Quality herd management and improved genetic gains

When you refinance your herd through our dairy cow lease programme, you will still have complete control and management over your herd as well as the production regime. We don’t interfere with the day-to-day management of your dairy herd nor do we impact on your ability to run your dairy farm independently.

We require an independent farm advisor to report, at a minimum annually, on the performance of, and recommend improvements to the farming operation. This ensures that the improved genetics of the dairy herd are fully leveraged through sound management of improvement practices.

As part of our herd improvement programme, we will replace the bottom 10% of the milking cows each year with heifers of a greater BW index, which together with the annual 15% culls, will improve the genetic quality of the entire leased herd over a 5 year period.

All progeny from the herd remains the property of Herd Equity Release. We will pay you a contract rearing fee to rear the heifer calves for the 10% low index culls. At the end of the lease period, the cows and replacement animals can be bought from us at open market value, if you wish.

During the lease period, Herd Equity Release provides secure stock recording through the use of electronic tamper proof tagging, DNA identification and LIC ‘Minda‘ records to ensure the security and welfare of the dairy cows.