Articles

Mary McDowell discusses the various ways of supplementing grazing stock with trace elements.

As an industry we appear to have a fascination with trace elements, yet wildlife thrive without any supplementation! 

Minerals can be divided into two categories macro-minerals and micro-minerals (or trace elements).

The little and often approach to fertilising with any nutrient (but particularly N and S as they are so mobile in soil and easily lost to drainage and/or atmosphere) is the most efficient way to devise a fertiliser programme.

Mating ewe hoggets increases productivity by around 10% but may reduce grazing flexibility as you then have another high priority group for feed resources.

If silage is being cut after only 3-6 weeks of a field last being grazed there is a possibility that there could still be faecal contamination of the cut grass.  The risks from this to the stock being fed it are likely to be relatively low, however it is likely to affect the feed quality of the silage.

Having a short mating period means finding somewhere to keep bulls when mating ends.  Keeping them together in a group runs a very high risk of them damaging themselves unless they are given a large enough area so they can easily escape. 

Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas which can be the most effective.