Dairy & Beef

As weather patterns become increasingly extreme and unpredictable, input costs continue to rise, and farmers face ongoing pressure to reduce environmental impacts, approaches to managing parasites and disease will need to adapt. Livestock editor Sarah Kidby reports.

A new woodland restoration scheme has launched at the RSPB’s 1,200-acre nature reserve, Franchises Lodge, located in the north of the New Forest.  

Designed and built by Aberdeenshire farmer Gordon Stephen, the Calf Catcher makes it quicker, easier, and safer to carry out calf tagging and other routine tasks. Livestock editor Sarah Kidby spoke to two farmers who have used the innovative system.

Five finalists have been announced for the 2022 NMR RABDF Gold Cup award, including two dairy businesses in Scotland and three from the south and southwest of England.

Farmers should take extra care when transitioning between different silage cuts this winter to ensure milk yield and fertility aren’t compromised.  

With British farms continually squeezed by high input costs and low prices, selling ready-pasteurised milk straight to the consumer can substantially increase farm profits, according to Batchpasteuriser.com.

The UK’s top regenerative farming event for livestock producers is back with two events next year, following unprecedented demand from the inaugural 2022 event held this summer. 

The 75th British Cattle Breeding conference is being held from the 23rd to 25th January 2023 at Telford Hotel and Golf Resort, Shropshire, and will bring together expert knowledge, experience and opinion from across the industry in the UK and beyond.

The demand for pedigree Simmental females saw prices soar with Brandane Lu Lu setting a breed centre record price, while heifers commanded an average price of £5,202, up by £806 on the previous year.

Feeding for optimum rumen function is a way farmers can help to maximise productivity from their herd and potentially improve sustainability, listeners on the latest Mole Valley Farmers’ Podcast heard. 

At transition the dairy cow is perhaps at her highest metabolic vulnerability – she is subject to demands which physiologically she often struggles to sustain. Energy and calcium are two prime examples. Post-calving the cow’s demands for both can suddenly increase by upwards of two-fold compared to what they previously were before calving.

Dairy farmers could be losing milk production worth tens of thousands of pounds by failing to protect their cows from heat stress during the summer, according to independent vet consultant Dr Tom Chamberlain from Chalcombe Ltd, speaking at a Lallemand Animal Nutrition workshop at Total Dairy in Stratford-upon-Avon.