PRACTICAL ADVICE
We are frequently asked by publications to help provide insight into essential and prevalent issues. These include animal nutrition features written by our technical specialists. Practical advice that works made available to you. Sit back and have a read.
Meet Trish Lewis
Animal nutrition specialist Trish Lewis has joined the Nutritech Technical Team as a Forage and Nutrition Consultant. Trish will continue to work as an independent consultant to the industry, and will also support the Nutritech’s field team and their customers to make better silage and provide advice on how best to utilise home grown feed. […]
Transition Cow Nutrition
Various factors contribute to the profitability of any New Zealand dairy herd, production, longevity, fertility and cow health could all be considered key factors. Managing a successful transition period is a key element to achieving all these factors. Poor feeding and management during the transition period can result in a host of problems around calving [...]
Benefits of Calf Rearing Supplements
Trials in NZ and overseas have demonstrated the long term benefits of good calf rearing in terms of improved production and health. Freshly born calves have yet to develop their immune systems, so rely initially on antibodies in colostrum for early protection against potential pathogens. However, this does not provide complete protection, especially during periods [...]
Transition Cow Feeding and Management
A significant proportion of any herd’s health and welfare costs can come from the 3 weeks pre-calving to the 3 weeks post-calving. This is the period where the cow lays down the building blocks for the coming lactation, so minimising metabolic disease and implementing a system to reduce negative energy balance and maximise post-calving dry [...]
Silage Inoculants for Maize & Whole Crop Silages
Last month’s article considered principles and techniques for making high quality maize and whole crop silages, including the use of appropriate inoculants. The preference until fairly recently was to rely on homofermentative lactic acid producing bacterial inoculants, due to lactic being a strong acid so aiding rapid fermentation thus lower dry matter losses than untreated [...]
Ensiling Maize & Whole Crop Cereals
Silage making is about preserving as much high quality forage as possible, especially when grown on one’s own farm, as it is a major contributor to farm profitability. This starts with harvesting the crop at its optimum quality and yield, retaining as much of it as possible, and feeding it out efficiently by minimising losses [...]
Managing Heat Stress
Heat stress occurs when cows are unable to control their body temperature at high temperatures, which leads to reduced feed intake, rumination, rumen function, milk yield and milk fat and protein levels, and increased respiration rate and risk of acidosis. The higher the relative humidity (RH) the lower the temperature at which heat stress occurs, [...]Holding Yields at Peak
There is an opportunity with increasing dairy prices to maximise returns by maintaining milk yields as high as economically possible after peak, with diets based around home grown feeds (pasture, other forages, crops). Maintaining intakes of feeds with high Metabolisable Energy (ME) levels are key to sustaining milk yields and body condition, which may be [...]
