We visited these two farms on the 21st June 2005

David Millar's Gallery

A note received from David Millar after our visit:-

"Our farm currently milks 260 cows on average through two separate milking parlours. One is a 12/24 herringbone parlour and the other is a pair of automatic milking systems (robots). Currently 116 cows and heifers are being milked through the robots and 144 through the herringbone parlour.
The cows on the robots' farm are selected for suitability on the shape of their udder and milking speed and later on yield. These cows are milking 31 litres per day and being milked 2.3 times per day. These cows are currently grazing on a 20 day rotation where they spend 2/3 of the day at grass. They are buffer fed at night.
The two herds currently run at an average of 8831 litres and 3.78% Butterfat 3.36% Protein.
The robot milked herd averages nearly 10,000 litres on its own.

Montbeliarde cross-breeding
We have been crossbreeding on the farm for 12 years. We bought in 5 cows and a bull from trance. The bull was used along side a Holstein bull to breed all the cows in the herd at that time (no Artificial Insemination). I have taken the cumulative milk records for this bull's daughters and put them against the Holstein bull's daughter's records from then same age groups. It should be noted that there are many more crossbred daughters of this age-group still in the herd. There is no reason for this as both bulls would have had equal access."

(For our american friends...... 4.5 litres = 1 gallon)

Victor Chesnutt's Gallery

Congratulations !!

The supreme champion Belgian Blue and Belgian Blue Female champion at Balmoral Show 2006 was Reinbeck Optica, owned by Zara Chestnutt !