300 Cow Club visit

Posted 26 April 2011

Alternative forage, cow behaviour and herd health were just some of the topics being discussed at a meeting for large-scale dairy farmers at Harper Adams last week.

The 300 Cow Club chose to host one of their biannual meetings at the University College in Shropshire and spent the day learning about the on-campus dairy unit and current research.

Members of the club, which was founded in 1972, are many of the large-scale dairy farmers in the UK, including Harper’s Farm Manager, Scott Kirby.

The club’s visit to Harper Adams began with a conference and continued for a second day with a farm visit.

Hon Secretary of the 300 Cow Club, Geoff Vickers, said: “We have been looking at the building design of the dairy unit here at Harper because it uses some radical design features, particularly the ventilation.

“We have also been able to welcome Dr Gordie Jones of Central Sands Dairy in Wisconsin, America. He runs the 4,000 cow unit is an expert in cow comfort. It has been a very successful visit for us all.”

Around 70 farmers visited the University College as part of the club and enjoyed a series of talks, an open discussion and a tour of the new Anaerobic Digestion Unit.

Hefin Richards of Profeed Nutrition discussed using Lucerne as an alternative forage, Professor Liam Sinclair and Gemma Charlton of Harper Adams spoke about cow behaviour and methane emissions, while James Todd of Harper Adams and Bill May of Lambert & May talked about health and management.

To find out more about dairy research at Harper Adams, there is a Dairy Technology Event on May 4. This is open to anyone and features a host of guest speakers and demonstrations.

Visit http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/press/events/index.cfm?id=201068 for details.