Livestock

Podcast: Forward Thinking Farmers – Bill & Helen Smith of The Byres Farm, Fochabers

In the first of our series of podcasts with Forward Thinking Farmers, Mary-Jane Lawrie spoke to Bill and Helen Smith of The Byres Farm, Fochabers. Bill and Helen talk about…

Opportunities To Control Rushes

Rushes are a major challenge to beef and sheep producers across the country. Rushes are an indicator of poor fertility, poor drainage and low soil pH. However, when you look at the…

Sheep External Parasites On The Rise?

The winter of 2019/20 was exceptional, breaking records for both high temperatures and high rainfall, with the highest UK December temperature on record and the wettest UK February on record. Coinciding with this there have been reports of more external parasites being found in sheep flocks e.g. lice, ticks and maggots. These parasites will have enjoyed this mild winter and had good survival rates.

Animal Welfare Updates June 2020

Using A Wholecrop Cereal To Top Up Forage Supplies

If you think you may be short of forage for the coming winter cutting and preserving a standing cereal crop to produce wholecrop may be worth considering. It is a good bulk feed and can replace silage if necessary (may need additional protein depending on the stock to be fed) and it is ideal if you have undersown cereals and will give an earlier bite in the field or free up the field for early sowing of a catch crop.

Unusual Behaviour And Deaths In Cattle

Over the last couple of days there have been several reports of dairy cows eating soil and of deaths in young suckled calves from twisted guts etc. While we only know of a few cases, their cause is difficult to explain. One possibility is that with the drought grass is likely to have high levels of sugar and of course very rapid growth once it rains.