Cattle
Mineral Requirements in Housed Cattle
Key Messages Consider doing a mineral audit to determine if you are meeting the recommended mineral intakes for your cattle. Consider the response of the animal, is it performing as expected? Do not over-supply into the range where you may negatively affect performance or have considerable environmental excretion. Getting minerals correct in your housed cattle…
Agribusiness News December 2024 – Sector Focus: HerdPlan
Enhancing Livestock Health and Productivity through Dynamic Health Planning Effective health planning is essential for enhancing animal health, welfare, and productivity. This can be achieved through close collaboration with your farm team, vet and other specialist advisers. The focus should always be on prevention rather than cure, and it should be a continuous process. Implementing…
Agribusiness News October 2024 – Sector Focus: Bale Grazing
Bale grazing is a method of out wintering cattle. This method has been adapted from practices in Canada and North America and offers numerous benefits to cattle producers. However, prior planning of the system is essential. The System A bale grazing system consists of either silage or hay bales being placed in fields ahead of…
The Farm Management Handbook
The Farm Management Handbook Your guide to Scottish agriculture The Farm Management Handbook is an essential tool for any progressive farm business, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date source of information for farmers, crofters, rural professionals, students and consultants. Subject matter covered includes: Crop Inputs Arable Potatoes Grassland Forage Crops Livestock Dairying Beef Cattle Sheep Red…
How to Look up Calving Intervals on MyHerdStats
Using existing statutory cattle traceability data (births, deaths, and movements), ScotEID has collated this data to provide an insight into herd performance on an online platform, MyHerdStats. Through a series of charts, tables, and key performance indicators (KPIs) MyHerdStats provides information on fertility and mortality. MyHerdStats can be used to identify how many and which…
Are Methane Inhibitors a Silver Bullet for the Sustainability of Beef and Dairy?
This article is part of the Climate Change & Carbon Research Briefings series. More articles in the series can be found below: Understanding Natural Capital Markets Collecting On-Farm Biodiversity Data with Bioacoustics Faba Beans for Alternative Protein and Reducing Monogastric Carbon Footprint Applicability of Slurry Separation and Acidification on Farms in Scotland Advancing Agricultural Practices,…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – Management Matters: Bluetongue
Update on Bluetongue Virus Serotype 3 (BTV-3) There is a very high probability of a new introduction of bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) in livestock across Great Britian this year. The disease is spread through infected biting midges, with a high risk of them being blown over from badly affected countries in Northern Europe. They…
Stock Talk – Cattle EID with David Kerr
In this podcast we hear from David Kerr, ScotEID’s Technical Manager. He speaks about cattle EID tags and their importance in the future for traceability for food safety and disease control. David tells us about the technology and the differences between Ultra High Frequency (UHF) tags which will be used for cattle tags, and Low…
Preparing for Sustainable Farming – Cattle Interventions
Scotland aims to become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture. By improving general animal health, it will result in better production efficiency and welfare. There are nine different interventions which cover cattle and sheep, four of which involve cattle. Preparing for Sustainable Farming (PSF) funding is there to help identify future risks/threats and…