Farmer Focus: RJ & JR Warren, Penzance, Cornwall
James is the 5th generation of his family farming at Tredinney Farm, Penzance, just 5 miles from Lands End, where this year they will be hosting the 2023 Guernsey World Conference.
The Warren family have been farming for five generations since the late 19th century with each generation milking Guernsey cows, although it was not until 1980 that the herd started to register cattle with E.G.C.S. under the Tredinney prefix. The first jersey was purchased in 2003 as an in-milk heifer Danish LH Naomi EX 94 (4); the first Holstein Friesian was purchased in 2005 and one of the first Holsteins purchased was Lanhydrock Sycamore Sun who went on to produce over 140 tonnes of milk in 12 lactations.
James and the family currently farm 560 acres of land of which 265 acres are owned and the remainder is rented, some long-term and some yearly. They grow 120 acres of maize, 35 acres of spring sown barley and the rest is down to grass. Around 30 acres are rented out each year for potatoes and cauliflower.
The milking herd is made up of 320 cows which calve all year round and milk is sold to ‘Rodda’s’ a local family business that purchases milk from around 45 farms within a 30-mile radius of their creamery. This milk is predominately used to produce ‘Cornish Clotted Cream’. The rolling annual production figures show they produced just over 2.6 million litres of milk at 4.96% Butterfat and 3.5% Protein. The rolling annual yield per cow is 8,200 litres with 3,150 litres of that coming from forage.
Currently, there are 350 dairy youngstock and the surplus are sold which is an important part of their business. They prefer to calve them into the herd and sell fresh in their 1st or 2nd lactation through Kivells. The family can also have up to 120 beef cattle on the farm at any one time with these being sold between 3 -4 months old depending on fodder, space and movement restrictions.
Breeding has always been to improve conformation with a belief that a cow with correct conformation will provide plenty of milk as economically as possible and depth in an animal’s pedigree is something that is very important. Cows with multiple generations of EX /VG are sought after as these we believe breed truer and will give a greater longevity.
In 2020 they signed up with CIS Area Manager Noni Smith to take advantage of the CIS Pedigree Complete Service, as James has multiple breeds they are combined under one herd number, and benefit from one fixed fee per month for milk recording, registering heifer calves and classifying. They milk record six weekly, and value milk recording to ensure the herd's components and cell counts are sitting where they need to be. The milk records are also a valuable marketing tool when selling surplus stock. They use the CIS health testing services including testing for Johne’s.
James previously used a different herd management system but since joining CIS he utilises the YourHerd management programme and the CIS MobileHerd app, both of which are free to use, secure and work well with ‘Cow Manager’ which was essential for them. All members of staff have the mobile app on their phones so all the herds information is quick to hand.
Sexed semen has been a big game changer with the majority of what they use now being sexed. This has helped them increase their best cow families quite rapidly. An example of this is when they purchased Ashlea Mincio Lila Z EX90 (2) as an in-calf heifer in 2017. The family now have 12 Lila Z’s at Tredinney, 5 of which are in milk and all classified EX or VG and with 7 of these currently served to sexed semen (6 PD +) including the original cow this family has grown quite rapidly. James will use a mixture of proven and genomic bulls from 3 or 4 AI companies, with the bottom end of the herd and repeat breeders served to beef. With their milk buyer paying a premium for butter fat, this is very important in their selection along with health traits and longevity; on type, a good udder, legs and feet are always looked for, with rump width and locomotion points always considered.
Showing has always been an important part of the Warren farming life and something they enjoy. They have been lucky to have had many breed champions and National Champions and probably the highlight of their showing was winning Supreme Interbreed Champion at The Royal Cornwall Show in 2013 with Tredinney Yogi’s Gabrielle 2 EX95(2).
Attention to detail is something James and the family try to do as much as possible with the cows and they work very closely with their nutritionist Matt Jenkin monitoring the cows’ diet, especially the dry cows which results in them having very few milk fevers, if any. The calving index is currently at 394 days and reducing
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