Farmer Focus: Mells Park Trust
Red Barn Farm near Frome, Somerset was purchased in 2014 and re-established as a dairy farm in 2017 following investment in a new dairy complex with a 50-point DeLaval rotary parlour, housing and slurry system.
The mixed herd of 400, managed by Luke Phillips, is run as a grazing based system and has recently moved towards being solely an autumn block calving herd. Trying to take as much from forage as possible using a paddock system and measuring grass on a weekly basis to maximise the yield from the 500 acres of grass is a priority of Luke’s.
Since the herd was established, they have used CIS for monthly assisted milk recording along with quarterly Johne’s monitoring organised by Somerset CIS Area Manager Karen Reeve. All milk testing analysis is performed at the privately-owned CIS Laboratory in Telford, Shropshire. This testing facility, under its robust Quality Management System, is UKAS accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and ICAR approved, operates 7 days a week. Results for milk recording and any health testing are accessed from the secure online portal YourHerd or the MobileHerd app.
Luke, along with the team at Red Barn Farm, milk the herd twice a day, with the milk going to local cheese producers Wyke Farms. The herd are fed a mixed TMR ration when housed, and parlour cake fed to yield. Now the herd is established, the plan is to become a closed herd, rearing their own youngstock. They started BVD tag testing all calves born in 2021, by bulk ordering Caisley ear tags through CIS.
Commenting on the service, Luke says, “The data provided by CIS for the milk records and health testing enables me to select the top 30% of the herd to breed the followers from, looking particularly at fats & proteins to maximise our milk contract. The online portal YourHerd has all the data required with an excellent suite of reports to refer to.”
They have a strict Johne’s protocol to cull any J5’s following the quarterly Johne’s testing, to keep a prevalence to a minimum. Cell counts of individual cows are closely monitored following milk recording, ensuring any raise in cell counts are dealt with early to keep well within the threshold set by Wyke and keep vet costs to a minimum.
Recent investment has seen a new drinking water system with 26 water troughs installed through the grazing platform which complemented the 4km of track network already present. This has enabled better utilisation of the grass by always ensuring easy access to water for the herd and easy access to and from the parlour.
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