David pictured on a recently constructed cow lane leading to one of the grazing blocks.
College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) dairying adviser, Trevor Alcorn highlights the progress of a young farmer David Hunter of Droit, Newtownstewart, who farms just a short distance from the scenic Sperrins.
After a great deal of thought, David made the decision to convert the suckler, sheep and arable enterprises on the home farm into a new dairying enterprise.
Building work commenced in early 2012 with the construction of a new slatted cubicle house followed by a Dairymaster milking parlour. Milking commenced in the Spring 2013, and he currently has a herd of 120 cows milking. Calving commences on 1st February and will continue until the end of April, with approximately 80% of the herd calving in the first six weeks.
Trevor outlines that: “The herd is very much grass based, with grazing taking place between mid-February and mid-November, weather permitting. David has developed new laneways, paddock system and water supply. At this stage he has re-seeded the entire grazing platform and focused on improving soil fertility.”
Due to his interest in grazing and grassland management, David became a Grasscheck farm and a grass partner farm for DLF seeds, where he regularly measures grass growth and records how paddocks are performing, as well as trialling various grass varieties.
David Hunter assessing silage quality.
Currently David averages 13 tonnes grass DM per hectare throughout the grazing season.
Trevor continued: “David’s passion for grass and grazing led to him to win the 2024 Ulster Grassland Club’s Farmer of the Year.”
David’s breeding policy has been a Jersey cross Holstein Friesian, and he is now introducing Viking Red as a three-way cross. Currently cows are averaging 12 litres at 5.81% Butterfat (BF), 4.24% Protein (P) from 3kg concentrate, drying off has commenced and all cows will be dried off before Christmas.
Overall herd performance for the 2023 benchmarked year was 7080 litres per cow at 4.63% BF and 3.67% P, with a feed rate of 0.28 kg of concentrate fed per litre of milk produced.
Innovation and labour efficiency are key in David’s strive for efficiency. The milking parlour has been upgraded to a 14:28 with the ADF (automatic dip and flush) recently installed. He has also recently purchased a GPS operated fertiliser sower, with weigh cells and section control, in a bid to reduce any wasted fertiliser. A new Lely robot scraper and automatic calf feeder have also been recently installed to help improve labour efficiency.
David recently became one of CAFRE’s – Technology Demonstration Farms (TDF’s) and his theme is feed efficiency. He is now open for visits and gives a very comprehensive insight into his farming business to visiting groups.