Q. We are already looking ahead to costs next winter. What could we do to offset some of our bought-in feeds?
A. The biggest part of a ration is forage. Therefore the more performance you can get from silage, the less other feeds you will have too buy and a great way to do this is to use a silage additive. A proven additive such as Biophage will ensure silage retains more feed value than untreated silage so the animals will yield more from forage. The cost of feeding treated silage to a typical beef animal is under £5/head for the whole winter. Financially, this is equivalent to only 0.1kg cake/day extra and because Biophage must give a minimum of 90g extra LWG/day to be independently approved there should be no contest. Always make top quality silage and always treat it with Biophage to preserve greatest feed value.
Q. When the cows start summer calving, milk fever can often be a problem. Do you have anything to help?
A. Implement a strict dry cow programme which goes for dairy and suckler herds. Keep cows tight on green forage and make good quality ad-lib straw available at all times. Introduce Easi-Calver Liquid into the diet via a ball-feeding system if milk fever is a problem. We have a large range of feeding equipment available to minimise handling. You must also feed a good quality dry cow mineral and an excellent way is to use Easi-Calver tubs (Tub EC). If milk fever is not such a concern Tub EC can be used on its own. Opt for a belt & braces approach when it comes to summer calving and choose Tub EC+FLY which contains the nutritional fly deterrent Repel-Ex™.
Q. I have some lambs that are not thriving. I thought about cobalt deficiency but it is too early. Dirty backsides make them look as if they need wormed although some are worse than others. What could improve them?
A. It sounds like you may have a bout of sub-clinical coccidiosis. This can be a greatly under-diagnosed problem with lambs as egg counts will not necessarily be high but lambs just wont perform. A free-access treatment of medicated Coxi-Clear™ Lamb tub should do the trick. You must distribute one tub per 25 head and a course lasts 28 days. You should notice an improvement in performance within a couple of weeks with lambs drying up and starting to move again.
Q. We have seen your new organic fly tub advertised and we are Soil Association members. Can we use it without getting a vet involved?
A. Absolutely. The new tub comes from our range of Soil Association Certified products and is called Tub Simply Green FLY. It complements the other products such as our granular mineral, mineral tub and a High Mag tub. We are quickly becoming recognised as one of the main suppliers to organic farms in the UK.
DENIS BRINICOMBE GROUP
Registered Office: Fordton Industrial Estate, Crediton, Devon, UK EX17 3BZ
tel: 01363 775 115 | fax: 01363 772 114 | enquiries@brinicombe.co.uk
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