Introducing an alkaline feed material to support rumen function is providing the Clapham’s with confidence they will be able to achieve their immediate goals, before moving on to the next…

Increasing milk from forage and tightening the calving pattern are amongst Tom and Ruth Clapham’s priorities as they settle in to jointly manage a 400-cow autumn block calving herd based at Bolton Hall Home Farm, near Leyburn.

“We believe in sustainable farming, and to progress our new and exciting venture we have introduced new herd performance targets,” Tom explains. “We’re running a Montbéliard cross Holstein herd which we believe has real yield potential; we’re currently aiming to step up yield from an average 6,500 litres to 7,500 litres with 55% taken from forage – the cheapest form of feed and this coming winter we’re planning to feed a mix of grass silage, wholecrop, Alkagrain 30, and distillers.

“We also want to tighten the calving pattern to enable us to get the cows in calf, turnout in February and subsequently reduce costs. The herd had calved over a six-month period commencing late August, however having culled some of the longer dated cows and had better fertility we are on track to reduce the calving period this season by 10 weeks, to mid-December.”

Tom and Ruth are new entrants to the industry; both hail from non-farming backgrounds. After meeting whilst studying at Bishop Burton College of Agriculture, they eventually went on to spend the last four years managing a 150-cow unit in Cheshire before starting their next journey in Wensleydale towards the end of last year.

“We currently have responsibility for 400 milking cows and 200 home bred followers on the 750-acre unit,” Ruth explains. “Whilst we’ve spent time upskilling ourselves, every day remains a school day for us, and we take advice and support from specialists when required.

“For example, when we arrived last December the cows were averaging just 18 litres and we felt yield could be a lot better so we introduced nutritional support from Rob Cockcroft who advised on finely tuning the PMR comprising grass silage, wholecrop, caustic wheat, fodder beet and distillers mix which in turn led to lifting yield by a significant 25% to 23-24 litres.

“Unfortunately, six weeks later we ran out of caustic wheat but replacing it with Alkagrain 30 led to a further yield increase to 25.5 litres and lift solids by 0.2kg to 4.4% butterfat and 3.36 % protein.”

Introducing the Alkagrain, a mix of Home n’ Dry alkalising feed pellets – the foundation of Dugdale Nutrition’s alkasystems technology and fully mature cereal grain to produce a cost-effective high starch feed material. It’s 17% CP content, also allowed the Clapham’s to reduce the rate of distillers in the diet by 0.5kg a head.

Alkagrain helps to support rumen function; as the material’s name suggests it is highly alkaline analysing pH8, so it buffers rumen pH and reduces the risk of SARA (Sub Acute Ruminal Acidosis). Optimising the rumen environment by raising the pH steps up the microbial activity in the rumen, which in turn increases the production of microbial protein and energy available to the cow resulting in more efficient feed utilisation and better performance.

Despite this year’s late spring, the couple are planning to take four quality cuts of grass silage and feed with a blend of Alkagrain, distillers and wholecrop, and a small amount of concentrate through the parlour. Tom says: “Our target is to achieve an average peak yield of 30 litres while maintaining a healthy, fertile herd. Introducing an alkaline feed material to support rumen function is providing us with confidence we will be able to achieve our immediate goals, before moving on to the next.”