Six dairy businesses from across the UK are competing for the prestigious NMR RABDF Gold Cup, with three being based in Shropshire.
Six dairy businesses have made the final line up in the 2024 NMR RABDF Gold Cup , including three from Shropshire . Husband-and-wife team Stephen and Ruth Ashley run the 162-hectare dairy unit with Stephen’s parents, Pat and Peter. For the past eight years, their Holstein herd has been milked through robots. Two full-time employees work with Ruth and Stephen, as well as two part-time staff for weekends and maintenance.
The all-year-round calving herd is fully housed and fed a partial mixed ration, and a 16 per cent protein concentrate according to yield. The ration and management system supports the high-yielding herd, which ranked third in NMR’s top 1% nationally for the year ending September 2023. Sexed semen has been used on the best heifers and cows and the Ashleys are now genomically testing to improve the accuracy of selecting animals for replacements. Kate Robinson and her team manage the 400-cow Holstein herd, which is part of the University’s Future Farm. Although the dairy unit is not a ‘typical’ farm, and is involved in research and teaching activities, it is expected to perform commercially and achieve exceptional industry-based standards, and also to demonstrate good practice. The team of staff is a vital ingredient in helping to achieve this and efforts are made to create a good working environment. The all-year-round calving herd is fully housed and fed a TMR. Cows are milked through a 40-point internal rotary parlour, three times a day. A small proportion of the herd has been bred with sexed Montbeliarde and Viking Red semen to help to breed a more grazing type cow. Father-and-son team John and Ben Oakley manage a herd of 195 mainly Holstein cows, plus a few crossbreds, and 115 followers, with the help of one full-time staff member. The unit comprises 100 hectares, which supports summer grazing and forage production for the autumn-calving herd. Beginning in August, more than 80% of cows calve by the end of Octobe
Dairy Farming Gold Cup NMR RABDF Shropshire
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