A Bright Future with Consumer-Friendly Cows
William Templeton
After studying agriculture at SAC Auchincruive, Mr Templeton returned to the family farm with 60 cows and a milk price around 26-27p/litre. He believes he has a strong with his (now)100 Ayrshires despite a milk price of 19-20p/litre, although he does wonder why dairy farmers are the only players in any industry to buy everything retail and sell everything wholesale.
Winds of Change
Graham Bell
One year ago Mr & Mrs Bell started farming on a Council farm in Cheshire, having spent the previous 20 years involved with the famous Hunday Herd in Northumberland. Mr Bell will suggest that this change in his circumstances coincides with radical changes throughout the whole dairy industry, which will require everyone to review the direction of their breeding programmes.
Breeding Belgian Blues for Profit
Philip Halhead
Mr Halhead is a dairy farmer who also has a small select herd of pedigree Belgian Blue beef cattle. He will explain how the two herds of cattle are focused very specifically to bring a quality product to the market place: the dairy herd producing a commodity product and the Blues a niche product.
A Good Dose of Reality for a Brighter Future
Alan Swale (Dairy Farmer, Preston)
Mr Swale farms 500+ acres with his two sons. He has learnt lessons in the last 4 years. The herd has been expanded from 160 cows to 300 high yielding Holsteins - these are pedigree breeders who still get a buzz out of a great Holstein cow. Objective: to sell 3,000,000 litres with no dairy contract, holding their own quota and selling quality Holsteins.
Composite/Welfare Indices in Nordic Countries
Professor Erling Strandberg (Associate Professor, Department of Animal Breeding & Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)
Professor Strandberg will present an overview of Nordic breeding goals and selection criteria, explaining which traits are included and why (e.g. recording systems for fertility and veterinary treatments, unfavourable genetic correlations with production, large progeny groups). He will describe the genetic trends for a variety of traits and make suggestions for the future: harmonization of traits, models and genetic evaluations.
Longevity and Profitability
Dr David Selner (Genetics Consultant, ReQuest Ltd, Wisconsin, USA)
The study of why certain cows live longer than others has been undertaken in many countries all over the world. This data can be very valuable to help design breeding programmes. Dr Selner will describe how the use of longevity studies can help improve profitability on the dairy farm and provide a prospective on how to increase profitability by using longevity studies in a dairy breeding programme.
Just Do It
Jack Koopman (Managing Director, Ceres Agrar GmbH Agri-business, Germany)
Ceres Agrar GmbH (CAG) was established in 1995 with the purchase of a derelict 2,000 cow unit in the former East Germany. The unit had manure 6 inches above the slatted floor, no feed cows and a broken rotary parlour. The cows were on their way when the milk prices dropped 30%. Today the business boasts 4,500 milking cows and 3,000 Hectares of arable.