Dairy herd size will grow and will be demanding

Dairy herd size has been static over the last 10 years, but is likely to grow rapidly after quota abolition.

This will put pressure on resources. We think about cubicles, slurry storage, roadways and paddocks when resources are mentioned, but labour (workload) is often overlooked, and it will become limiting on dairy farms.

Last year, 12 dairy discussion groups completed a survey of labour usage on their farms. The aim was to: