ADF Milking has announced that The Route to Efficiency Roadshow will be coming to a farm near you in February.

The roadshow will be touring Wales, the South West and southern England, visiting outstanding farms to celebrate their achievements and to share the secrets of their success with fellow dairy farmers. Eminent vets and respected industry voices will be taking part to discuss pertinent issues including maximising milk profit and ensuring herd health.

The roadshow is a unique opportunity to see how to make a dairy farm more productive.

The tour launched on Monday, February 18, at Joe and Richard Twose’s farm in Carmarthenshire and continued on to Rhadyr Farm, Usk College, Monmouthshire, the next day.

On Wednesday, February 20, the roadshow reaches the South West when Ray Gibbins welcomes it to Twynhayes Farm, in Devon –a 250- acre mixed farm which Ray farms himself, milking around 160 cows averaging 8,500 litres a year.

Guest speakers at Twynhayes include their respected veterinarian Andrew Biggs, partner at Vale Vets.

Andrew is an international consultant on mastitis, tuberculosis and cattle health in general. A fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine he has written and lectured extensively and produced his own textbook on Mastitis in Cattle.

Andrew will be presenting a highly informative, interactive talk entitled Rationalising Milking Routines.

Inventor of the ADF automatic dipping and flushing system, James Duke, will disclose “The Three Secrets of Maximising Your Milk Profit” before opening up a discussion to the floor and giving farmers the opportunity to pose their questions to the experts.

On Thursday, February 21, the roadshow moves on to Trelowthas Manor Farm, Cornwall, hosted by Chris Colloby. An ambitious self-build project, Trelowthas Manor Farm is 100 per cent dairy with 280 cows in the herd producing 9,500 litres on average.

Guest speakers at Trelowthas Manor Farm will include the widely respected independent nutritionist Steve Chapman who shares his extensive knowledge of utilising diet to maximise herd performance. A former dairy farmer himself Steve worked for years with Mole Valley before establishing his own consultancy business, SC Nutrition. He is generally regarded as the “Dairy Guru” when it comes to nutrition and cow comfort.

On Friday, February 22, the roadshow will be at Gold Cup Winner Chris Spiby’s farm in West Sussex.

Having recently increased the size of his herd at Chalder Farm from 350 to 500 Chris has installed a brand new parlour on his family run farm.

Despite the huge increase in cow numbers Chris has reduced milking time and halved the number of mastitis cases on his farm. At his open day he will explain how he achieved it.

Guest speakers at Chalder Farm include David Cooke, projects director for Promar International, the UK’s largest agricultural and agri-food consultancy who will be revealing proven ways to maximise profit and fulfil business strategic objectives.

The roadshow culminates at Nick Cobb’s Gold Cup winning Broom Pound Farm on Saturday, February 23.

The Cobb family has been farming in Dorset since 1928. Over the years their farming enterprise has evolved and developed and they now farm in partnership with Andrew Turney, with three farms, totalling around 2,000 pedigree dairy cows in the area – the Chalclyffe Herd.

Farmers can attend one or more of the open days and hear first-hand from the hosting farmers the challenges and triumphs they have encountered along the way, and discover the role that the ADF Automatic Dipping and Flushing System has played in each of their success stories.

Registration is at 11am each day and refreshments are provided. After the talks farmers will be invited to view the milking and see the ADF Milking Automatic Dipping and Flushing System in action. The day will be rounded off with a mouth-watering hog roast and time for everyne to catch up with the speakers and their fellow dairy farmers.

It is free to attend any of the dates on the roadshow.

Farmers can register by telephoning Katie on 01243 814901 or via email katie@adfmilking.com to confirm which of the open days they would like to attend. All the information about the roadshow, hosting farms and guest speakers is available at www.adfmilking.com/roadshow