1. Strategic Dairy Farm Autumn Block Calving
Farm Excellence Platform
Strategic Dairy Farm Autumn Block Calving
Buscot Wick Farm, Faringdon, Oxford, SN7 8DJ
By kind permission of the Kinch family

2. Background to the Farm Autumn Block Calving Strategic Dairy Farm
Phil Kinch & Ben Redman

3. Buscot Wick Farm– The History
Background to the business
Tenancy
Value of discussion groups
Managing a system change – physical and financial challenges
Setting targets – benchmarking & KPI’s
What next….?

4. Buscot Wick Farm– Aims Buscot Wick Farm Strategic Dairy Farm
Consistent Return on Tenants Capital of >32%
Enjoyment by all
3 Million liters sold
Autumn block 9000l average
Calved in 9 weeks
Sell youngstock
Keep Calving interval <370 days
Continuous challenge
Maintain focus
Identify areas of weakness
Be employer of choice

5. Managing fertility performance
Dave Gilbert MRCVS

6. Plan Fertility performance Buscot Wick performance 2018/19
Targets
Key drivers
Identifying the gap
Buscot Wick performance 2018/19
Changes
Impacts
Reviewing performance
Target setting
Action plan

7. Value of fertility

8. AHDB targets

9. Calving pattern
MacMillan, J Proc Dairy Cow Fert Conf. Pp6-18

10. What drives in calf rates
Uterine health
Recovery time
Calving ease
Infectious disease
Insemination technique
Submission x conception
Lameness
Mineral status
Body condition
Heat detection
Heifer growth
Bull management

11. 6 week in calf rate vs 6 week calved rate

12. Fertility KPIs

13. Buscot Wick Farm

14. Cows and heifers calved within the first 6 weeks (%)*
Number of cows and heifers calved in the first 6 weeks from the planned start of calving ÷ Total number of cows and heifers due to calve×100=6 week calving rate %

15. Fertility targets

16. Managing fertility performance

17. The fertility year
Calving
Start mating
End mating
PD & Review
Dry off

18. Measure to Manage – Review to Improve

19. Maximising herd performance
Calving pattern
Nutrition
Cow health
Heat detection
Genetics/AI
Bull management
Heifers
Non cyclers

20. Where’s the gap?

21. Breeding plan Consider all the factors
Team approach – advisor/vet
Assess areas that influence success
Calving pattern
Health
Nutrition
Adapt plan each year based on risks & objectives

22. Current KPI Performance – table target vs actual
Key Performance Indicators
Excellent
(Top 5%)
Good
(Top 25% )
Average (Industry average)
Buscot Wick Performance
Cows and heifers calved within the first 6 weeks (%)
>90%
80%
70%
89*
Herd replacement rate(%)
<20%,
22%
26%
Milk solids output per hectare (kg MS/ha) (litres)
>1500kg/ha
1250kg/ha
1100kg/ha
1277
Milk yield from forage (litres) and (solids)
>5,000l
(427kg)
4,000l (342kg)
2,750l (235kg)
3425
268
Overheads (excluding rent and finance)
<9ppl
10.5ppl
12.5ppl
9.8
Genetic Merit
5th %
25th %
50th %
33%
Full economic net margin (ppl)
>7ppl
2ppl
-3ppl
5.2
Full economic costs of production (ppl)
Block <24ppl
30ppl
34.5ppl
25.6
Return on tenants-type capital (%)
>2 0 %
14% 3%
16%

23. Take Home Messages Review your System Know your KPI’s
Benchmark against the best

24. Resource links
Sexed semen for Block calvers Tim Downes and Tristan Dale
block-calvers-webinar
Sexed semen calculator calculator
Herd Genetic Report information/breeding-genetics/herd-genetic-reports/

25. ‘Inspiring our farmers, growers and industry to succeed in a rapidly changing world’
Thank you for coming!

26. © Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2017 | All Rights Reserved
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