How Scottish new entrant built up a dairy herd
24th July 2025
A full-time farm vet from South West Scotland has established a 115-cow Jersey herd from scratch alongside a beef-rearing enterprise. Alistair Padkin grew up on a dairy farm in Lanarkshire, but it was always his dream to run his own farm.
Alistair and his wife, Wendy, bought a redundant farmstead at Drumcork Farm, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, from Buccleuch Estate in 2012.
They started off with 12 pedigree sheep and rented 20 acres, but took on more ground, which allowed them to increase their ewe numbers to 500 head. They also reared 600 beef calves on an integrated scheme.
He purchased a 10-week-old calf and when she calved in November 2019, Alistair milked her on a mobile milking machine, and numbers quickly grew. He milked four heifers for one year on a portable milker.
With the first batch of heifers due to calve during Covid-19 (March 2021), he decided to buy a second-hand Lely A3 Next robot, and milking numbers soon expanded to 20 with the first milk collection totaling 558 litres.
Bitten by the dairy bug, they sold their flock of 500 ewes to finance a complete transition to milking, with more Jerseys purchased from the Rivermead, Marshview, Kerrick and Ribble herds.
The lambing shed was converted into dairy accommodation, and an additional second-hand robot was sourced from Germany in 2023.
They now milk 115 pure Jerseys under the Padkin prefix and rear 180 beef calves – a mix of their own and 40-60 sourced privately – having gradually taken on more land since then with help from Buccleuch to take them to 300 acres farmed, half owned, and half rented.
“Everyone told me it wouldn’t work because I couldn’t be a vet and run a dairy farm,” but Alistair says the robots offer a good degree of flexibility, allowing him to fit the farm around the day job.
Vaccination protocols
The Padkins first noticed pneumonia in the calves they contract-reared four years ago and testing proved it to be Mycoplasma bovis – a bacterium that commonly causes respiratory disease (pneumonia) in calves.
A recent survey of 181 Scottish dairy herds found 86% were positive on bulk milk antibody testing (Ireland-Hughes J et al, 2022). Alistair’s practice carried out subsidised serology testing through Zoetis and found three-quarters of its clients’ herds tested positive for M. bovis, similar to national estimates.
The Padkins initially used an inactivated vaccine imported under licence but it could not be used until calves were 60 days of age, which was too late.
“Calves would pick up for a few days but then go downhill again. Multiple antibiotic treatments would be given with some cases becoming chronic.”
Zoetis then released Protivity, the world’s first modified-live vaccine for M. bovis, which has been a revelation because it can be administered from one week of age, offering protection against M. bovis much earlier.
Although the vaccine only became fully authorised for GB/NI in 2024, imported US vaccine has been available through vets under the Special Import Certificate (SIC) scheme since early 2023 and Alistair first started using it in October 2023.
Calves receive their first vaccine at one week alongside an intranasal and their second dose three weeks later.
Meanwhile, bought-in beef calves are vaccinated the moment they arrive on farm, usually aged two to three weeks of age.
Additional beef calves are sourced from one known farmer, who is a client of Alistair’s. This limits disease transmission compared to buying from multiple, unknown sources.
Alistair says Protivity has more than halved the number of clinical cases of pneumonia.
“In our calves, pneumonia cases were running at about 20%, but we would have to jag 40% of bought-in calves. Since vaccinating with Protivity, this has fallen to 10%. Overall, mortality is now running at less than 1% at Drumcork.
“The key is being able to vaccinate earlier. The biggest benefit is that we don’t get repeat cases of pneumonia. Calves respond well to the first treatment of antibiotics.”
Vaccination is just one part of calf health, but an important part, alongside good hygiene and nutrition.
“It’s all the little things that add up to make a big difference. Having strict protocols that you stick to is important. We are quite pedantic, but it saves time in the long-term not having to deal with sick calves, which can be time-consuming and disheartening.”
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