Cow housing, feed mixer lift Southland herd’s performance

 The couple milk 870 cows on a 335ha family farm at Dipton West. 

Seeking better performance from their cows, and to avoid pasture damage in winter, in 2013 they contracted Specialist Structures to build them a 5500 sq.m barn.

Then came their BvL mixer wagon.

“We are pleased with the BvL and to date it has been trouble free,” English says. “We’re impressed with the build quality and design. The machine gives a fast and consistent mix, it’s nice and simple, with no feedout conveyers to worry about, and the single axle is excellent for our setup as there is no scuffing on tyres when turning.

“Going to the barn system and investing in a mixer has resulted in growing out our cows bigger, our overall cow condition and health has improved and we have increased our production from 415kgMS to 515kgMS per cow, an increase of 25%.”

They first fed in the barn with their old silage wagon. But the cows were “picking through the feed, and the elevator of the feed wagon tended to throw some feed over the wall to where the cows were standing, causing issues with the effluent scrapers.”

The BvL’s delivery chute system suffers from none of the spillage of the old machine, “so we get a consistent feed row and the cows clean everything up; there is virtually no feed wasted or picked through”.

 “We have had the cows inside at night since the start of May and are feeding about 8kgDM/cow – a mix of silage, PK and straw. Once we dry off, we will increase the feed to 10kgDM/cow which will consist of whole crop, silage and straw.”

 English says he prefers to keep the system as simple as possible: he isn’t doing any special feed mixes, just getting the basics right in mixing his feed, which is showing up in cow performance. 

He loads the mixer with a large BvL 180 shear grab, “an excellent investment,” he says. “The stack face is tidy, it’s fast to load and because we are cutting a grab full of compacted silage, we are getting up to 1400kg in one shear grab full of our wetter silage. It’s easy for the staff to use and because it’s robust it is unlikely to get damaged.”

Webbline sales manager Glen Malcolm says English’s comments about the BvL are echoed by others, notable in a low-payout year. 

“Forward thinking farmers are looking to increase productivity and get better returns out of their cows and more out of their feed on hand. The BvL mixers are playing a large role in achieving this. 

“Mixing the feed increases rumen performance…. There is enough scientific evidence out there proving the economic benefit of doing this.”

Tel. 0800 932 254

www.webbline.co.nz