Knightshulme Farm History
Knightshulme farm has been in the Holt family since 1962. Now David and his wife Angela and their four children tend to the 109 cow milking herd. This makes up around 220 cattle which includes followers and they are all fed grass, silage and whole crop along with 18% Crude Protein Dairy Nuts.
Four cuts of grass silage are made from the 160 acre farm along with whole crop which allows crop rotation and re-seeding to maximise production from the farm. David’s key objective is to produce as much milk as possible from his own farm and substantially cut back on fertiliser- which is understandable given the cost of ammonium nitrate fertiliser.
The Holt family have a good low replacement rate of 15% which means he has long lasting cows many doing eight and nine lactations. This herd has easy to manage healthy cows with exceptional cell counts which averaged just 96 in 2010! Calving starts in May with the bulk in September and then usually finishing in October.
Using his inoculated slurry, David finds he grows more grass during the season, which was particularly noticed later in last season where it grew more consistently and for longer. His fourth cut harvested on 10th October shows the quality which can be offered by grassland in late autumn. Note the last fertiliser David bought was in 2007!
David explains:
“In late October 2011 the fields offered 3” to 4” of grass for grazing. I am not an organic farm because I don’t like weeds but we can all learn a lot from having the courage to make more use of our slurry and really test what its worth to us. You will have more high quality grass and healthier soils with worm casts. It is noticeable that there is more air in the soil.”
The milk yields have increased and through better Crude Protein in his silage he has been able to change his cake from a 20% crude protein down to 18% which has resulted in a significant saving. Dry matter intakes have also increased, even after molasses was excluded from the ration this winter. David puts this down to the use of Optimize Plus , he feels that it has encouraged larger appetites thus increasing forage intakes which are quite relevant at the moment. David adds:
“Introducing bugs to the slurry and the silage has led to huge savings. Farmers that don’t have the courage to do what I did should treat their slurry and just try 20 acres with less fertiliser. If the cows are fed on a reasonably high input system, then there are enough nutrients in the slurry for the bugs to capture nitrogen and the other important nutrients. It is possible to do as I did and cut back the fertiliser by 2/3rds from the start, you will never know unless you try.”
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