When it comes to producing good quality, nutritious silage small things can make a big difference. This is especially true of mistakes. A shortcut or a small oversight can ultimately result in silage that is unusable due to insufficient dry matter content or worse, silage that is dangerous to herd health because of mould growth and the likely presence of mycotoxins or Listeria.
Many farmers have come to accept some issues, particularly with mould, as inevitable and as a necessary evil. The reality is however, it's all too often caused by someone committing one of a number of silage "sins".
It is estimated that 10% of UK farms already use robotic milking, but they also constitute 35% of all new milking systems being purchased. In Holland 40% of dairy farms are automated, with some Scandinavian countries as high as 50%. The number of cows milked in robots is expected to more than double in the next 5 years.
For cost-effective weed control in root crops the emphasis must be placed on pre-emergence application of herbicides. Every year we receive a large number of calls from concerned growers who have applied no herbicide at all and who are concerned that their root crop is disappearing under a sea of weeds. By this point, it is usually too late to save the crop!
Pica is an abnormal behaviour usually seen in grazing cows, where they lick, chew, or eat inedible materials. This can include licking soil and fence posts, eating stones, drinking urine etc., and while cows may look healthy there is the risk of them ingesting material that can damage their gut and could ultimately lead to death.
With spring turnout fast approaching, it is a crucial time to be thinking about dietary magnesium and making sure that the milkers’ ration is targeted to meet the cow’s production needs.
Putting the economics to one side, a dairy cow has a genetic potential to produce milk and they will try their best to achieve this whether we choose to feed them appropriately or not. We must meet a cow’s nutrient requirement and feed for genetic potential or risk a negative effect to health or milk production. The skill for a nutritionist during challenging periods of feed cost is to manage the purchased feed cost per litre to mitigate the impact, whilst not sacrificing health or yield. Easy!
80% of output and outcomes can be traced to 20% of inputs or activities (otherwise known as the Pareto principle). In dairy farming, a specific focus on inputs in the transition phase (the period three weeks pre- and post-calving) will lead to improved performance for the remaining 80% of the time.
The past six months have seen one of the most volatile periods for raw material markets in the last 20 years, with prices across the board substantially up since the autumn. There are several factors that have impacted the high prices we have seen; Brexit, COVID-19, strikes in South American ports, droughts, and floods, but fundamentally it comes down to supply and demand.
With recent media and government focus on global issues such as climate change, deforestation, and sustainability, and in particular how the agricultural sector is contributing to these, we are continually reviewing how we can reduce our environmental impact through more sustainable practices.
