Dairy farming case studies

• Wil Armitage turned his back on high production in favour of breeding for profit

• Dylan Harries focus on our spring calving index has driven profitability and achieved a top 5 percent genetic merit score

• David Cotton achieves an impressive herd replacement rate of 19%, placing him the top 5% of performers

• Andrew Gilman has been optimising age at first calving in his AYR herd

• Genomic testing and a tailored approach to breeding, has lifted Willie Baillie's herd genetic merit into the top 15% across the UK

Explore our breeding and genetics guidance

• Monthly weighing heifers helped Richard Evans bring down the average age of calving by nine months

• Marc Evans reduced pneumonia cases and improved health in his youngstock

• Andrew Wallis and Tony White implemented changes to boost heifer growth rates and reduce age at first calving

• Sharon and Guy Hawken saw higher daily liveweight gains and earlier-calving replacements by focusing on training and development

More about dairy calf management

• Identifying trace element deficiencies by blood testing helped Tom Bletcher reduce his stillborn rate from 8% to 2%

• Quarterly testing for Johne’s helped Rheinallt Harries identify infected cows and control the spread

Learn about diseases affecting dairy cows

• Reducing intervals between silage cuts has helped strategic dairy farmers Tony and Michael Ball reduce feed costs

• Jonny Crickmore cut concentrates, saving £30,000 on bought-in feed

• Willie Baillie reducing sorting by soaking concentrates overnight and saw milk yields increase by 1.5 litres per cow

• Moving to twice a day delivery of fresh feed increased milk production by 1.5 litres per cow for no extra cost at Chance Hall Farm

Improve dairy cow nutrition

• Dan Burdett reduced his autumn calving block from 12 weeks to six weeks

• Jim Kirk lifted pregnancy rates across his herd from 20% to an impressive 25%.

Learn about fertility in dairy cows

• Read how George Wade increased milk from forage to 5,000 litres on his autumn calving farm

• David Merrett discusses why he decided to start cut and carry and the impact on his farm

Make the most of grass and forage

• Routinely mobility scoring helped Rhys Davies reduce lameness across his herd and identify replacements for future breeding

• Read how following the Healthy Feet Programme at Ditchetts farm reduced lameness from 23% to 12%

• Regular mobility scoring helped Robin Thomas reduce lameness cases by 29%

More about reducing lameness in your cows

• All year round calver Willie Baillie halved the number of mastitis on his farm

• Austin Russell reduced mastitis cases to 10 per 100 cows and increased yields by 2,000 litres

• Chris Mossman achieved significantly fewer mastitis incidences during the dry period and no cases during lactation

How to address mastitis issues in your herd

• How Joe Carter's Holstein herd achieves an impressive daily lifetime yield of 20.4 litres

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