Statfold Farm

 Follow Statfold if you are interested in:

• Learning how to successfully reduce cases of mastitis
• Further improving fertility rates using exclusively sexed semen
• Learning more about implementing Swedish Red and Pro cross cows into your herd
• Reducing instances of lameness
• Improving nutrient management
• Finding more efficient ways to utilise slurry

Overview

Statfold Farm, in Staffordshire, has been farmed by Andrew Gilman and his family since his grandfather moved there in 1900, making Andrew the third generation to farm it. The extended farm team includes Andrew’s father, Herdsman Andy, Assistant Herdsman Kieran and general farm-worker Nigel, with two other self-employed workers who will do night-time milking.

Our farm

The farm has a total of 450 acres which is made up of 70 acres permanent pasture and the rest split over grass and maize. The infrastructure includes two cubicle sheds: an older shed with 197 cubicles and a new building accommodating 104. Original Victorian buildings are still used along with two new open fronted sheds.

Our herd

Andrew runs an all-year-round calving system herd, currently made up of 300 predominantly Holstein cows with Swedish red with PRO cross being introduced. The herd have an average yield of 10,000 litres per cow per year with 3.9% Fat and 3.3% protein. Cows are housed most of the year and grazed during their dry period. Sexed Semen is used for replacements, with the rest to beef. Breeding decisions are data driven, using milk quality and serves per conception as the current main drivers. They are milked 3 times a day through a 20/20 herringbone parlour and they supply milk to Arla on a liquid contract aligned with Asda.

Our journey

Andrew says there is always room for improvement across the business, but over the next three years he aims to improve cow’s fertility and reduce lameness while also focusing on nutrient management and better utilising slurry.

News and past events

• Podcast on using nutrition and genetics to drive feed efficiency (April 2023) Andrew speaks with Emily Collins, dairy knowledge exchange manager, and David Levick, a nutrition consultant from Kite, discussing how to improve feed efficiency through feeding management, the ration and genetic improvement
• Simple and effective use of organic fertilisers and nutrient management planning (April 2022) Andrew is joined by Chris Duller, grassland specialist, for a discussion on the role that nitrogen plays in producing low cost, high quality forage
• Fertility improvements for impact (August 2021) Andrew and vet James Breen discussed methods to monitor current fertility performance, explored possible causes of poor conception rate, reviewed current management on Statfold Farm and suggested ideas to improve fertility performance
• Investing in an optimum age at first calving (June 2021) In this article for British Dairying magazine, Andrew spoke to us about optimising his age at first calving
  
• Statfold Farm launch (December 2020) Andrew provides an overview of his farm's operations along with his ambitions for the future in this launch webinar (YouTube, 1 hour 5 minutes)
• Breeding policies and the use sexed semen (July 2019) We talk to Andrew about his breeding policies and goals, and how his herd has evolved over recent years (Podcast, 8 minutes)

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