Beef farmers advised to keep with creep feeding
UK - Even with the positive mood at Beef and Growing Cattle South West at Hatherleigh market last week, beef nutritionist David Hendy told producers they shouldn't sit back and accept British beef is the best in the world - they must be working for it.
15 September 2006
1 minute read
Speaking at a Mole Valley Farmers-sponsored seminar, he told visitors that although they didn't have control over the price they were paid for finished cattle, they did have control over efficiency, particularly rumen efficiency.
"When diets are correct, cattle should be cudding for about eight hours a day and dung should be consistent, so that means a structured diet with good levels of fibre," he said.
For suckler cows, producers should consider condition scoring as their bible, he added. "It's a harsh reality, but with removal of suckler cow subsidies, farmers should be looking at ways of taking £100-£150 out of management costs and that means looking at production efficiencies, such as fertility indexing, 200-day calf weights and the dry period."
Source: Farmers Weekly
