It is that time of year again, when our pastures go reproductive, and the temperature / humidity starts to climb.
Here are some things to consider as we head into summer:
Fibrous feed
We all know what happens once that pasture gets fibrous – feed intake drops and production goes with it. Aside from getting the mower out to make silage or top paddocks, what else can we do to help ruminants better digest fibre?
Get a Diet Check done
The Diet Check programme can assess a range of parameters relating to maximising microbial yield. The more ‘bugs’ we have the rumen, the more ‘machinery’ there is to break down fibrous pasture. Nutritech Area Managers and our in-house team of Ruminant Nutritionists can run your diets through Diet Check to help make sure there is a good balance of rumen-available energy and protein. They can also check rumen health, oil content and other important parameters for fibre digestibility.
Supplement Levucell®SC live yeast
Over 100 published papers have shown the ability for Levucell®SC to improve fibre digestion. The positive effect of Levucell®SC on fibre degradability (NDFd) has been extensively studied on more than 200 different forages.
How does it do this? Levucell®SC promotes fibre colonisation by cellulolytic bacteria and fungi, which significantly improves the breakdown of tough linkages, such as those between lignin (Chaucheyras-Durand, et al., 2012).
When the cow (or other ruminant) can break down fibre better, it means they can get more out of it, which overall improves feed conversion efficiency.
Levucell®SC easily pays for itself in milk production, with its ROI ranging from 4:1 (INRAE Marcenat, France, 2020) up to 15:1 in pasture-based studies such as Brookmount Farm, Ireland.
Mycotoxin levels increase
As fibre levels build up at the base of the sward, fungal growth increases, especially when there are warm, humid conditions. Many of the fungi are harmless, but some can produce toxins (known as mycotoxins) that are not helpful for ruminants. If summer feeding also means higher levels of silages and ‘stored feeds’ are fed, this can also be a risk for increased mycotoxin intake. Signs can be difficult to spot, but can include irritability, milk production loss, and an increase in long returns (embryonic loss).
In these times it is a good idea to feed an ACVM registered1, broad spectrum mycotoxin binder such as FusionDYAD™. FusionDYAD™ is designed to minimise the negative effects of feed borne mycotoxins. In particular, it helps to reduce the risk of Aflatoxins, Fumonisins, Lolitrem-B, Ergot Alkaloids and Zearalenone.
Increased metabolic activity in warm/humid conditions
During warm and humid conditions, ruminants can experience an increased respiration rate and increased metabolic activity as the animal tries to dissipate heat. This means there is an extra demand for antioxidants such as selenium and vitamin E. Given the fibre digestibility and mycotoxin challenges than can also occur at this time, Nutritech’s Rumen Health pack can prove especially useful. It contains Levucell®SC live yeast, FusionDYAD™ mycotoxin binder, Alkosel organic selenium, natural vitamin E and Melofeed® primary antioxidant. For more information click here – Rumen Health Pack | Nutritech
Facial eczema
As you are all aware, the facial eczema season is just around the corner. Many farmers are familiar with the Nutritech range of Facial Eczema supplements, however there is a new tool in the tool kit which is growing in popularity due to its ease of use – DanMix® Zinc.
DanMix® Zinc is a loose-lick supplement designed to provide recommended levels of zinc for the prevention of facial eczema. It contains ACVM registered2 zinc oxide as well as trace minerals including organic copper to minimise the competitive absorption effect of zinc and copper, thereby reducing the risk of copper depletion during treatment for facial eczema. Being a loose lick it is easy to feed, and is perfect to use on the shoulders of the season, or in situations where water treatment / bolusing are not suitable.
To find out more about our Facial Eczema range click here
“DanMix® Zinc is great for supplementing on either side of using boluses. It’s much easier to use than bolusing and provides great facial eczema cover when spore counts aren’t quite high enough to warrant bolusing. – Chris and Kathy Prankerd
“We found the DanMix® Zinc very user friendly and easy to use. The calves adapted very quickly to eating it as we mixed it in with some rock salt in a calf meal trough. We feed it every day for 8 weeks from February until April and had no facial eczema this season. – Mike and Christine Gyde
