Currently milking 450 Holstein Friesian cows three times a day, the Gardiners are one of the biggest dairy farmers in the Craigavon area. Reggie Gardiner explains more.
Reggie has been involved in dairy farming since the age of 16 when he started out with half a dozen cows. Fast forward nearly 60 years and he’s still milking cows, albeit on a much larger scale. Reggie is assisted in the day-to-day running of the enterprise by his wife Letta, son James, nephew Mark Morrison and Darren Kennedy. Whereas James and Darren look after the morning and afternoon shifts, Ben Hunniford, Michael Bradford and Kyle Thompson share the evening / night shift duties between them.
“We’ve been milking three times per day for the past four or five years. It is obviously more labour intensive than milking twice daily, but the yield is 10-20% higher. The herd is averaging 8,400kg per cow at 3.27% protein and 3.92% butterfat. A healthy herd and the right nutrient balance are key factors in reaching these targets,” the affable dairy farmer says.
The cows are milked at 6am, 2pm and 9.30pm in a state-of-the-art 28/56 Dairymaster parlour which was built in 2005. The milking system was installed by Dairymaster agent Sean Reid of Cookstown Dairy Services in Ardee, Co. Louth. “We had a look at one in action before deciding to go with this unit. We get a great back-up service from Sean and it’s been a case of so far, so good. The milking and cleaning up takes about three hours each time.”
The Gardiners supply their milk to Fane Valley Dairies in Banbridge, Co. Down, which was recently acquired by Lakeland Dairies. Lakeland processes up to one billion litres of milk produced on 2,200 farms across Ireland into a wide range of dairy food service products and dairy food ingredients which are exported to over 70 countries around the globe.
The herd is divided into three groups for Total Milk Ration feeding according to the group average yield, stage of lactation and pregnancy. Milk recording details are used every four weeks to decide in which of these three groups a cow is placed. This reduces input costs by helping prevent the feed rate per litre produced getting too high. The aim is not production for the sake of high yield figures, but production that maximises margin per litre and overall farm income.
The Gardiners farm 550 acres, 400 of which is rented. The cows are kept indoors 365 days a year with Reggie explaining: “They lie in cubicles which are dry and comfortable, and which in turn increase the performance and dairy output. The feeding area is slatted. They are fed silage and rations. We used to feed them maize, but found it to be too expensive and difficult at times to harvest because of poor weather conditions.”
All year round calving has been the norm on the farm for several years now. “We calve 30 cows a month. The calves are a mixture of Friesian, Belgian Blue and Limousine. The Friesian heifers are kept as replacements and the rest are reared for beef,” Reggie continues.
The farm is virtually self-sufficient in that the silage cutting, ploughing and reseeding duties are kept in-house. The need for an agricultural contractor is eliminated thanks to a modern fleet of six tractors – which comprise Massey Ferguson, John Deere and Fendt – a silage harvester and various other plant and equipment. Reggie’s other sons Andrew and Greer, who both live nearby, give a hand with the silage making every year.
Three years ago, the family invested in a Trioliet Solomix 2 2800 mixer feeder wagon which Mark Morrison uses on a daily basis to feed the dairy herd. Powered by one of the tractors, the feeder wagon has been a great success according to Reggie.
“It’s our second Trioliet – we had the previous one for six years – and I couldn’t say a bad word about either of them. We have never had a problem as regards mix quality, ease of use and dependability.
“Our current mixer wagon is helping us to reach production and profit targets by producing a consistent mix so every cow, every day, in every bite gets the diet designed by our consultant nutritionist Lyle Hamilton to maximise margins.
“The Trioliet has an excellent Shifttronic 2-speed gear box that avoids start-up problems and allows us to shift, with no interruption, from low to high speed without stressing either mixer or tractor.”
The collapse in milk prices has hit the Gardiners hard, though Reggie remains optimistic that the situation will improve sooner rather than later.
“I have never seen the prices as bad in my lifetime,” he admits.
“The last two or three years have been very difficult for all milk producers because of overproduction in other countries. But we live in hope. We’ve always had troughs and peaks in this business. Unfortunately, the trough we’re in at the moment is proving very difficult to get out of.”
The Gardiner Herd
15 Summerhill,
Corcreeny,
Lurgan,
Craigavon BT66 7AW.
Telephone: 028 38882089
Mobile: 077 64158331
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 6, July/August 2016
