Keeping it Simple Proves Success

August 2009

Keeping it simple is the farms philosophy at East Browns, the home farm of the Bond family.  Mr and Mrs Geoff Bond and their son Tom, farm at East Browns and Rosebank, near Torrington, with the support of their herdsmen, Steve Horn and Andrew Palmer and assistant herdsman, Stuart Blight.

Geoff Bond explained, “Keeping it simple is the key to our success, 

Earlier this month 100 farmers attended a farm walk at East Browns organised with Cornwall Farmers, which featured grassland management, wholecrop production, parlour hygiene, silage making and management and computerised calf feeding talks as well as machinery and animal health demonstrations.

The two farms are run as one herd with 180 cows being milked at Rosebank continuously with all the dry cows being brought back to East Browns to calf.  The East Browns herd is currently running at 240.  The herd is a flying herd with the replacements bought in from all over the country.  The Cows are put to beef bulls which run with the herd, the resulting calves are sold just after calving.  Cows calve all year round but with a bias to late summer/early autumn.

Tom Mann, Cornwall Farmers’ Blends Manager, advice the Bond’s with their dairy nutrition.  Last winter the cows were fed grass, maize and wholecrop silages with the addition of caustic wheat.  The cows were also fed Duchy Blends’ Supreme 30 in the mixer and Pinnacle Elite Plus 18 in the parlour.

Generally the summer regime is only to buffer feed at turnout and prior to housing, although the last two summers a small amount of buffer is fed to the cows throughout the ‘summer’.  Currently this is grass silage and Duchy Blends’ Supreme 21.

Maize has been grown in previous years; however, due to poor yields and high costs, it was decided not to grow it this year.  Instead starch has been purchased as cereal off farm or in the blend giving predictable starch levels at a known cost.