From Aberystwyth, Ken joined Wynnstay in April 2017, whilst increasing the average age of the Dairy Technical Team significantly, he also brings some interesting experience.
Specialising in the dairy sector, Ken’s career in agriculture started when he became director of a young innovative agricultural company, developing the first freeze-dried silage inoculant manufactured by Lallemand. Alongside this came high glucogenic compounds balanced for rumen efficiency encouraging forage intake.
Latterly, Ken’s interest has focused on the benefits of balancing dairy cow diets for amino acids whilst reducing the crude protein, a passion that started on a visit to Germany in 2008, and continues to drive his search for ruminant knowledge.
Apart from his passion for dairy nutrition, Ken’s other passion is football; a qualified coach. He has, until recently, coached Aberystwyth University 1st team for 12 years. He also holds qualifications in Sports Agility & Quickness Coaching, Sports Psychology, and Ruminant Nutrition.
Cows do not have a Crude Protein (CP) requirement, Varga et al (2007). Yet, for many years CP has been used when formulating diets, and this often continues to be the case. Cow’s have a requirement for Amino Acids (AA), not protein, and the supply of the AA is predominantly produced by the cow herself in Microbial Protein (MicP) in the rumen. Together with Rumen Undegradable Protein (RUP) and Endogenous Protein (EP), this makes up the supply of Metabolisable Protein (MP) to the small intestine. Both MP and the component AAs are then absorbed by the small intestine and used for protein synthesis and meeting the needs of the cow for: maintenance, growth, reproduction and lactation.
