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(Alan & Donna Webber with Dealer Manager Andrew Palfrey)
Farm/dairy name: Hensley
Owners: DR & RJ Webber & Son
No of dairy cows: 130
Breed of cows: Friesian/Holstein
Housing: Cubical buildings
Milking system: DeLaval Herringbone 50°with Midiline milking system
Number of milkings per day: Two
“A first class installation both the SCC and Bactascan’s have dropped and there is a real improvement in teat condition”
Alan Webber farms in partnership with his parents, Derek and Rosemarie Webber, and is helped by his wife Donna. They farm 116ha (287 acres) part as tenants of the Affeton Estate and the rest they own. Alan is chairman of the Crediton Dairy Discussion Group which meets during the winter months to hear and spread information on dairy farming. He is also a chairman of Profiteers his local Pasture for Profit Group which gives him the opportunity to benchmark the farm using Comparable Farm profits.
The Webbers are constantly setting targets for fertility, grass quality and looking for ways of reducing concentrate use. The farm has been organic for four years. Alan says “I like this less intensive way of farming and of course the price per litre is a little better”. The milk from Hensley Farm goes to Parkham Farms Ltd., who are specialist makers of organic cheese.
Alan has taken part in the South West Dairy Farm Business of the Year competition both in 2003 and 2004. This is a very tough competition and involves the producers having to demonstrate what it takes to be successful in the industry. We are pleased to congratulate him on finishing in the final three on both occasions
The cows are housed by day for 3 months of the year in cubical buildings which have 9’ cubicles. Alan said “the size of the bed is very important. It is essential that if the cows are not feeding they have somewhere comfortable to lie”. All the cows lie on rubber mats with a coating of chopped straw and some lime to keep the bed area as dry as possible. The remainder of the year they spend on pasture.
The cow’s winter rations are grass silage with whole crop peas and barley. An out of parlour feeding system tops up the higher yielding cows with concentrate. All the forage comes from the farm with approx 12 ha of peas and barley. Alan uses a contractor to harvest the crop with specialist machinery. Cows are bred for low maintenance relying on New Zealand genetics. “Our cows have to walk quite a distance along tracks so good legs and feet are very important” Compound feed is bought from a local company who give valuable information like costings and profit per litre etc.
The herd produces on average 6500 litres per cow per year at 4.22% butterfat and 3.33% protein. Since installing the new parlour the TBC’s are now averaging 26 with the rolling SCC at 129 Alan said “I’m very pleased with this as they were considerably higher in the old 14 x14 parlour.
In November 2004 investment was made in a New Zealand style 16 x 36 DeLaval 50° midiline parlour with heavy duty stalls and breast rails The provision of the extra stalls would allow the milker to be extended at a later date The parlour is equipped with droppers, MM31 clusters and EP70 pulsation Alan said “We wanted a very simple system that would milk our cows quickly and efficiently. I wanted the unique Delaval Duovac system to take care of any possible over milking and it certainly does that” The cleaning of the plant is taken care of by a C200 automatic plant washer. “We like the fact that the plant is washed to the same high standard every time, even if we are in a hurry to get on with other work”
The cows are block calved between 1st October and the end of December which suites the farm and the milk buyer with 60% of the herd being 3rd calvers or younger. The average days in milk are 326. Some of the cows are pedigree but Alan is working towards an all pedigree herd with the “Dartrise” prefix “This will give me better value of my stock and good traceability” he said.
Sunnybank Engineering the local DeLaval dealer made the installation and Andrew Palfrey the owner said “It was very good working with Alan. He had lots of good ideas, like a simple system for automatically washing the walls between batches of cows, which we put into operation together” The finish of the installation is to a very high standard and a credit to both the Webber family and Sunnybank Engineering.
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