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A year-round-calving herd has lifted feed efficiency by half a litre while cutting feed cost by 0.67p/litre and methane/litre by 33%.

The Avison family, of Middlefields Farm, Coverdale, North Yorkshire, has cut feed costs to 10.45p/litre, despite dry matter (DM) intake lifting by 6kg a cow a day over that time (see “How performance has improved at Middlefields Farm”).

See also: Eight ways to lift dairy feed efficiency

Now the cows produce 1.52 litres of energy corrected milk for every 1kg of DM, giving a feed conversion efficiency (FCE) of 1.52. In 2009, FCE was 1.01, but by 2015 it had lifted to 1.16.

A raft of changes were made over that time, but simply offering the cows a consistent ration every day through a Keenan feeder has proved one of the keys to lifting performance.

Based on a standard calculation developed in 2011 by David Colman and David Beever (previously professors at the University of Manchester and Reading, respectively), at a current FCE of 1.52 the Middlefields herd produces about 15g of methane/kg of milk. This figure stood at 23g when FCE was 1.01 10 years ago.

The calculations are done by Chris Lord, InTouch manager for Alltech Keenan. He has worked closely with the Avisons on nutrition for the past five years.  

Litres of milk a cow a day

While a new Keenan InTouch system is a considerable investment (£25,000-£50,000), the savings made through advice on altering the dry cow diet contribute to a fairly short payback period (see “Five ways the Avisons have improved FCE”).

Andrew, William and and Gail Avison © MAG/MichaelPriestley

 “Consumers are more aware of the impact cows have on the environment, so if we can show that we can house cows and optimise their management to get more milk from the same amount of feed it must be good for the industry,” says Andrew Avison, who farms with wife Gail, daughter Emily and sons William and Henry.

“We are also having a carbon audit done soon, as we are curious as to where the farm is at and how we can improve there.”

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