Under the brand name of Daioni, Laurence and Tom Harris produce and market a range of longlife, flavoured and plain organic milks, supplying to major international markets including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and the Middle East. They farm around 3500 acres on three farms fairly close to Boncath, in West Wales, milk 1000 cows (mainly British Friesians and Jerseys), run 2000 ewes, 150 head fattening cattle and grow around 500 acres of cereals.
The entire operation is organic and the winter cattle feeding regime on the autumn calving herd and fattening cattle is managed using a Shelbourne Reynolds PowerMix diet feeder that they purchased from local dealer Tallis Amos Group (TAG) two seasons back. “We run three separate herds” commented Laurence Harris “and the capacity of the PowerMix means we can feed the largest of the herds at Ffosyficer Farm in one load. That means we can be extremely efficient in usually once a day feeding, providing maintenance plus twenty four in the winter yards, then we use a computerised dispatch system to feed concentrates for yield in the parlour.”
The Shelbourne Reynolds PowerMix is a 22cu.m capacity and so very capable of taking big bale silage or clamp silage, with ease. A large central auger carries out the mixing and chopping of materials to form a homogenous and dense feed sample that boosts milk yield performance. It will comfortably hold up to10 tonnes of feed. “What I like most about this mixer,” added Laurence, “is that it can feed out over some of our higher barriers without a problem, it’s very easy to operate and so far hasn’t missed a beat.
Our typical ration might include crimped barley (home-grown), whole-crop grass, redclover and molasses and although we have quite a young herd, our average is around 6000 litres. The system is working very well and we’ve made a good choice in deciding on the PowerMix.” With such an important machine feeding a highproduction herd, reliability is important and failure is not an option, so what about dealer back-up in case of any malfunction? “We’ve found our local dealer, TAG to be an excellent provider of after-sales service,” said Laurence, “Their salesman Dylan Jones really takes care of us and their technicians are really friendly and always helpful.
We run a John Deere combine and so we have experienced the level of support they provide for a very important machine prior to and during harvest. Likewise, we know we can rely on them if we ever do get an issue with the PowerMix. The main factors in deciding on the Shelbourne Reynolds was capacity of machine, reliability of performance, capability in mixing a fully-blended mix - including big bales of red clover and, after-sales service. Even in the deepest extremes of winter, regardless, I know they will be there. We can’t afford for our livestock to go hungry due to a machine breakdown and I am confident that the back-up we get from the team at TAG, will take care of us if we ever get that call.”
You can find out more about Daioni by visiting their website https://daioni.co.uk/
