06 Sep 2024
SHARE

Farmer Focus: Duncan Hughes, Staffordshire

Duncan Hughes farms in the Staffordshire moorlands, in Cheddleton, near Leek milking 100 pedigree Holsteins under the Brundhaven prefix. Duncan is a regular user of the CIS PregCheck service and will join Owen Atkinson in the IDEXX seminar at UK Dairy Day to discuss how the milk pregnancy detection service works for his herd.  The seminar will be held at 2.00pm on the first floor of the venue in the Sharing Knowledge Zone.

The herd is milked twice a day averaging 9500 litres with 4% butterfat, and 3.47% Protein.  Cows are cubicle housed and during the summer months, they graze during the daytime.  Parlour nuts are fed to yield twice a day in the 15:30 parallel parlour.  A mixed ration of grass silage and brewers grains, with a blend mix is fed when house.

The farm system is in the process of moving towards a summer/autumn calving block system to suit their milk buyer, Muller, to have a milk profile with all calving taking place between May and December. Duncan mainly uses sexed Holstein semen for breeding replacements along with INRA95 and hybrid Charolais for beef calves which are sold at Leek Market.

Duncan’s grandfather started farming as a tenant at Colford Farm in 1949 and a few years later he was able to purchase it. With additional land purchased over the years, the farm now extends to 250 acres, of which about 50 acres is stewardship land. Duncan’s father is still involved with the farm on a day to day basis, along with two full time members of staff.  

Milk recording is carried out monthly by Duncan’s wife Jen, who is a CIS contract milk recorder. The milk records are used as Duncan’s main way of managing the cows, taking full advantage of the reports and lists available on YourHerd for serving lists, cows to dry off and PDing to name a few. The milk records add to the pedigree of each animal and give a good general overview of how each animal is performing and the herd as a whole.

The herd has been Johne's testing for ten years and continues to regularly test to maintain herd health. They also do a quarterly BVD bulk tank test through CIS, along with BVD tag and testing with Caisley tags purchased through CIS.   Duncan Pregcheck’s cows at one month served, to ensure time isn’t lost between monthly vet visits.

When Duncan isn’t on the farm he is involved with his local Holstein club and is also the cattle chairman at Leek Show. Showing is something they are just starting to do a little of as his son Owen is showing an interest, and they have had a calf qualify for the ABAB for a second year running. Duncan’s main aim for the future is to create a viable farm for the future.

-ends-