High-yielding dairy cows at Moulton College,Northampton enjoying their winter feed.

The high-yielding dairy cows at Moulton College,Northampton enjoying their winter feed -a mixture of maize and grass silage with added inputs to balance the ration including rape meal and hypro soya.

The pedigree Holstein herd, which has recently expanded from 200 up to 360 cows,has an average yield of 10,400 litres. The cows are milked three times a day. The herd calves all year round with replacement stock being reared on the farm and calved down at two years of age.

Feeding is based on homegrown forages of maize and grass – fed in a 60:40 ratio. Maize is grown on 100 ha of light land. The aim is to have enough to feed all year round, so that even cows out at grass can supplement their grazing with some total mixed ration.

This year farm manager Barry Stokoe grew several varieties of maize, including for the first time 32ha of Nescio, marketed by Nickerson. Drilled on the 17th April, it grew very well despite the poor summer, and yielded over 48t/ha (19.5 t/acre) fresh-weight."Nescio certainly yielded well," says Mr Stokoe. "While it wasn't as tall as I had expected, there was a lot of leaf and bulk to it – and it had fantastic cobs." "Maize will continue to play a very important role in the expansion of the herd here at Moulton. We need varieties that consistently give high yields of quality forage, and will be growing Nescio again next year."

Moulton College farm, which runs to 544 farmed ha (1343 acres), includes arable, beef and sheep enterprises as well as the dairy unit. It is used extensively for teaching purposes, but is run on a commercial basis.
 

ENDS
For further information contact:
Gerald Davies, Assistant Principal Resources, Moulton College on 01604 491131
Frank Curtis, Nickerson, on 01472 371471 or fcurtis@nickerson.co.uk