mastitis

Written by Eva Osborne-Sherlock from Agriland The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) will host a webinar for its members centred on mastitis in the sheep industry and the impacts it has on businesses. The webinar, which takes place from 7.00pm on Monday, February 20, 2023...

Written by Eva Osborne-Sherlock from Agriland The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has said that its latest agri-market outlook released today (Friday, February 10) indicates that high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis will continue to impact farm business planning...

We’ve ended up getting a lot of trouble with orf on ewes tits. The ewes and jan born lambs are inside and usually stay inside until weaning in late March. Usually we vaccinate lambs against orf at 5 weeks old, but unsure now of the best plan to stop it getting any worse. Any ideas?

It may come as a surprise that some farmers feel little practical benefit from the majority of agricultural science research. One of the most powerful insights research has to offer is why and how something works as it does. Ideally all research aims to understand and improve some aspect of...

Written by Eva Osborne-Sherlock from Agriland The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) will host an event centred on reducing and managing mastitis in dairy herds in north Yorkshire. The event, which takes place on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, will see AHDB joined by vet...

I’m curious how other small dairy farmers (by small I mean under 100 cows and no employees) find a balance to keep the farm going and still have time to sleep and see friends and do other normal people things? I recently moved back to our family farm/homestead that is a working dairy and am...

Written by Eva Osborne-Sherlock from Agriland The Hannah Dairy Research Foundation (HDRF) has announced three new research grants totalling £59,138 in its latest round of funding. The charity provides strategic funding to help researchers develop projects that will be of direct relevance to...

Someone local has rolled barley very reasonable has anyone ever mixed it with sheep blend cake to bulk it out was thinking of using it with twins, singles and std sheep cake for triplets? Gonna get a few tonne less of cake and bulk it with the barley Cake is upto 380 this year which is...

Given new slurry regs we are looking at options for the future, one being moving the cows housing and going loose housed to start, with a view to cubicles down the line if we manage to milk a few more. Have a good shed, easily big enough, think it would cost 5-7k for concrete and improving...

Just for a bit of fun and some general discussion what is everyone’s thoughts on there own ideal suckler cow? Maternal and paternal breeds? Size/weight? what would you/do you put her to?

We need extra slurry storage for the imminent slurry regs in Wales. Planning for a lagoon, most likely lined has been obtained. Currently we have sand cubicles, the slurry produced enters a concrete pit via a sand channel, the pit is 140’ long, 45’ wide, channel is at the opposite end to the...

When does everyone house their ewes that are in lamb? I usually house 3/4 weeks before lambing but tempted to house a bit earlier this year and footbath them once a week / 10 days to try and keep feet problems to a minimum. Whats everyone’s thoughts?

Having problems with calfs, they start off great but then after 2 or 3 weeks they just start getting smaller and die then, they get colostrum and plenty of it, its not scour or pneumonia, iv had the vet look at them when they were hear and had them dissect dead 1s and iv sent dead 1s to the lab...

Anybody going?

The use of methane inhibitors in cattle and sheep feed was the subject of a recent consultation by the UK and devolved governments, to which the SFT responded. Reducing methane emissions is essential, but we have concerns about some of the products under consideration, as well as the wider...

In the first week of August a range of farmers and industry professionals met at Moor Farm in south west Wales to hear the 2022 Runner-up to the Soil Farmer of the Year competition, Andrew Rees, explain how he has developed a dairy system with soil health at the centre. Moor farm is a 160...

Did you know that a cow spends at least 12 hours per day lying down, either resting or ruminating? It is easy to understand how the microbial quality of the bedding and manure — that are in close contact with the udder for so long — is an important factor to help maintain a healthy udder and...

As the title really. Opportunity has arisen to acquire a handful of the above cross as Heifers. FIL is dead against it, as he reckons they'll be prone mastitis, throw sh!t calves, and be poor as culls at the end. My argument is that they'll be milkier than our usual Sim X / Char X, smaller...

So whilst I've been disappointed with my cows yields this year there have been one or two star performers who are still milking well The main one I'm worried about is dear old zandra from woodmarsh, she's only a first calver but is due again in March. Problem is she's still doing nearly 40...

We do full prep currently with two people in the parlour, hoping one of these systems could reduce a labour unit completely. How are peoples experiences with either system? Many known problems? Cost of each and replacing liners? Did you see noticeable difference from your previous method of post...