Time To Check The Effects Of A Cool, Overcast Summer

December 2011

The cool end to the summer is having a direct effect on current diet qualities with the maize crop arriving three weeks later than usual and often looking on the green, potentially acidic, low-starch side. Maize will be entering the cow’s diet now and the expectation is that, even if clamped for thirty days as we recommend, the quality may well fall short on previous years’ crops.

Add the customary extended grazing at this time of the year into the equation, and the fact that sugar levels are a bit low in silage and this can be a critical period with most farms sure to see a fall in performance, in either milk yield, live weight gain or overall cow health. August and September calvers in particular have been robbed of condition and may well have used up some muscle to provide protein for themselves, resulting in weight loss.

The best way to combat this and other issues and to ensure that the herd maintain performance throughout the winter is to arrange for some basic health and ration checks to be taken now, so that the diet can be immediately adjusted as required.

Then the winter can be approached with confidence in the knowledge that the diet has been specially formulated to solve the particular issues at hand, whatever they may be, as they vary from region to region of the south west depending on many geographic and geological factors.

Cornwall Farmers’ feed and forage team are on hand to visit the farm and perform an audit on health, diet and fertility issues, and make immediate recommendations. This can be particularly important if the diet needs reformulating to meet the needs of the herd, an act which is better undertaken sooner rather than later.

With its CF Pinnacle feeds compound and CF Duchy blends offer, Cornwall Farmers has products immediately at hand to create a formulation that is ideal for each scenario. The co-operative’s CF Duchy blends Premier range is also available, as a very high energy, fixed formulation to compliment TMR diets.

Act now is the wisest advice, nipping any problems in the bud and not allowing them to develop and then cause even greater issues later in the winter.

For further information please contact Cornwall Farmers’ nutritional specialists by calling Matthew Jenkin on 07770 598296, David Passmore on 07901 854463, Blair Vanstone on 07799 773990 or the Cornwall Farmers Feed Customer Service Team on 0845 22 55 922.