BE IT winter or summer, Derek Haworth prioritises milk from forage. And he sees no reason why this cannot be achieved in a system using a robotic milking machine.
Installing a robot at Rose Farm, Hambleton, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, has not been without its ‘challenges’, but Mr Haworth has worked hard to create a system which suits his milk-from-forage ethos, as well as his farm layout and cows, plus the fact he is a one-man-band with a young family.
Less than 10 per cent of his land is accessible for grazing by the milking herd and so zero grazing has been used by Mr Haworth, and his father before him, for 40 years. The focus on this (coupled with the grazing that is available and making good quality silage) to drive down input costs has not changed with the arrival of the robot.
Mr Haworth says it may be because he is a tenant farmer, but his whole focus is on profitability – therefore the cost of producing a litre of milk is far more important to him than the number of litres produced.
“I don’t own a square foot of land or a brick of building, so am completely focused on profit,” he says, adding that there are no current plans for expansion, because he knows he can milk 70 cows on his own and make a good living from it.
He has had sole control of the business since buying out his father in 2001-02, when almost all the 110 Ayrshires, red and white Holsteins and crosses was sold. Mr Haworth retained 15 ‘odds and sods’ plus the youngstock, slowly building up to today’s 70 cows and with Ayrshire genetics still having a strong dominance.
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