Millands Farm

Follow our journey if you are interested in:

• Managing forage-based large spring block calving herd of Holstein Friesian cows
• Improving fertility driving the empty rate to below 10%
• Improving grass growth grazing
• Improving your soil health
• Increasing youngstock growth rates
• Improving dairy profitability

Overview

Wallace and James Hendrie and their family have been farming in Ayrshire for over 250 years. They operate two spring calving herds, totalling 600 Holstein Friesian cows milking twice daily.

Our farm

Milland’s Farm is based in the beautiful county of Ayrshire, near the west coast of Scotland. The farm consists of 345 ha of land.

Our herd

The herd is currently made up of two units totalling 600 Holstein Friesian cows. They achieve 5,400 litres of milk per cow per year at an average of 4.2% butterfat and 3.5% protein; of that 3,575 litres are from forage. The herd is milked twice per day and is housed between mid-October and mid-March. They have a replacement rate of 32% and rear all their own replacements. 71% of cows and heifers calve within the first six weeks.

Our journey

Over the next three years, Wallace and James have key areas to tackle.  Firstly they want to concentrate on herd fertility, with the aim to achieve an empty rate below 10%. They also hope to improve grass production up from the soil, to increase the quality of the grass utilised and create potential for inclusion of clover and herbal ley mixes. Additionally, they will continue to improve youngstock growth rates and push to focus and review herd genetics.

Our key performance figures

Millands Farm openly share their key performance indicators, so you can see how they perform against a number or technical and financial measures.

News and past events

• Using metabolic profiling to improve efficiency and maximise output (May 2023) How metabolic profiling is helping Wallace and James fine tune their herd to improve efficiency and maximise output
• Improving cow health during the transition period (February 2023) Working with Alastair Macrae, University of Edinburgh, Wallace and James have been looking at how blood testing can inform their transition cow management (YouTube, 1 minute)
• Driving profitability with your carbon audit (December 2021) Wallace and James Hendrie were keen to explore how they could turn a carbon audit required by their processor to their advantage
• Getting the most from your carbon audit (June 2021) In this podcast, we discuss the results of the recent carbon audit at Millands Farm and explore what this means from a practical approach on farm (Audioboom, 25 minutes)
• Improving fertility in spring-block-calving-herds (February 2021) James and Wallace Hendrie look at how they can improve fertility in their spring calving herd
• Meet the Hendrie's Interview (November 2020) Find out more about the Hendrie's and their ambitions as Strategic Dairy Farmers over the next three years
• Millands Farm strategic farm launch (October 2020) Wallace and James Hendrie give a thorough overview of their farm

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