With two seed locations Wynnstay are uniquely set up to provide a far-reaching service. By having one seed office in Yorkshire and another in Shropshire we are able to service a large proportion of the UK arable seed market.
We are also continuously investing and have recently expanded our teams at Shrewsbury and Yorkshire as we look towards the future.
Reduced calving age from one year to the next may suggest improved calf and heifer rearing; however it is months later when we can make these assumptions. If a heifer is first served at 18 months old, it can be assumed that there are improvements to be made to allow future heifers to reach service weight earlier. But it is difficult at this point to then determine at which stage of rearing that this heifer didn’t meet her targets and fell behind.
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".
Managing the fly burden before an outbreak occurs will help you prevent potential production impacts. This will often mean managing the problem before fly numbers increase to a level where they can easily get out of control.
We believe the use of certified sustainable soya in animal feed is the most appropriate option to minimise negative impacts on the environment now, while allowing time for sustainable supply chains for alternative protein sources to develop.
A poor start to a calf’s life which impacts growth rates can significantly affect future performance in the herd. Wynnstay’s Account Manager for Biosecurity and Hardware, Richard Wild, says a key factor in poor growth rates, and subsequent milking and DLWG performance, is housing and ventilation.
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.
As grass growth reaches it’s spring peak, owners of good do-ers know the struggle of maintaining that healthy weight.
Grass may contain high levels of simple sugars (the main one being sucrose – the same sugar you put in your tea!) and fructan or ‘stored sugar’, collectively referred to as water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC).
In fact, a 300kg pony turned out 24/7 could consume up to 2.3kg of simple sugars and up to 7.5kg of WSC from grass alone! But fresh grass isn’t the only culprit, hay and haylage can be deceptively high in WSC too.
It is the aim of every farmer to get uninterrupted growth in their animals, but as turnout approaches there is one factor that can stop cattle from achieving their growth rate targets – PARASITES!
