Another top dairy title for Meldrum Farm

From left Carolyn Hamilton, Doug McMillan and David Hamilton

They’ve certainly achieved that too with assistance of herd manager, Doug McMillan, as production had risen from an already respectable 10,000 litres on a twice daily milking regime, to in excess of 12,500 litres three times daily at 3.65% BF and 3.15% P, while cow numbers have increased to 850 by rearing home-bred replacements.
“We’ve always strived to improve and to become more efficient to drive the business forward,” said David. 
“There is always going to be volatility in the milk price, but by continually analysing our costs benchmarking ourselves against other farms with similar objectives we hope to be able to keep ahead of the game. We try to keep things simple in our systems and rely heavily on good staff – everything has to be consistent, with attention to detail at all times.”
Having won the AgriScot Dairy Farm of the Year in 2014 and 2017, and being a finalist the two years in between, it’s a policy which is obviously bearing fruit. It is one, though, which has also witnessed a few challenges over the years, especially when the enterprise depends on up to 14 full and part-time staff, from across the UK and Eastern Europe.

The new shed  built in 2004 has been altered to make it lighter and airier

David added: “It’s really difficult getting good staff, especially when a few don’t speak English, but we do have some key guys which makes a huge difference. We installed closed circuit TV cameras four or five years ago throughout all the sheds which has helped, should there be any problem areas for the cows. 
“There is now no escaping mismanagement as the cameras ensure everyone is accountable for what they do when all work is recorded. We can also see how close cows are to calving in the calving area.”
With each camera able to zoom in and out, David and Doug can also see, for example, if all calves have been fed and fed the correct amount of milk/colostrum, or that an individual cow had or did not have her feet trimmed.
To ensure a consistency, David, Carolyn and Doug have regular staff meetings every six weeks to review short and longterm goals, staff training and any other matter arising. One of the things they are currently looking at is staff boiler suits to help build teamwork. 
Carolyn, who attends to all the book work oversees staff management, health and safety protocols is also looking into English speaking classes for those who want it. 
It’s not just about keeping the staff happy, though. David and Doug have to run a fairly tight ship to ensure heifers continue to calve at 23 months of age as they have averaged for the past four years, while the number of lactations on this 800-acre mixed dairy and arable unit remains well above the average at 4.5. 
More impressive is the fact that the herd boasts a calving interval of 382 days. “We always try to keep our calving interval near 365 days to get as much milk out of the cows, as that’s what drives efficiency,” said David, who sells the milk to local business, Grahams The Family Dairy.

Meldrum cubicles are bedded with oat husk

As a result, there are four different milking groups – a fresh pen, heifers only (to avoid bullying), high yielding cows and a late lactation group of cows and heifers. All are fed a TMR comprising straw, wholecrop wheat, home-grown barley, whey perm, soya, rape meal, palm kernels, silage, draff and minerals and milked three times daily through a 50-point rotary parlour at 3.30am, 11.30am and 7.30pm. 
This takes roughly 3.5hours with four members of staff on board – three in the parlour and one chasing up the cattle and cleaning the cubicles which are bedded with oat husk and lime to keep hygiene levels up. 
The business has also invested in a teat scrubber at a cost of £8500 to increase milk let down, improve teat health and reduce mastitis levels which David said has made a ‘huge difference’. 
“We were over milking our cows and getting bother with teat health, but by introducing the teat scrubber and changing the settings in the parlour so that clusters come off sooner with the result, we’re not getting the same teat or mastitis problems. We’ve only got one cow with mastitis at present.”

Teat washer has helped improve hygiene levels

First service is at 50 days which sees a 41% hold, of which the top 50% of cows are AI’d to high genomic sexed semen sires through Genus Reproductive Management Systems, with the remainder to a Limousin or British Blue beef sire, to increase the value of the calves sold, which are cashed privately at two weeks of age.
Up to 66% of the heifers are AI’d to sexed semen too, with the remainder to a beef sire. This however, is done at John Mackie’s Dalfibble unit, near Dumfries, where heifers are are contract reared from nine months to 20 months with all AI work undertaken by Genus RMS technician, Maureen Mair.
With heifers calving on average at 23 months, calves have to gain 0.8kg per day from birth, which at Meldrum Farm starts with the birth of a healthy calf from a healthy cow. Hence, cows are dried off six weeks before calving and introduced to a total mixed ration comprising straw, oat husks, silage and pot-ale syrup. Three weeks before calving, bio-chlor and wholecrop wheat is added. 
Calved in straw-bedded courts, each new born is fed four litres of it’s mother’s milk within the first four hours and shifted to a straw bedded pen of similarly-aged calves where it receives cows’ milk for the first four-five days as records show there is no Johnes in the herd. 
Powdered milk via a five-teat bar is then introduced along with creep feeding, with weaning taking place at around 60 days.
In contrast to other dairy units, calf jackets are not used. Instead, more milk is provided when the weather gets particularly cold, which the team has found to be just as beneficial as jackets.

The light airy cow shed is also where the calves are reared

Maximising nutrition is key for all age groups of cattle and bolstered with the use of home-grown cereals. In all, the farm has 850 acres, with a further 300 acres of contract arable ground, enabling barley and wholecrop wheat to be grown. In previous years, maize was also grown, but ditched after some poor results. 
The boys  also look to harvest at least four top quality cuts of high dry matter silage, which last year, despite the horrendous weather, resulted in five cuts of 30-35% dry matter, high ME, 74-75 D-value silage.
“Producing top quality forages is one of the key success factors of our business,” said David.
Outwith diet, the team at Meldrum has also seen huge improvements in the overall health of the herd since developing a close working relationship with the Glasgow Vet School. Started off by David’s brothers, Bill and Archie, and Lorenzo Viora from the Vet School in 2009, this relationship has gone from strength to strength. 
Visits have gone from monthly to weekly at Meldrum and fortnightly at the calf rearing unit with the visits proving beneficial to both parties. The students get the opportunity of hands on experience on a large dairy farm and the farm management team gains access to a volume of data that enables them to focus on key performance indicators within the herd. 
The construction of a 425ft x 150ft light, airy shed in 2003/04 to house all milking cattle, calving cows and calves, has also boosted production, but this too has since been altered by taking sheets out of the sides to increase airflow and improve cow health.
Additional buildings have also been erected for more streamlined accommodation.
There’s no doubt, the Hamiltons have an impressive outfit which is even more awe-inspiring when you consider the staff involved. Subsequently, the couple host farmer visits from as far afield as Germany, France, Finland, Ireland and England. The couple is also keen to get schools on farm to let kids see what exactly is involved in producing milk.
David and Carolyn are not finished  either as they are continually striving to improve levels of efficiency. All going well though, and if their son Mark (15) is interested, they do hope to see him take over the reins in future years.