Two sustainable initiatives on a Dorset dairy farm have brought improvements to herd lameness and feed waste.
The team at Hampreston Farm have made good use of 200-litre drums by recycling them and linking them together to create portable feeders which can be dragged behind a tractor. Keeping them mobile means that different ground within the field can be used daily, bringing improvements to field conditions.
They have also found that this is reducing feed waste, and are using them as milk feeders too. Requiring no investment, other than time, they are also easy to use, saving valuable time each day.
In addition to this, the farm has also made good use of 1600 metres of astroturf from a local sports pitch which was destined for landfill. By using it to cover their chalk tracks this has preserved the life of the tracks, and has also made the cows’ walk to pasture more comfortable and less slippery in wet weather. Not only have they saved this material from going into landfill, its use has also reduced lameness in the dairy herd.
