One of the best

In 2013 Wilderley Hall Farm in Shrewsbury, England, was awarded the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers’ Gold Cup, distinguishing it as among the best dairy farms in the UK. “This was our second attempt in the competition. The first time we came second, which I felt showed we were on the right road,” comments Bill Higgins, who relies on his two Valtra T Series trac-tors to get things done.

Advertisement

Wilderley Hall Farm was started by husband and wife Bill and Margaret Higgins back in 1993 with 130 milking cows on a simple management system. Today the business has intensified and is run by Bill and Margaret’s sons, Bill and Andrew. The herd size has risen to 360 pedigree Holstein cows plus 290 followers and is still increasing. 

The Wilderly herd is closed and heifers first calf at 24 months with sexed semen used on the maiden heifers. Thereafter semen is unsexed with Charolais used on cows with undesirable characteristics. These cross-bred calves find a ready private market for beef. At calving the cow and calf are penned together allowing the cow to mother the calf and eat and drink in comfort while avoiding problems associated with surrogate mothers. At the next appropriate milking the calf is taken to a hutch while the cow joins the post-calving group where she stays for a little over a week. After that she moves to one of the main milking groups. 

Cow welfare a priority

The cows are served around 70 days after calving with a conception rate of 38 percent at first service. The calving interval is currently 416 days but some barren cows continue for over 600 days at over 40 kgs milk daily. 

Cow welfare is a priority, and today most cows are housed in cubicle buildings that are currently being extended and upgraded and where sand is used for bedding. Cows are fed a total mixed diet through a mixer wagon in the cubical buildings with nothing fed in the parlour. Only two rations are mixed: one for dry cows and one for milkers consisting, in different measures, of grass and maize silage, chopped straw, Trafford Gold (a moist feed based on human food industry waste), bread, beat pulp, high protein soya, soya hulls, rape meal and finally fats, minerals and yeast. 

T120 and T150 

Wilderley Hall Farm runs two tractors: a 150-horsepower Valtra T150 with 6,800 hours on the clock and a 120-horsepower T120 that has clocked up 10,300 hours. The T120 is permanently connected to the mixer and feeder wagon. Loaded by one of the farm’s two telehandlers, it is in use for much of the day. 

The T150 is much more of a general workhorse; it drives the straw chopper and undertakes a mixture of field work including muck and slurry spreading; most of the grassland gets a dressing of slurry after each silage cut, and some muck is sold off the farm. 

With limited acreage available what is the likely limit to cow numbers? 

“We’re not there yet,” comments Bill, “and as things in this industry are constantly changing, we’re flexible and we’ll see.”