TDF – Dairy Farm near the Sperrins
December 10, 2024
CAFRE Dairying Adviser, Trevor Alcorn highlights the progress of David Hunter from Newtownstewart. His farm is a short distance from the scenic Sperrin mountains. After a great deal of thought, David made the decision to convert the suckler, sheep and arable enterprises on the home farm into a new dairy enterprise.
Building work commenced in early 2012. A new slatted cubicle house was constructed followed by a Dairymaster milking parlour. Milking commenced in spring 2013, and he currently has a herd of 120 cows milking. Calving commences on 1st February continues until the end of April. Approximately 80% of the herd calving in the first six weeks.
Grass based herd
Trevor outlines that “the herd is very much grass based, with grazing taking place between mid-February and mid-November, weather permitting. David has developed new laneways, paddock system and water supply. At this stage he has re-seeded the entire grazing platform and focused on improving soil fertility”.
With an interest in grazing and grassland management, David became a Grasscheck farm and a grass partner farm for DLF seeds. He regularly measures grass growth and records how paddocks are performing, as well as trialling various grass varieties. Currently David averages 13 tonnes grass DM per hectare throughout the grazing season. David’s passion for grass and grazing led to him to win the 2024 Ulster Grassland Society Farmer of the Year.
Herd performance
David’s breeding policy has been a Jersey cross Holstein Friesian. He is now introducing Viking Red as a three-way cross. Currently cows are averaging 12 litres at 5.81% Butterfat (BF), 4.24% Protein (P) from 3kg concentrate. Drying off has commenced and all cows will be dried off before Christmas. Overall herd performance for the 2023 benchmarked year was 7080 litres per cow at 4.63% BF and 3.67% P, with a feed rate of 0.28 kg of concentrate fed per litre of milk produced.
Innovation and labour efficiency are key in David’s strive for efficiency. The milking parlour has been upgraded to a 14:28 with the ADF (automatic dip and flush) recently installed. He has also recently purchased a GPS operated fertiliser sower, with weigh cells and section control, in a bid to reduce any wasted fertiliser. To help improve labour efficiency a new Lely robot scraper and automatic calf feeder have been installed.
David recently became one of CAFRE’s – Technology Demonstration Farms (TDFs) and his theme is feed efficiency. He is now open for visits and gives a very comprehensive insight into his farming business to visiting groups. To express an interest in visiting David’s farm contact KT Administration by email: kt.admin@daera-ni.gov.uk