
“To ensure that we meet milk composition requirements we have concentrated on improving the two main contributing factors, namely the genetics of the herd and diet,” explains Rob Slater.
“We opted for the American and Canadian Holstein types and are currently using Alta Devoted throughout the herd. Dietary improvements were made by optimising the use of home-produced forages, with maize and wholecrop silages featuring in the diet throughout the year, and by utilising red clover in all silage reseeds.”
A Typical Diet:
Dry matter intakes are often an issue with such diets and QLF liquid feeds are now fed consistently to all stock to maintain high intakes and optimise rumen function. This year has proven to be a particularly challenging time with dramatic variances in silage and sward quality and, upon the advice of Steve Jackson of QLF, Rob decided to try the inclusion of the synthetic methionine Metasmart to improve digestibility even further.
“With butterfat levels dipping below the critical base level in May, we just had to do something” explains Rob, who waskeen to learn more about the extensive trials that Kemin had conducted in France. As all high-yeilders on the farm are housed all year, this was an ideal situation to trial the product; the results were dramatic, with significant increases recorded in protein, butterfat and yield.
“I’ve got to say we were surprised and very pleased with the results” says Rob, who like many producers for cheese see quality drop when diets vary. “Throughout the trial we saw a consistent benefit in all 3 yeild groups, all of which fell off dramatically once the product was withdrawn.”
The financial benefits of using Metasmart liquid speak for themselves. At Lion Farm, the cost of feeding the product, 13p/cow/day, was rewarded with a staggering return of 35.9p/cow/day with an average yield increase of one litre/cow/day, butterfat up by 0.15% and protein up 0.05%.
With such a low inclusion rate of 25g/cow/day it is more accurate for the Metasmart liquid to be added to the QLF Allstock 30 during production, giving a more stable and uniform mix than might be achieved on-farm.