The farms are owned in an equity partnership between Ben, his parents and his brother.

Due to the layout of his Bealey farm, cows walk up to three kilometres per day, which has resulted in high levels of lameness. To address this, Ben has tried many different approaches over the years, and settled on 3-in-2 during mid-late lactation.

Seeing the results of our farmlet study in 2019/20 gave Ben the confidence to increase the duration he uses 3-in-2 for.

Ben Wilson and his farm team.

Although originally used to address his lameness issue, Ben has also found there are many other benefits to utilising 3-in-2, including the ability to put condition back on cows in the lead-up to dry off.

Farm facts

Structure: Owner-operator
Location: Kirwee, Canterbury
Cows: 710 Crossbred Cows
Farm size: 211ha
Production: 460kg MS/cow
Imported Feed: 400kg DM/cow
Irrigation: yes
Staff: 4 full time equivalents (178 cows/FTE)
Roster: 7-2, 7-2, 7-3
Milking regime 2020/21: TAD Sep-Dec, 3-in-2 from January

• Update: 27 October 2020

  Bealey Farm
  Fortnight ending	27 Sept	11 Oct	25 Oct	YTD
  Farm
  APC	2200	2100	1984
  Rotation Length (days)	30	24	27
  Supplement fed (kgDM/cow/d)	2	7	5
  N Applied	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Cows
  % Peak cows in milk			99%
  kgMS/cow	2.0	2.1	2.1	123
  kgMS/ha				415
  SCC	156	183	191	193
  Mastitis (# cases)	11	5		60
  Lameness	1			5
  People
  Average hours worked pp/d	7.5	7	7
  Average hours milking/d	4	5	5.5

  ^{*Figures averaged over fortnight where possible
  *Cows in milk is calculated as total calved at the end of the fortnight
  *YTD kgMS/cow is calculated over peak cow numbers
  *Some data is missing for this current update – we will work to update this before our next update}

  Currently TAD, switching to 3-in-2 mid season.

  Ben’s Comments

  • After our last update, the farm started drying out, and growth rates fell well below expected levels, while at the same time the rotation length sped up. We had to start putting supplement in to help extend the round length and give the pasture a chance to get ahead.
  • Nitrogen has also been applied following the cows with 32kgN/ha.
  • The supplement has allowed us to continue to feed our cows well and we have maintained production around 2.0kgMS/cow/day.
  • A combination of PKE and baleage was used to help fill this gap.
  • We started mating on 20th Oct, with 2 cows left to calve.

  The coming 4-6 weeks will be largely focused on mating, as well as weaning calves and keeping ahead with irrigation.

  Over this period, we will also be confirming our strategy for when and how we will change to 3in2. Stay tuned for our update in 6 weeks for more info!

• Update: 14 September 2020

  Bealey Farm
  Fortnight ending	16 Aug	30 Aug	13 Sept	YTD
  Farm
  APC	2579	2443	2429
  Rotation Length (days)	80	57	46
  Supplement fed (kgDM/cow/d)	3
  N Applied	Yes	Yes	Yes	14
  Cows
  % Peak cows in milk	45%	62%	77%
  kgMS/cow	1.5	1.8	2	42
  kgMS/ha				141
  SCC	253	225	177	213
  Mastitis (# cases)	7	5	2	14
  Lameness	0	1	2	3
  People
  Average hours worked pp/d	7.5	7	7
  Average hours milking/d	4	5	5.5

  ^{*Figures averaged over fortnight where possible
  *Cows in milk is calculated as total calved at the end of the fortnight
  *YTD kgMS/cow is calculated over peak cow numbers}

  This season, Bealey farm started milk supply on 29 July and will be milking their cows on TAD until early January, when they will switch to 3-in-2.

  Ben’s Comments

  • The season has been going well so far, when compared with previous years. Good winter growth has made things simple and helped us to bounce back from a lower pasture cover at dry off.
  • Milk production season to date is up 6.7% compared to last season.
  • We milk our colostrum cows on OAD and have moved them to be milked in the afternoon this year, whereas previously have done them in the morning. The staff find this much simpler, with penicillin cows coming in the morning only, there has been less confusion of what milk to put where.
  • Animal health has been relatively good to date:
    • 12 down cows
    • 3 lameness cases to date
    • Mastitis – we have noticed some more early season mastitis this year, mainly in the heifers. We have put this down to the fact that where they were wintered this year, we did not have access to yards, so were not able to teat seal them like we normally do.
  • Cows grazed fodder beet on platform over winter, and then spent 2 weeks on kale before going back to grass for calving. The herd was split into 3 for this, with ~200 cows changing at once, based on calving date. Ben feels this has helped the cows transition off beet better and had a positive impact on their animal health compared with previous years.
  • Somatic cell count has always been high on this farm, and we are making more of an effort to try and get that down with aim of being below 150.
  • Some straw has been fed out to the springers fed at 3-4kg/cow/day for the firsts few weeks of calving. Further supplement has not been needed yet due to good growth over winter, reaching target average pasture covers and cows grazing to good residuals.
  • Staff were on a 6-1 roster over calving, and changed to their regular roster of 7-2-7-2-7-3 on 7 Sep.
  • N applications so far include:
    • 69ha receiving Super & FlexiN at a rate of 18kgN/ha during August
    • A further 69ha receiving DAP at a rate of 29kgN during the first half September.

  Our focus for the next 4-6 weeks is around monitoring and maintaining pasture quality, and preparing the cows and staff for mating.