Dairy Roadshow - Staffordshire

Join us at Manor Farm, Staffordshire for the first of our Dairy Roadshows. You will have the chance to meet with industry experts who will be sharing their findings from our five-year research partnership led by the University of Nottingham. You will hear key findings from some of the studies and how they can be put into practice on farm.

During the day you will move through five themed interactive stations covering covering cow environment, feed efficiency, breeding and genetics, lameness and nutrition. There will also be plenty of opportunity to ask questions and discuss the topics with the researchers and fellow attendees over lunch.

Station 1: Cow Environment

How could your dairy cows benefit from providing more living space? With Jake Thompson, PhD Researcher, University of Nottingham

You will hear about:

• The definition of living space
• How living space can impact dairy cow production, reproduction and behaviour

Station 2: Whole Farm Feed Efficiency 

What impacts your Dairy Farm Efficiency with Professor Phil Garnsworthy.

Whole farm feed efficiency is total milk produced divided by total feed purchased or produced for all animals on the farm. The calculations includes milking cows, dry cows, replacements and feed wastage.

You will hear about: 

• Definition of Whole Farm Feed Efficiency (WFFE) 
• How to calculate WFFE for your farm 
• How to improve WFFE 

Station 3: Breeding & Genetics

Introducing new indexes and traits with Marco Winters from AHDB

• Healthy Cow
• EnviroCow
• Gestation length

Station 4: Lameness

Optimising Foot Hygiene for Prevention of Bovine Digital Dermatitis with Amy Gillespie, PhD researcher from the University of Liverpool.   

You will hear about:  

• Effective foot bathing strategies including footbath design, footbath disinfectants, and foot bathing hygiene 
• Disinfection of foot trimming tools to reduce spread of digital dermatitis  

Station 5: Nutrition

Feeding low protein diets based on high protein forages without affecting performance with Professor Liam Sinclair from Harper Adams University  

You will hear about: 

• Reducing the protein content of diets based on high protein, home-grown forages such as red clover and lucerne 
• The effects on animal performance, nitrogen excretion and purchased feed costs 

About Manor Farm

Manor farm runs an all-year-round calving system, milking around 550 cows, 3 times a day on a 40 point rotary, average yield 11,500 litres.

Levy-funded research and development can contribute to a more sustainable future by improving technical efficiency, reducing costs of production and retaining positive public perceptions of dairy farming.

Dairy Research Partnership 2016-2021

The Research Partnership was funded by AHDB Dairy with financial contributions from the academic partners - University of Nottingham, Harper Adams University, Royal Veterinary College and SRUC.

The partnership, led by University of Nottingham, addresses three of our strategic priorities:

• Feed efficiency and sustainability
• Optimising cow performance through health & welfare
• Creating a positive image for dairy farming

Learn about the seven work packages in the Dairy Research Partnership Programme by visiting our webpage.