Whitland: Targeting net zero – Herd Health and Productivity

Reducing carbon footprint is high on the political agenda, but pathways to start this journey will differ from farm to farm.

Join AHDB and Farming Connect for a series of three meetings this autumn focussing on various approaches to reducing our dairy carbon footprint on farm.

We will be joined by:

Sara Melo, the farm’s vet, Ken March, their nutritionist and Russell Thomas from Kite Consulting Ltd to understand where Blaengelli is in terms of Carbon emissions hear how recent changes in farm practices have improved herd health and performance and impacted their carbon footprint.

During this event you can learn how

• Transition cow management has improved herd performance
• Meeting calf growth rates can ensure 2-year calving targets are met.
• The impact these, and other measures can have on your Carbon Footprint
• Herd Health and Productivity are important for the financial success and carbon footprint.
• The Howells family have implemented measures which benefit both aspects of their business.

About the farm

Roger and Catherine run the 160-cow closed herd at Blaengelli with their daughter Sarah. Cows calve all year round and achieve an 11,000 lit. average yield on twice a day system. Milking cows graze during the summer months but dry cows are housed for tighter nutritional management. Sexed semen is used to optimise heifer replacements that calve at two years old.

About the speakers

Sara qualified from UTAD (Portugal) in 2014. Seeking a new adventure she joined Dyfed Farm Vets in 2017, after three years of working in a farm animal practice in Northern Portugal. Sara has a keen interest in all aspects of herd health on the dairy enterprise, particularly reproduction, mastitis and lameness.

Ken is a Dairy Specialist based in Aberystwyth, working as a consultant for Wynnstay Agri plc whilst also being a director of Perfekt Cow Nutrition Ltd. Having worked in the dairy sector for some 30 years his passion for amino acid nutrition and protein efficiency.

Russell was raised on a Carmarthenshire dairy farm, worked with Genus for 8 years and spent 11 years with the WDA and Welsh Government being responsible for the consultancy programme that launched Farming Connect. For the last 12 years he has been an associate to Kite Consulting. His experience extends to farm business consultancy, specialising in dairy sector cost of production, nutrient management and carbon audits.