Linda Hanbidge: Udder health success with AHV

Meet Linda Hanbidge-Cliffe, a sixth-generation dairy farmer from Kiltegan, Co. Wicklow. Linda, along with her brother Gordon and father Alan, milk a dairy herd of 130 Montbéliarde cows. Known for their sturdy builds, docile natures and exceptional milk quality, these gentle giants bring a touch of France to the rolling hills and rugged mountains of Wicklow.

Since 2015, herd expansion has been a primary focus for the Hanbidges. However, more recently their attention has shifted towards keeping their cows healthy and enhancing milk yields. This transition led them to explore AHV products.

AHV first caught Linda’s attention through a local farm discussion group in 2021. Scepticism was present initially, but after giving the products a try, they experienced notable success.
“One of the lads in our group had told us about using these boluses to improve udder health,” Linda recalls. “We all gave them a go and we all had pretty good success rates with them,” Linda says. “We found them really helpful.”

Milk Recording for proactive Udder success

Since then Linda has transformed her herd management strategy and embraced new tools, transitioning from a more traditional management style to a proactive approach in tackling udder health issues.

One significant example of this transformation is monitoring milk recordings to detect early udder issues in individual cows. With the guidance of their AHV Consultant Tommy, they analyse the data for deviations in SCC, ensuring early intervention and healthier cows. “We keep a close eye on our milk recordings,” Linda explains. “For anything that’s over 200,000 in SCC, we would go in with an Extra Tablet and a Booster Tablet. We would then monitor our next set of milk recordings and udder health in the bunch that were given the tablets have vastly improved.”

This proactive approach has proven effective in maintaining the health and productivity of their herd.

“Day to day in the parlour, if you have a cow that presents with clinical udder health issues or maybe with a swollen quarter, we will then go in with an Extra Tablet, Booster Tablet and two Aspi Tablets. In the next few days, you’ll start to see a huge improvement in her.”

Linda emphasises the importance of patience with AHV products, noting that improvements may take time but are worth it. “With AHV patience is a virtue,” she affirms. “You need to give her time… Her milk yield will return, and she’ll be back to herself in a few days.”

Zero milk withdrawal a significant benefit

Despite the drop in milk price, Linda and her family continue to invest in AHV products in order to support the long-term sustainability of their herd. “Milk price has been hard this year… but in our experience, it was always worthwhile,” she says. To be able to not have to dump every single cow that has issues has been a huge benefit to us.

By addressing udder health proactively with AHV products, Linda is able to put more milk in the tank and minimise disruption to the herd.

Milk Recording Analysis with AHV Consultant

Linda speaks highly of her AHV rep, Tommy who provides valuable advice on how to get the most from the products and regularly reviews milk recordings with the Hanbidge’s to help understand the health status of the herd and pinpoint any cows in need of support.

“He’s generally in our area very regularly and he’ll always give you a shout to see if you need anything,” she says. “Any advice that he has to offer is always greatly appreciated.”

On trying new strategies on farm

Linda doesn’t hesitate to recommend AHV products to other farmers and encourages farmers to consider AHV as part of their herd health management strategy. “When it comes to farming you need to use any tool that you can to try and keep the health of your cows” she advises.

“If you are trying to move away from mainstream methods, I would say that you need to embrace the fact that it’s a different method, that it might work a little bit slower, but it will work and potentially leave you with a healthier cow in the end.”

Drawing from her own experience, Linda highlights the effectiveness of AHV products on their farm. “I have and will again advise them to use AHV products. We’ve found them very successful on the farm. You have to give them time and sometimes in severe cases you do have to go back to the mainstream methods but AHV is definitely there to help in a lot of cases and avoid that mainstream constant method use.“

Working towards success together

Looking ahead, Linda’s passion and determination shine through, despite the challenges of dairy farming. “Our hopes for the future here are to still be here.” she says, acknowledging the uncertainty of the industry.
“Myself, my dad, and my brother want to continue farming here. We want it to be a viable business for all of us. We enjoy what we do, we enjoy working together and having a business that we can all work together and make a success is where we want to go.”

Linda has seen the positive impact of AHV products on the farm, and is optimistic that she has the tools to keep the farm thriving. “Our hope for the cows is that we continue to improve their health, keep them healthy, improve their yields and their solids and hopefully continue to do that with AHV for generations to come.”