TA & ML Jackson & Daughters, Dumfries
The pedigree herd of Andrew and Michelle Jackson and Daughters in Holywood, Dumfries currently comprises of 355 Holsteins and 25 Jerseys. As a third-generation dairy farmer, Andrew and Michelle, are pleased to see their three daughters all having a keen interest in the farm. Hollie and Katie are both working on the farm and they hope that Sophie, who is currently on the GB Curling Team, will return to the farm in the future. It’s Katie’s interest in the Jerseys that has seen their numbers grow in the herd and they will be showing at AgriScot for the first time this year.
The 320 acre farm is all in grass lays, with a further 120 acres rented on an annual basis. Ten years ago they invested in a new green field site dairy, including a 32 point herringbone Delaval parlour and cubicles with mattresses. The herd, run as one group, is milked twice a day and graze out in summer when the weather allows. A TMR mix is fed with additional dairy cake fed to yield up to a maximum of 9 kilos in the parlour. In addition to the family, they have two full-time staff and several relief milkers.
The Jacksons breed their own replacements, the aim is to calve heifers in at 24 months with surplus heifers sold locally. On occasion, a special animal may be purchased to bring new bloodlines into the herd. The All Year Round calving herd, have two chances being served to sexed semen with any additional services going to beef semen or the beef stock bull they have on the farm. Beef calves are sold at 4/6 weeks old at Carlisle.
“We use the CIS Holstein Pedigree Complete package, which includes bi-monthly milk recording bi-monthly, pedigree registrations and type classification twice a year all for a monthly set fee. One of the key benefits of this service is to find out the unknowns of the milk i.e. the cell count, butterfat and protein. We use this information when making breeding decisions for the herd and it also helps gain a premium when we are selling any surplus stock,” says Andrew.
“The priority reports we view via the YourHerd management programme when the milk test results are uploaded online are the herd average report, calving interval report and the cell count report. We are constantly striving the improve results on all three reports. The cell count report is especially useful and is used for many of our management decisions, from treatment, breeding and culling purposes. In addition, we use the Type Classification scores to focus on the traits that we need to consider when choosing bulls to use on the herd. It gives an advantage when selling pedigree livestock”, adds Andrew.
All the team at Guillyhill have the MobileHerd App on their phones and it is used multiple times throughout the day to keep on top of heats and record when animals are bulling or need drying off or calving. The herd is Johnes screened with CIS, with the results being used to split dry cows between the two calving yards they have and for making culling decisions. All calves are Tag and Tested with Caisley Ear Tags, purchased through CIS, Andrew has been impressed with the tags and the speed he gets the results back.
The focus of the business in future is to consolidate and streamline the business, with a new calf unit being built at the moment to improve calf comfort and ventilation.
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