The Ulster Grassland Society’s (UGS) Autumn Farm Walk took place in the west of the province, at the farm of Howard and Jessica Pollock, Grahamstown Road, Castlederg, Co. Tyrone, where more than 100 members and fellow grassland enthusiasts attended.

Despite the recent efforts of Storm Ashley, UGS members and friends enjoyed very pleasant sunshine.

Those attending were welcomed by UGS President, John Egerton, from Rosslea, who introduced host farmer Jessica Pollock to outline the farm business.

The farm extends to 270 acres of grass maintaining the 170-cow dairy herd and up to 100 followers.

The farm is located north east of Castlederg in West Tyrone, rising from 250 to 525’ above sea level, and typically seeing almost 50” of rainfall annually.

The main objectives on this progressive farm are to:

• Enhance feeding efficiency to improve milk yield and milk quality;

• Improve the health status of the herd;

• Optimise the farming system to maximise profitability; and

• Maintain a good work-life balance.

The main farming enterprise is dairying, which commenced in 1977 with the herd gradually expanded as numbers grew and available acreage increased.

Today, the herd comprises around 170 crossbred cows with a three-way crossbreeding programme in place comprising Holstein x Fleckvieh x Norwegian Red genetics.

The cows now run in two distinct calving blocks: autumn and spring calving with cows AId for the first four to five weeks of each breeding season with sexed semen used on selected cows whilst the rest are AId with beef semen.

A beef bull then sweeps up for the last three to four weeks of the breeding season.

The current conception rate for the dairy herd is 52 per cent, with a calving interval of 380 days.

Replacement heifers were previously mated with beef bulls; however, the addition of a new heifer house will allow heifers to be AId in the future. The current farm replacement rate is 22 per cent.

Annual milk production is 7,300 litres per cow, with milk from forage of 3,189 litres and 1.85 tonnes of concentrates fed per cow, leaving a current margin over concentrates of £1,956 per cow.

The most recent milk components for the herd are 4.1 per cent butterfat and 3.38 per cent protein, with 546kgs milk solids produced per cow, and an average somatic cell count of 359 ‘000/ml.

The milking cows are turned out as early as possible – usually mid-March – with strip electric wire used to allocate a grazing area, and 66 per cent of land close enough to the farmyard to be grazed by the milking herd thanks to an extensive network of roads/cow tracks.

More than 700m of new cow laneways were constructed over the past four years, with plans for another 300m this winter.

Target pre-grazing grass covers are 3,000 – 3,300kg DM/hectare, with on/off grazing practiced when necessary.

A three-cut silage system is in operation with first-cut (100 acres) taken in mid-May, followed by a second-cut in mid-July (150 acres), followed by a third-cut in early September, with the acreage cut depending on grass growth and grazing demand.

Silage ground normally gets 3,000 gallons of slurry in mid-February with subsequent cuts receiving around 2,000 gallons/acre.

First-cut receives 65kg N/acre in early March, with subsequent cuts getting just over 40 kg N/acre.

Last year, the first-cut silage had dry matter 21 per cent; crude protein 12.9 per cent; D-value 72 and ME of 11.6MJ/Kg, with similar figures achieved in subsequent cuts.

Maize silage is also purchased fresh and ensiled with additive applied to all cuts. Soil pH is generally around 6 across the farm.

Throughout the visit led by Jessica, there was good discussion and plenty of questions from visitors, helped of course by the host’s ability to clearly answer questions and express her views, which was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by those in attendance.

At the conclusion of the visit, a vote of thanks to Howard and Jessica Pollock was proposed by UGS President Elect, Michael Graham, before visitors enjoyed an excellent BBQ prepared by Simply Irresistible.