Being elected chairman of any organisation is a huge honour and for David Gray who heads up the Scottish Holstein Club, it’s been made all the more rewarding with an enthusiastic team of young breeders and family behind him.
No stranger to the show or the sale ring, David has sold and brought out numerous star performers in several dairy breeds at local and national level in the UK and further afield throughout Europe, America, Canada and Australia.
However, having travelled the world and worked with some of the best pedigree dairy cattle breeders in most continents, he’s enjoying being back home and running his own hoof trimming business while also rearing Holstein calves with show and sale potential.
Now based at Dilmun, next door to the family farm at Drumtall, East Kilbride, David and his wife Julie, son Calum and daughter Erica, not only run Hoof and Hyde, but also rear up to 100 head of Holstein youngstock.
Such has been the success of Hoof and Hyde – established in 2003 – that David now regularly travels as far afield as Shropshire and Staffordshire and up to Aberdeenshire, attending to the hooves of cattle in some 60 herds.
Very much a family affair, Julie attends to the paper work while David is away, while young Calum (16) and Erica (14) help out with the calves with grand parents Jim and Moira Gray.
But it’s not all been plain sailing. In 2002, David was offered a golden opportunity to manage a new state of the art dairy complex in Canada. However, the timing could not have been worse as BSE broke out and as a result, the opportunity fell through.
The following spring, David bought a cattle chute and embarked on a five-day hoof trimming course in the North of England to kick start a new venture that now provides the bread and butter of a growing business – all of which revolves around Holstein cattle.
“I do still wonder what it would be like if we’d stayed in Canada, but it’s great to be back home having the kids and family around us,” said David.
“I still go to the big dairy shows around the world and I get to see some of the best cattle when I’m out hoof trimming. The cattle in this country have improved immensely and now that we’re focussing more on rearing calves, I get a chance to contract rear or take a share in some show potential calves.
“A good heifer calf has to catch your eye from a distance. The calf needs to show balance and width throughout with a deep open rib and being a feet man, be good on its feet and legs. Good calves have the potential to turn out to be good cows but it all depends on the udder, how they calve down and how fancy their mammary system is.”
With a keen eye for the job, David looks to buy what he described as the ‘rough diamonds’ in the pen – young calves on farms where he regularly trims hooves. Add in a bit of TLC and a change of management to include individual water buckets, pasteurised cows’ milk and the best of hay, and he’s been able to transform many of those ugly ducklings into beautiful swans for the younger generation to show at calf shows up and down the country.
It might be more like the Canadian style of dairy cattle rearing but it is paying dividends when his youngstock regularly secure prize tickets at club level and further afield at the Borderway Dairy Expo at Carlisle, and the All Britain Calf Show, when shown by young Scottish breeders.
At Ayr last week, the top three showmanship animals were calves from the Grayridge stable based at Drumtall of which some are owned in partnership with their breeders.
This expanding business which is becoming hugely popular with young breeders, is based on rearing calves through until they’ve calved, after which they are either sold through the auction mart at Carlisle, or to hoof trimmer customers. The big bonus is by mating each heifer to hand-picked sexed sires to calf at 26 months of age, David is able to retain a female calf for the following year.
However, with the family farm based on 100acres, stock numbers are restricted to about 100 head which range from baby calves right through to fresh heifers to provide pasteurised milk fed via a milk taxi.
It’s a busy place when David is regularly away from home hoof trimming and he’s the first to admit he has become reliant the rest of the family to help out.
His customers are also hugely dependent on him when they are seeing a reduction in lameness and subsequently, improved animal welfare and margins.
“Breeders and dairy farmers are becoming more aware of the massive cost of having lame cows and the difference hoof trimming makes to reduce that.
"I’ve got one farmer whose herd scores zero for lameness and that’s down to improved cow comfort, cleanliness, a good diet and regular foot trimming, fortnightly.
“One of the reasons why lameness in UK dairy herds has increased is the fact that more cows are now kept inside all year round on unnatural standings and on diets with higher protein,” David said adding that some Dutch dairy farmers are now hoof trimming every 3000 litres in a bit to reduce lameness.
Add in the cost of a lame dairy cow which can be colossal in terms of reduced milk yields, reduced fertility and body conditioning and David said:
“When it comes to lameness, prevention is always better than cure and that means hoof trimming 60days post calving and just before drying off; and regular foot bathing alternating between formalin and copper sulphate.”
With huge pressure to reduce the incidence of lameness on farms, you would wonder how David gets any time off to work at home, let alone as chairman of the Scottish Holstein Club.
But, with Holstein genetics in his blood, there is nothing he enjoys more than a day out with breeders of all ages looking and working with top quality cows and calves.
“I am so proud to be appointed chairman of the Club when my father took on the same role 20 years ago, and now at a time when the Scottish Holstein Club of Young Breeders has gone from strength to strength and is now one of the strongest in the UK.
“We have always had a great team of Holstein Young Breeders, but their enthusiasm and drive has accelerated within the past few years following various workshops of stockjudging, showmanship and calf clipping. It has been a natural progression and is fantastic to see,” concluded David.
Outwith the various stockjudging, workshops and herds competitions; the club also stages various calf shows and an annual herd visit which this year is being staged on Friday, June 7, at the Forsyth’s award winning Baltier herd just outside Whithorn.
All are welcome to the family farm which this year was awarded National Milk Records’ highest milking herd in Scotland. Baltier not only boasts some 1800 head of cattle in total with 850 Holstein milking cows averaging 13,000+kg at 4.1%BF and 3.45%P, but also anaerobic digesters and a few extremely well-bred pedigree Texel sheep.
Business Facts:
Hoof and Hyde: David's Hoof trimming business which he started in 2003 and now sees him attend to the hooves of cattle in some 60 herds throughout Scotland and England.
Heifer calf rearing: Hand-picking of individual heifer calves on farm either to contract rear or buy and sell on as fresh heifers having retained the heifer calf from them for future calf shows.
Farm: Cattle are based at the 100-acre home farm of Drumtall, East Kilbride where his parents Jim and Moira are very much to the fore in the day to day management of the youngstock alongside son Calum.
On The Spot:
Biggest achievement? "Establishing and developing the Hoof and Hyde business."
Proudest achievement? "Being one of three from Britain selected to attend the Canadian judging school of Holstein cattle and being the highest pointed individual European and third overall in the Canadian judging panel."
Best investment? "Hoof trimmed chute."
Best dairy cows seen? "All Canadian Mature cow, Thrulane James Rose Ex-97-2E and the American Jersey, Huronia Centurion Veronica Ex-97."
Favourite agricultural events? "Swiss Dairy Expo and the Royal Winter Fair in Canada."
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