It takes a huge amount of dedication, enthusiasm and attention to detail to succeed in any career – star qualities dairy farmers, Robert Sloan and his father Bryce, have undoubtedly been gifted with after winning a screed of top industry awards.

In 2017, the Sloans saw their Townlaw Holstein herd from Auchinleck, Cumnock, lift the top honours for production and inspection in the Scottish Herds competition.

This was superseded the following year with a Master Breeder Status from Holstein UK– an award which acknowledges high standards on classification scores and production traits as well as having trouble-free cows and herd longevity. At that time, the 180-cow herd based at Darnlaw, had an average lifetime yield of 46,000litres and included eight 100-tonne cows. Replacement rate was 19%.

The icing on the cake for all – Bryce and Anne, son Robert and his wife Emma – however has been the presentation of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farming’s (RABDF’s) prestigious Gold Cup in 2019. This premier national dairy herd competition award and the one all dairy farmers aspire to, recognises efficiency in commercial milk production.

The family is also believed to be one of the few, if not the sole title holder in Scotland to have secured the top two dairy awards in the UK, which to them, purely boils down to a love of cows and their well-being.

By ensuring the herd is managed to the best of their ability with superlative health and welfare, not only has the team been able to increase production per cow, but also longevity. As it is, they have bred no fewer than 22, 100tonne cows with most of those being in the past 10 years. Add in the herd’s current 34 Excellent-classified cows and 74 VGs and the Sloan’s management policy is undoubtedly working a treat.

 

The holstein herd are housed year round and milked through three Lely robots Ref:RH210721020 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

The holstein herd are housed year round and milked through three Lely robots Ref:RH210721020 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

 

“It’s so good to show the rest of the UK that a small family-run dairy enterprise in Scotland can compete with all the big herds that have won in the past,” said Bryce.

“This is the first time a heavy grassland farm in the south-west Scotland has been awarded the Gold Cup, and hopefully in doing so, it will encourage more young people into the sector. Family farms are so important to the future of our industry when it is becoming increasingly difficult to find staff to work on any farm these days,” he said.

There has however, been a lot of hard graft, sweat and tears between moving from the home family farm at Townhead, Auchinleck, to nearby Darnlaw, in 1967, and winning those top awards. However, it’s the three generations of Sloans – the late Robert Sloan, Bryce and his son Robert – all of whom had/have an inbuilt passion for breeding top quality dairy cows through superior genetics, health and welfare that has been key to their success.

While genetics from leading cow families are the backbone of the herd, the family has always made best use of modern technology, with the biggest difference in welfare and production in recent years achieved with robotics.

 

Three Lely robots are used for the Holstein herd at Darnlaw Ref:RH210721023 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

Three Lely robots are used for the Holstein herd at Darnlaw Ref:RH210721023 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

 

In 2011, two A4 Lely robots were installed in a new state of the art cow barn, built on a green field site with maximum air flow. Larger cubicles with mattresses and sawdust, automatic scrapers and rubber mats on all concrete, have improved cow comfort and cleanliness, while automatic curtains – powered by solar panels – ensure a constant temperature regardless of the weather outside. LED lights make for a bright, clean, airy shed, even on the darkest of winter days and a Lely Juno ensures feed is always available.

A fully integrated computerised system aids milk recording and individual cow health and management. Cows are fed the same TMR for 27litres and maintenance, and fed according to yield each time they visit the robot to aid digestion.

“We’ve always tried to make life as natural as possible for our cows, and Holsteins producing as much milk as they do, need to be milked more than twice a day,” said Robert, adding that while the family did consider such machines when they were first introduced, they held back until they were more reliable.

“Installing three robots – two in 2011 and one in 2013 – was a huge investment all those years ago, when we already had a good working Westfalia 16 x 16 parlour, but we had to look to the future and whether we’d need to employ more staff if we were to go to three times daily milking.

“Our system works well. We employ three local men and each staff member works up to 50 hours a week – but rarely more than four and a half days a week. This gives them time to pursue their own interests and have time off at the weekend.

 

 Lely Juno, Automated feed pushing robot to keep the cows with silage Ref:RH210721031 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

Lely Juno, Automated feed pushing robot to keep the cows with silage Ref:RH210721031 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

 

“The level of automation on the farm allows for flexible working hours with minimal anti-social labour requirements. Everyone has their own individual responsibilities, but they are also expected to step in and provide relief for any job on the farm. It is this diversity that keeps everyone challenged and motivated.”

Such has been the success of the Lely A4 robots, that both Robert and Bryce believe the cows are happier and healthier and that’s after each robot having done 650,000 milkings – each!

“The cows just eat, lie down and get up to go and get milked,” said Robert. “They no longer need to be pestered to go and get milked twice a day, and they can go and get milked every 10-12litres if they want, so there is not the stress on the cow or her udder. Our cows now look their age because they’ve not been hanging about standing on hard concrete waiting to be milked and their udders are tighter as a result of being milked more regularly.

“Our robotic system allows us to run extended lactations on certain cows. Long, level lactation curves are a key component to the longevity of our cows, with breeding decisions and rations formulated to encourage this,” he added.

 

The Jersey herd is run separately and milked twice a day through the parlour, grazing in summer and housed in winter Ref:RH210721025 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

The Jersey herd is run separately and milked twice a day through the parlour, grazing in summer and housed in winter Ref:RH210721025 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

 

And, while the cows milk themselves, Robert and the rest of the team – Cameron McGregor, Scott Paterson and Graeme Dick – have more time to attend to the needs of individual Holsteins and the business' 60-cow pedigree Jersery herd which are run between Darnlaw and the neighbouring Little Heateth, where Bryce and Anne live.

In contrast to the Holsteins which are housed 24/7 in an environmentally controlled 164 cubicle cow barn, the Jerseys are run more conventionally, milked through the 16 x 16 Westfalia parlour and out at grass as much as possible.

“The Jerseys have been our diversification,” said Robert. “In 2015 we had 220 Holstein cows milked through three robots giving so much milk that 30% of our total consisting of ‘B litres’ compared to our ‘A litres’ which proved a real challenge to our business when we had just expanded, but we were fortunately allowed to swap our B litres for Jersey litres.

“We thought that if we introduced a Jersey herd and milk with higher components, we would be able to make use of our existing parlour – kept in case of a break down with the robots – and our original cubicle shed, and, we’d be able to sell the milk at a higher price. But, we didn’t do anything until we had a guaranteed market, which was agreed with Robert Graham.

“Jerseys have a lighter frame and are also more suited to the heavy ground here. They’re averaging 7200litres with more than 10% solids, so we’re on a specialist Jersey contract with Grahams Dairies, with the milk being used to produce Gold Top milk, Skyr and Protein 22," Robert added.

While milking in the parlour is nothing new to Bryce, he is the first to admit that working with Jersey cattle has been ‘a steep learning curve’.

“Jerseys are very inquisitive cattle so you never need to hunt them into the parlour, they follow you. They also have great feet and legs and good fertility which means they are great cattle for grazing grass, but you do have to be on top of them all the time. If a Jersey goes down, she goes down quick,” said Bryce who has also worked with pedigree Ayrshires.

Although brought up on the home farm at Townhead, where his late father, Robert, ran one of the oldest and most successful herds of pedigree Ayrshires, it was 1975 before Bryce moved in to Darnlaw, along with 50 Ayrshire and four Holstein cows – fed on barn dried hay!

In fact, it was eight home-bred Ayrshire bulls sold in 1972 that paid for Darnlaw which had been purchased in 1967 as an undrained, derelict breakers yard.

“I always wanted to do something different and Holsteins seemed to be the breed for the future when they gave so much more milk,” said Bryce.

“I never wanted big, extreme cows. I have always looked for medium-sized, functional cows that would suit commercial men.”

The Townlaw Holstein herd was established from groups of heifers from quality herds such as Greengill, Hallbrooke and Bleasby, which still form the backbone of the herd today.

With modern technology and better nutrition, average milk yields have slowly but surely crept up over the years too from 8000litres in the mid 1980s on self feed silage, to 9500litres when the family bought their first Keenan feed wagon in the 1990s.

A new cow barn and Westfalia parlour in 2001, improved cow comfort and bolstered yields further with 140 cows averaging 10,500litres on a twice a day milking policy.

Add in elite cow families from the purchase of a few select females and embryos at various sales to boost the genetic make up of the herd and another new cow shed and robots in 2011 and average yields for the 190 cow unit now stand at 12,500 litres.

Three years ago, further investment allowed for the construction of a new calf shed, whereby calves are reared in individual pens for the first seven days before being batched in groups of 20 on a Volac automatic feeder.

Calves are weaned at 64 days old and moved as a batch with an all in-all out approach, allowing pens to be thoroughly washed, disinfected and given time to dry before the next batch. Calf growth rates average 0.89kg liveweight gain per day.

Outwith the increased volumes of milk from the robots, and the Jersey herd, additional income is obtained via pedigree cattle sales, both Holstein and Jersey, which are often sold privately and account for 15% of total income. In 2018, this was equivalent to more than 6ppl.

With the increasing demand for milking heifers and robotically milked females, the Sloans have also embraced the use of sexed and beef semen too, with the result that 85% of the Holstein herd is AI’d with sexed, while the remainder is AI’d either to a Limousin or a British Blue with the resultant progeny either sold as forward stores or finished on farm.

Jerseys are usually sold as in-calf heifers, served to (sexed jersey semen now) a polled black Limousin bull. Holstein heifers are sold fresh and anything from a week to a month calved when there is an increasing demand for robot-trained cattle as more producers convert to robotic milking systems.

Cow cleanliness is a top priority and a Clusterflush system operates in the parlour with Pura steam on the robots to prevent cross contamination. Cows are bedded with sawdust and hydrated lime on mattresses. Any cases of mastitis are sampled and frozen in case of a major breakdown, to allow individual samples to be cultured quickly to identify the strain of mastitis that’s causing the problem.

“E-coli can be a problem here. With the removal of critically important antibiotics as a safety net for any of these cases we have started vaccinating the herd for mastitis to hopefully prevent further antibiotic usage,” said Robert.

He also added that lame cows and robots do not mix. “Any form of lameness is treated as an emergency. We have an extremely proactive foot health policy. Foot baths twice a week and udder cleft conditioning means that there have been very few no cases of digital dermatitis over the past 24 months.”

Both herds are fed a silage-based TMR. Jerseys are fed 2kg blend and 2 kg ground maize and topped up to yield in the parlour to a maximum of 5kg concentrate.

The Holsteins are fed 2.95kg blend, with 2.4kg of ground maize and 4kg of supergrains, and fed concentrates to yield in the robot to 12kg a day.

With heavy clay soils and 55-60 inches of annual rainfall, forage is based solely on grass silage and some wholecrop spring wheat. First cut silage is taken at the end of May from 330 acres to feed all the cows all year, thereby ensuring a consistent ration 365days a year.

FARM facts

Family farm: Bryce and Anne, son Robert and his wife Emma and young family of Will and Maeve

Farming: 570 acres at Darnlaw and Little Heateth with additional ground rented (430 owned 140 rented)

Feed regime: TMR and topped with concentrate via the robots

Milk buyer: Graham’s Dairy

Holstein herd: 190 cows

Average yield: 12,521kg, 4.09%BF and 3.18%P

SCC: 116,000/ml

Calving interval: 419 days

Jersey herd: 75 cows

Average yield: 7261kg at 5.95%BF, 3.97%P

SCC 79,000/ml

Calving interval 394 days

ON THE spot

Biggest achievement? "Undoubtably winning the Gold Cup."

Best investment? "New accommodation for the Holstein milking herd."

Where did you learn most? "Viewing other progressive farms and listening to the people who run them."

What inspires you to keep going? "Continually innovating to improve what we do."

Where would you like to be in 2030? "To be able to pass on a profitable efficient business to allow the next generation the same opportunities which we had, if farming is what they desire to do."