Author Posts: Sarah Kidby

Dairy farmers are being reminded that now is a crucial time to take precautions against herd health risks, to help protect cow health and productivity this summer.

Using pod shatter resistance in oilseed rape to positively manage its harvesting could add as much to the crop’s bottom line as the best disease control this season. What’s more, it need not cost anything more than a little extra care and attention.

Lambs can be prone to a great number of health and productivity problems while on pasture and many succumb to borderline trace element and vitamin deficiencies. Veterinary pharmacologist and advisor to Provita Ltd, Dr T.B Barragry, offers a guide to the most common deficiencies and the benefits of drenches.

With escalating cereal prices and volatile commodity markets, production margins are shrinking dramatically, and the poultry industry is being urged to examine strategies that focus on maximising feed utilisation.

Cereals is blazing a trail of innovation this year with lots of new machinery, technology and techniques to help farmers push ahead with their businesses. Organisers offer a round-up of fresh developments to look out for.

While much time and expense goes into healthcare for livestock, it’s important not to forget the health of farm dogs and cats. Norbrook’s companion animal veterinary advisor Lars Mortensen outlines some health risks to be aware of.

High fertiliser and feed costs mean that making the best possible silage makes even more sense this season – especially with strong milk prices. So how could a silage additive give a return?

Knowing that farm security was about more than just producing high yielding crops, Andrew Ward set about benchmarking every part of his business several seasons ago. Now he and his team of Ruben Sampson and Tom Hyland are going a stage further with a carbon audit with the NFU.

Recruitment specialist Agricultural and Farming Jobs says it is recruiting for more job opportunities within the industry than ever, but the search for specific industry skill sets is an ongoing and growing challenge.

Anglia Quality Meat (AQM) is launching a timely new service for farmers in June, offering a simple way to capture and store all farm data on the cloud, with expert support from AQM to highlight inefficiencies and help livestock reach their potential. We caught up with two trial farms who say AQM+ brought a variety of benefits to their businesses.

NOAH has launched the Livestock Vaccination Guideline to help vets, SQPs and farmers improve the health and welfare of UK cattle and sheep – as well as farm resilience and sustainable improvements in productivity.

The government says the new licence will allow more badgers to be vaccinated by reducing the administrative burden.