Cow-centric Innovation

Cath Ratcliffe, Dairy Farmer, West Webbery Farm, North Devon

Introduction

My name is Cath Ratcliffe and I farm in partnership with my husband, Ian, at West Webbery Farm in North Devon. We run an autumn block calving dairy business of 380 cows plus youngstock and graze the cows on a rotational paddock grazing system through the spring and summer, calving in a 10-week block from the end of August. In the autumn, the cows are housed in sand bedded cubicles and are fed a grass/maize silage and wheat/rape based diet. Currently the herd is averaging 8,492L and 733kg solids. We aim for 4,000L from forage but drought and suboptimal forage quality for last winter form a challenging spring (2024) and has increased our feed rate so we are currently rolling at 3,468L from forage.

Herd health and welfare and sustainability have always been our priority. In 2021 we started bottling a small proportion of milk (branded Webbery Moos), for local shops, delis and cafes, to have a positive voice about the way that we farm and some local influence to counter negativity about the industry. Webbery Moos has given our business a slightly different perspective and allows us to engage directly with the consumer. As a result, it has helped us cement a culture within the team, founded on respect for the cows, striving for the highest standards of health and welfare. People often think that sustainability is all about being environmentally sensitive – farming with a low carbon footprint. It is, however, it must also be financially resilient, and Webbery Moos makes us take more social responsibility. We want a business that those working in are proud of, we are respected for and the next generation is inspired by.

This paper looks at some of the innovative approaches and investments we have made in recent years, shaped by what we have learnt through the trials and tribulations of our farming career so far.

Background

As a doctor’s daughter with a passion for farming, I started out training to be a vet, then took a sidestep into the world of agriculture, first working for Kingshay, before embarking on a consultancy career. The stars aligned when I met Ian and we were very fortunate to be able to pursue our shared dream, putting the theory into practice at Hill Farm where Ian grew up, in Cheshire. In the years before we pulled our boots on, Hill Farm had been run by a contract farmer, so when we started, we had a blank canvas to embark on the block calving, grass-based system we had set our sights on.

Just 2 years into our farming career we moved from Cheshire to Devon. We wanted to grow the business but needed a larger grazing platform and the ability to breed our own replacements which was limited by NVZ regulations. The move to Webbery allowed us to double the size of the herd and over the 13 years we have been here, we have shaped our business and refined our operation to what it is today.

Benchmarking

At this point you should probably know that I am a bit obsessed with the numbers. I love the technical detail involved with optimising herd performance and interrogating data to continually challenge the status quo. When we started out, Ian and I were very lucky to be able to paddle our own canoe and make our own mistakes. I think the pressure of the unknown meant we both wanted to have a really good handle on what was going on, so in 2015, a couple of years after moving to North Devon, we set up a Cost of Production benchmarking group with other like-minded, progressive dairy business local to us. This was a little ahead of the 2016 crash in milk price which saw us hit a low of 20.5ppl. These sort of pinch points damage lots of dairy businesses but also create opportunities and focuses the mind to look for ways to build resilience.

Benchmarking of financial and technical performance has been essential to us and has highlighted several factors key to the success of our business:

• The importance of herd health and a tight calving block in driving efficiency
• The level of output needed for our cost structure and the value of marginal litres
• The importance of growing enough high-quality forage
• The importance of the right people in our team and managing them effectively
• The risk that weather and TB pose for our farm
• The value of exposing our business to drive progress and resilience

Over the years the group has helped us to find quick wins, but often it’s the strategic decisions to turn the ship, where we see the most value. Having the confidence to make the larger scale investments and knowing where to spend on new and innovative technologies or change our farming approaches. Being progressive is what drives us, along with our complete respect for and love of cows at the centre of it all.

Focus on efficient milk production – key to sustainability and resilience

Over our years at Webbery and with a firm grasp on our cost of production and technical performance we have worked hard to improve a number of key areas around optimising milk production efficiency. Interrogation of records has enabled targeted investment into evidence-based innovation, to try to remove barriers to efficiency and profitability. Many are cow focussed and complement and enhance, NOT replace good stockmanship. People and a positive work culture are irreplaceable.

The key areas for an efficient cow: fertility, foot health, udder health, diet and rumen health, transition, housing, heifer rearing, forage production, genetics and people.

Innovations and practices we have adopted:

• Ingenuity activity and rumination collars
• Hoofcount footbath
• HerdVision mobility and BCS monitoring
• Anka foot crush
• Rotary parlour with Smart DTect (conductivity) and backflush
• Dynamic testing with our vets
• Yeasts, mineralisation, and eco and local feeds
• A specialist calving shed for risk cows, and a 28 day minimum
• A focus on space, comfort, light and ventilation in housing
• Automatic calf feeders on a semi-adlib system
• Bovilis Cryptium vaccine
• Trouw Milkivit One milk replacer
• Genomics
• A culture of high welfare, respect and understanding the why
• Webbery Moos consumer engagement
• A forage wagon with the shortest chop length available
• Herbal leys

The rest of this paper focuses on a few key areas which drive the success of our system.

Breeding the right cow

When we started farming in 2011, a lot of the herd came from Ireland as we felt those cows had years of breeding behind them to suit the sort of system we were hoping to run. Fertile cows, producing decent solids, suited to grazing. However, we also picked up cows from dispersals, calving at the right time, so ended up with a range of cow types in terms of size, breed and system from which they came. It quickly came apparent that on a relatively simple feeding system we needed a consistent cow, and we wanted a closed system. This is how our breeding approach has evolved:

Our cows need to be able to walk a kilometre up and down hills to graze, be healthy, fertile and long lasting yet productive enough with high solids to optimise our milk contract and cover the level of overheads we carry with the staffing level and set-up we have chosen to operate with. They need to be efficient. We select high ACI Holstein bulls which are low in stature (<-1), high in milk solids, fertile (>+6), good generally on type, mammary, legs and feet and positive on health and management traits. Genus dairy bulls picked this year include – Highlife, Arcade, Reggie, Klassic and Jensen.

Fertility

This is the main driver of efficiency within our system and therefore ultimately, it has the biggest impact on sustainability. When fertility performance is optimal, resulting in a shorter block, we see higher lactation peaks due to more open days before the start of the service period, reduced culling for infertility enabling more selective culling for health and conformation and simpler management.

Preparation is everything – The cows need to transition well into lactation with minimal stress, be healthy and consume the maximum amount of high-quality feed. Drought in the last couple of years has forced the herd to being fully or partially housed when fresh which has seen improved production and fertility performance relative to autumn grass and cake. Higher peaks also result in higher spring yield potential at grass in the stage of our cycle where we need to be producing milk cheaply.

Innovation and accurate records – We struggled for a few years with conception rates in our maiden heifers and because we could eliminate factors like semen quality, timing issues, technician error, potential stress factors etc, we were able to identify mineral nutrition in the early egg development phase, 90 days before service to be the root cause. Earlier mineral bolusing at grass has resulted in dramatic improvement.

We have invested in Ingenuity activity and rumination collars for the herd as opposed to Estrotect stickers. The biggest benefit aside from time saving, has been in enabling us to be more proactive on resolving issues with quiet and cystic cows. We are constantly able to use the activity graphs to track open cows and intervene early to increase pregnancy risk where previously we would have lost time. The longer cows are left, the higher the likelihood of poorer egg quality, produced in early lactation when the cow is in slight negative energy balance in the run up to peak yield, so reduced conception resulting in an extended block.

Fertility KPIs we like to focus on:

• No. eligible for service on day 1 of service period (>35 DIM, clean and cycling) – Target >95%
• 24 day submission rate – Target >95%
• 1st service conception rate – Target >65% cows, 70% heifers
• 6 week in calf rate >90%

Heifer rearing

The future herd not only relies on high quality genetics, but on the development of every animal from birth to the point they join the herd and beyond. UK figures show that on average, 65-70% of heifers don’t make it from birth to their second lactation – a shocking statistic!

During our farming career our heifer rearing has evolved as a result of our experiences and challenging how we can do better.

2013: We set out on a once-a-day rearing system for its labour-saving advantages and calves were hitting growth targets and generally healthy, however we always struggled with milking heifer first lactation yields.

2022: We invested in automatic calf feeders and over the subsequent 2 years I realised that 8L milk replacer simply wasn’t enough and was holding back early growth where feed efficiency is at its peak and at a time which has significant influence over gene expression.

2024: Switched to a semi-adlib system with calves getting up to 11L resulting in improved growth rates and contented calves with dramatically reduced competition at the teat so easier management. However, despite a great start, in a year where TB forced us to retain our beef calves, we suffered the worst pneumonia outbreak to date. At the time, I felt like a doctor on the front line of the covid outbreak. Although we managed to keep mortality low, the fight was very real. It was soul destroying and pushed me to my limits.

2025: As a result, I have critiqued every aspect of what was already a pretty robust system, and made a few more improvements in 2025:

• Colostrum feeding has been increased from 4L at birth, to a minimum of 3 days of 1st then 2nd colostrum followed by transition milk before going onto the machines. This is to further optimise transfer of maternal antibodies and to improve biome seeding.
• Bovilis Cryptium Vaccine – Despite our best efforts with cleanliness, disinfection and colostrum management, crypto is something we experience each year so when this vaccine became available, I felt it could be the missing piece of the jigsaw, and it fitted in well with our amended colostrum feeding protocol. I was struck by what the research was showing in terms of the damage done to intestinal villi and the knock-on effect crypto can have on growth rates during the first 6 months and later in life, and even on the production potential of the cow from reduced nutrient absorption capability.
• The third change this year was to invest in Trouw’s innovative new milk replacer, Milkivit One, which more closely replicates the fatty acid profile of whole milk. Their research shows this milk replacer to enhance rumen and intestinal development. Calves develop longer intestinal villi for better nutrient absorption and improved gut health, reducing the incidence of scour and optimising immune function generally. In later life, cows are better able to meet their production potential and should last longer. It has cost an additional £52 per calf to feed this powder but given what the research shows, we feel this will be worth the investment.

As a result of these changes, we have had the best calf health we have ever had, with no replacement heifer calves treated for crypto and minimal respiratory disease to date. Growth rates have been higher than in previous years, transition onto the post-weaning diet has been smooth and the level of respiratory disease encountered so far this season has been mild. It’s early days but we are excited for what this could mean in further improving the longevity of cows joining the herd and in unlocking their production potential, so optimising the efficiency of our herd in the future. We hope the improvement in first lactation yields we are already seeing will continue with these changes, with improved feed conversion and improved carbon footprint – time will tell.

Conclusion

Innovation has certainly helped to accelerate the progress we are making on the farm. Webbery Moos tells the story of our commitment to having cows at grass on a ‘free range’ system and optimising herd health and sustainability. It’s our shop window and ensures we consider all that we do from a consumer perspective inline with our own personal aspirations. Whilst we could house the cows and push production to reduce our carbon footprint, grazing is something that we choose not to compromise on. This is personal preference – we like the balance of pushing production when the cows are freshly calved and through the housed period but then being able to paddock graze (as we and the consumer like to see for its welfare benefits to the cows), producing milk cheaply through the spring and summer.

There are aspects of how we want to manage the herd that are not under our control, like the weather and its impact on forage production and TB, however, there is so much within our control like some of the things mentioned in this paper and this is where attention to detail and studying the data really pays off. So often businesses try to increase output by keeping more cows. That is not our aim – instead we are focussed on unlocking production potential. Our continued goal is to make positive and repeatable improvements to our performance – benefiting first and foremost the cows and the farm team working with them, whilst pursuing our commitment to financial, environmental and social sustainability.