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Through better calf rearing facilities and the initiation of early life vaccination against pneumonia, the Hann family has seen significant improvements in the health and well-being of the calves in their pedigree Holstein herd at Rodden Down, Frome, Somerset.

With rising costs and the need to be carbon conscious, breeding productive, efficient and profitable dairy cattle has never been so paramount.

There is a mixture of new and familiar names in the latest bull proofs published this week by AHDB. Katie Jones takes a look at some of the front runners.

A 90 per cent rate calved within six weeks is currently being achieved by a Leicestershire-based farming couple who started out as new entrants in the late 1990s. Wendy Short reports.

A Leicestershire farm which generates 85% of its power requirements from a wind turbine has recently been announced as winner of a sustainability award. Jonathan Wheeler reports.

Kathryn Rowland has been at Kingshay for 20 years and originally hails from a dairy farming family. Heading up Kingshay’s farm services team, she has overseen the recent publication of the 11th edition of the annual Dairy Costings Focus Report.

Managing the farm’s accounts is likely to be one of the most important tasks a dairy farmer can do this year as farms look set to lurch from profits to loss. Cedric Porter reports

Using technology to produce silage more efficiently and sustainably is paying off both financially and environmentally for one Yorkshire farm. Dairy Farmer reports.

A computer program is being used to fine-tune concentrate feed levels in Russell Boyce’s robotic milking system. It has cut usage by about 9%, without affecting the performance of the high-yielding herd. Wendy Short reports.

Monitoring dry cow condition will be particularly important this year with farmers looking to make more use of grazing. Dairy Farmer reports.