Get ready for Moving Day
Moving Day is a big day in the farming calendar and requires good planning and communication to ensure success.
Adding a probiotic to calf rearing systems may offer productivity gains.
The biggest payback can come in extra heifer milk production, says Chris Collier, founder of Probiotic Revolution.
The pure probiotic is made up of beneficial bacteria, digestive enzymes, and live active yeast.
He claims one farmer who recently reported their first crop of heifers reared on Calf Xtreme produced 40 kgMS more than any previous batch of heifers.
“That’s a return of at least $300 for around $9 - 10 a calf,” he says.
Collier says the probiotic is allowing farmers to get their calves off to a faster start by increasing milk volumes.
“At higher rates of milk, when the milk spills into the rumen we are not seeing the usual nutritional scours you might expect, and it’s helping digestion and consumption of meal hay and grass – so once a day feeding at high rates of milk also works extremely well. It even increases voluntary milk intake on ad-lib feeding.”
Collier claims one farmer trialed a group of calves on Calf Xtreme and a year later they were 30kg heavier. Both groups were on ad-lib feeding.
He says probiotics set up the rumen for better meal and grass consumption after they are weaned off milk, so that they go on to calve down at higher liveweights. Bull calves are also growing faster after weaning.
“Because it is loaded with live bacteria it’s very good at helping boost calves’ immune systems to get through disease challenges.”
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has informed staff it will cut 391 jobs following a consultation period.
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