Wynnstay is delighted to announce the appointment of David Howard as its new head of dairy services. Overseeing the team of specialists, David will be responsible for driving a new strategy for Wynnstay’s dairy services, while continuing to provide the best advice, support and products for customers.
The general concern about animal welfare, especially for laying hens, is continuously increasing in consumers and farmers. This attention leads to spending time and efforts to understand if our birds are stressed or not, through many different indicators both deriving from animal observation (behavior, performance, fearfulness) and laboratory analysis (Alm et al., 2016; Rodenburg et al., 2008).
Colostrum management is the key aspect to any successful calf rearing system. We know the importance of feeding our calves colostrum quickly (within 2 hours of birth), quality (>50mg/l) and quantity (10% of birthweight) but do we know the detrimental effect of the contamination within colostrum if we were to leave it standing after harvesting.
It is no secret to everyone in agriculture that public perception is putting increasing pressure on running a more sustainable enterprise.
It is fair to say that we have a responsibility to not only be the most sustainably efficient farms possible, but also to publicise and educate the general public.
There are many targets that we set on farm to assess the success of the business and calf operating system. Many targets have become outdated with the emphasis now on producing bigger, stronger heifers that we are rearing for longevity and lifetime production. Below are some thoughts on the targets that we should be re-evaluating to streamline the rearing operation further.
Pre-season preparation is the key to minimising problems, reducing losses and achieving a higher lamb yield per ewe, which eventually will lead to improved daily liveweight gain and increased margins.
As we approach the beginning of the 2020 maize growing season, there are a few important things to consider pre-drilling in order to achieve a quality crop. We normally think about the effect of weather during the growing season, but this year the excess winter rainfall will also need to be taken into account.
Our advice on how you get your spring born heifers to grow, and keep growing!
With the spring calving season upon us it is important to think ahead to the imminent grazing season and how to get the calves born this spring (Feb-April) to grow well and efficiently.
Control of the spring rise using CYDECTIN® Long Acting Injection for sheep was determined to be highly effective in a recent study. The study investigated the impact of utilising persistent and non-persistent treatments to control the spring rise.