In many situations, when looking to improve the performance of growing and finishing cattle, it can be easy to look past the simple things and get wrapped up in diet make ups, housing or handling, health issues and breed types.
Pre-cut testing of fresh grass With all this dry weather, first cut is fast approaching but is it time yet? Mark Tucker, our Forage Specialist has taken some time…
Maize Nutrition This graph from the MGA highlights the growth and nutrient uptake of a maize plant. From this graph, we can see the peak of nutrient assimilation is the…
It’s safe to say that the 40+ days on the run up to calving and the 30 days post calving are the most important days in a cows year of…
We live in a world where everyone talks about efficiency and profitability in the same breath, do the two go hand in hand Or is this just another modern Metric…
As the majority of herds are partially housing cows and buffering quite heavily, we have had the opportunity to open clamps and hopefully come up with a plan for the…
A unique forage product from Humber Palmers The forage department at CMC offer advice on a range of added value fertilisers from Humber Palmers which enhance the quality of forage…
One of the main reasons that we all love agriculture is that no two days, seasons or farms are the same. At a time where we are seeing an unseasonably warm, dry spell, what can we hope to achieve by ‘controlling the controllables’? Although the weather is a key influencing factor on grass availability, crop establishment/growth and farmer moods, there is absolutely nothing that any of us can do about it! There are, however, some simple things that we can do for our cows to ensure that they remain as healthy, happy and productive as possible.
Forages this winter presented a particular challenge on farm when it came to rationing. There were many instances of variability in animal response to diet ‘tweaking’, which were put down to abnormal silage profiles. Generally, first cuts were earlier and last year and did feed quite well but in many cases, there wasn’t a lot of it, but as the table below illustrates on average they weren’t significantly improved on previous years.
Christmas is fast approaching and its time to reflect on the past year and start to make plans for the coming one. For some this growing season has been kind, but still, present certain challenges. When pondering it may well be worth considering; few farmers would consider giving their cows the same feed ration that they were giving them in the 1980s. Yet many are still buying the same fertiliser grades. “Why do we apply fertiliser to our crops?”