Dairy
MMN November 2024 – Waterbeds – the Ultimate in Cow Comfort?
Ensuring good cow comfort is critical to welfare and productivity and a new type of lying surface is gaining momentum – waterbeds! First developed in Europe over 15 years ago, the first design had problems with poor drainage and insufficient cushioning for the cows’ knees. Fast forward a few years and there are now various…
MMN November 2024 – The Benefits of Good Ventilation
Many businesses have housed dairy cattle earlier this winter due to extended periods of wet weather, poached fields, limited grazing and variable (but often mild) temperatures. Protecting the herd from the elements shouldn’t be the only consideration when it comes to housing. The airspace within a shed will have a significant impact on animal…
MMN November 2024 – A Recap on Winter Lameness Management: Prevention is Better than Cure
The estimated average cost of a case of lameness in dairy cows is £180. Whilst we are all aware of the risks and costs of cattle lameness, it can sometimes be easy to fall into the position of firefighting rather than fireproofing when winter work starts to get busy. Housing cattle can often be more…
MMN November 2024 – Should You Feed Silage to Weaned Calves?
There is a lot of debate around whether weaned dairy calves can be fed on a grass silage-based ration. Standard industry guidance for years has been to feed weaned calves on straw and concentrates until around six months of age before transitioning them to a silage-based ration. The reason for this is that the rumen…
MMN November 2024 – Milk Market Update
Dairy Commodity Markets Fonterra’s latest on-line GDT auction (5th November) resulted in a 4.8% increase in the weighted average price across all products, reaching US $3,997/t. This follows a 0.3% drop at the previous auction in mid-October. All products on offer sold at higher average prices than the previous auction, except for lactose, which was…
MMN November 2024 – Cereals Update
UK Cereals Market Update and Global Impacts AHDB have published the 2024/25 Early Balance Sheets for wheat and barley for the UK. Wheat production at 11.05Mt is down 21% on last year and despite the heaviest opening stocks for over 20 years, home produced availability for 2024/25 will be down 9% requiring an estimated import…
Maximising Milk from Forage
Ensuring that your dairy rations maximise the feed value available in your silage and other conserved forages can make significant savings in purchased feed costs. On grazing farms, the quality of grass and grazing infrastructure has the most significant impact on dry matter intakes by increasing the time the cows have to eat and the…
Agribusiness News November 2024 – Milk
Milk production data AHDB’s latest GB monthly milk production data is estimated at 970m litres for September, which is down 20m litres from August and 9m litres more than in September 2023. Good grass growth and improved quality on the back of more favourable weather conditions have boosted milk output. Despite the recent uptick in…
Vitamin E for Dry Cows – Are You Feeding Enough?
Vitamin E supplementation is absolutely critical for dry dairy cows for immunological function. It also greatly impacts on calf health as well. As vitamin E does not cross the placenta to the developing calf, the calf’s first source of vitamin E is from colostrum. Nutrient requirements for dairy cows were last reviewed in 2021 by…
Agribusiness News October 2024 – Milk
Milk production data The latest GB monthly milk production data from AHDB is estimated at 991mlitres for August, which is 31 mlitres less than the previous month and 5 mlitres less than August 2023. Daily deliveries were 31.78mlitres for the w/e 17th September, which is just 200,000 litres less than the same week last year. …