Dairy & Beef

In the first in our series of focuses on cattle and sheep breeds, Farmers Guide spoke to three beef breed societies about the special qualities that are contributing to their rising popularity.

As well as offering welfare and efficiency benefits, recent research has shown improving disease control could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 10%. Norbrook veterinary advisor Douglas Palmer offers advice on liver fluke testing and treatment, and the wider benefits of a good control programme.

The cattle and the crowds were back to normal at Ingliston, Edinburgh as the 2022 Royal Highland roared into life on Thursday 23rd June – featuring a strong Simmental section of some 75 entries.

Thornby Farms in Northamptonshire has been awarded the inaugural VetPartners Sustainable Beef Farm of the Year award, in recognition of the farm’s dedication to aligning food production with sustainability.

With escalating fuel and feed costs, getting the most out of maize and wholecrop has never been more important. As well as reducing waste and optimising silage quality, Horning’s FiberTech Chevron rollers can improve milk yields and butterfats, says Harvesting Solutions UK general manager Alan Haycocks.

Austrian agri-tech company smaXtec is expanding its system for continuous health monitoring of dairy cows to include the categorisation of diseases by severity.

Retrofit device Lactalign has been developed after herd management software at Metcalfe Farms revealed twice as many mastitis cases in front quarters compared to rear quarters.

Robin Hibberd, technical sales engineer at Hydor, explains why farmers should assess their ventilation equipment to avoid heat stress in dairy cows for improved welfare and yield.

With cull cow prices reaching a record high this year, there is an opportunity to replace unproductive cows with improved genetics and focus on tightening calving intervals, improving overall herd performance.

It’s not always easy to pick up heat stress in dairy cows, but there are some subtle hints that could give the game away.

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.

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.