Hannah has been passionate about farming from young age, after watching her parents and grandparents run a dairy farm. Unfortunately, the farm lost their small herd of cows to TB but Hannah has not let that stop her from progressing in the agricultural industry.
Hannah studied Agriculture at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire, whilst relief milking on a dairy farm close to home in north Herefordshire, during college holidays and weekends. She was then successfully awarded the Richard Wigram scholarship to work on a kiwi style, 400 cow spring block dairy farm in the North Island, near Hamilton. This is where she learned a substantial amount about grazing management, and the day to day running of the farm.
For 5 years, Hannah has been in charge of rearing youngstock on a farm in South Herefordshire, giving her firsthand knowledge of the problems that may arise within calf and youngstock management, and solutions that are associated with it.
Hannah will be covering the counties of Shropshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire (South Midlands) and will be providing technical advice and promoting sales related to her clients.
“In June 2023 we started a complete overhaul of calf management at Bengrove Farm, in an attempt to combat calf disease and mortality rates. We did this while feeding Wynngold™ Bloom and were successful in our initial goals.
In a further push for increased performance, we found that our growth rates would not exceed 0.55 kg/day DLWG. In August, the decision was made - with the help of the Wynnstay Youngstock Team - to switch to Wynngold™ Supernova milk replacer. The increase in vigour and reduction in nutritional scour was immediate with a gradual and consistent increase in growth rates.
We are very pleased with the overall results from feeding Supernova and are incredibly happy to end the year with a DLWG of 0.82 kg/day.”
Not all lamb milk replacements are the same. Following colostrum feeding, the choice of a lamb milk replacer for artificially reared lambs is an important consideration. A digestible, carefully formulated milk replacer can help lambs to achieve their full growth potential to develop into strong, robust lambs which continue to perform.
Calf housing is a huge part of calf health and welfare, it can be the change that many systems need to improve their calf rearing. In September, DEFRA launched a £10 million infrastructure grant to fund calf housing, available to new and upgraded calf housing. Improvements such as ventilation, protection from draughts, and suitable temperature and humidity will be key areas to focus on.
Measuring the growth rate in youngstock, is one of the most significant ways to measure overall performance. By calculating average daily gain (ADG) we can work out how well the youngstock are growing and use the information as a method of monitoring whether you are using the right feeds. When rearing dairy calves or beef calves, it is important that they grow in an efficient way to meet their target bulling weights or finishing weights on time. Using weigh bands or weighing scales on young calves will give a good indicator of how the calves are progressing and show average daily gain. This will highlight any issues that are preventing calves from reaching sufficient weight. Monitoring growth is also a way to identify problems with your system and rearing protocols.
