With the onset of winter rapidly approaching and grass quality decreasing, Wynnstay’s beef and sheep manager, Bryn Hughes, advises farmers to plan ahead for housing cattle over winter.
Douglas Palmer, Vet Advisor from Norbrook Laboratories LTD discusses briefly what we might see with cattle worms over the coming months.
With huge scope to maximise productivity from forage, Wynnstay has launched a new Forage4Profit campaign, which is designed to support farmers to improve meat or milk from forage.
The 2022 Kingshay report indicates that the average milk from forage on UK dairy farms is 2,900 litres, showcasing that there is huge scope for improvement, with some of the best farms reaching over 5,000 litres.
Roundworms in cattle can reduce growth rates by up to 30% (1) so it is important not to delay the mid-season pour-on dose as this potentially leads to a loss of production as the worm burden could start to impact on growth rates. It can be hard to notice the economic impact of worms unless regular weighing is taking place as reduction in growth rates will take place before any more obvious clinical signs are seen.
Forage4Profit is a 4-point plan to help livestock farmers maximise the quality of homegrown forage and improve milk or meat from forage.
In this blog we look at the 4 factors to help improve milk from forage this season.
The amount of milk produced from forage averages just 2,900 litres nationally, figures from Kingshay’s cost report from December 2022 show. There is huge scope to improve this and reduce purchased feed costs, with the best farms achieving 5,300 litres of milk from forage.
Every 1,000 litres of milk from forage equates to approximately 460kg of concentrate feed, and so by increasing homegrown forage quality, it's essential to maximise homegrown to make the most efficient use of purchased feed.
Although minerals only account for about 5% of total ruminant nutrition they have a disproportionate role in supporting energy and protein yielding nutrients required to maintain animal health, fertility and production.
Grassland management is often overlooked for new leys, but by prioritising weed control early during establishment, you will achieve cost-effective, long-lasting control, resulting in higher yields of grass.
Life without TB no doubt would make farming a happier, more profitable experience for many of us. Saying this some have adapted within their areas and founded their businesses due to the disease, but we still need to aim to reduce the total number herds under restriction.
Lungworm disease in cattle is caused by the Dictyocaulus viviparus parasite, and is normally seen in mid to late summer, although infections can start as early as July. Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health is urging cattle producers to lessen the risk of disease outbreaks by proactively managing pasture larvae levels throughout the grazing season and using an appropriate disease control programme.
Cattle may gain some immunity to lungworm either through vaccination before turnout, or through low level exposure at grass. However, this immunity can be short lived and if natural boosting does not occur during the grazing season, animals may be susceptible to disease when larvae populations on the pasture rapidly increase.
With the spiralling costs of fertiliser this year, more dairy farmers are looking at ways of increasing slurry or manure utilisation and growing more forage from less. Most farms appreciate the value of slurry and use it efficiently, but it is possible to further improve utilisation whilst increasing your farms forage utilisation or milk from forage figure – which is where the true value lies.
