Accurate data analysis
Improving herd health & welfare to the highest standards requires measurable outcomes to benchmark against the best and your own performance. This drives continuous improvement.
Factory Farming – what on earth does that mean?
Factory farming has been used as an emotive expression used to denigrate the livestock industry. If you assess what it infers, it’s industrial processes applied to animal production, which grates against our desire for foods to be natural and wholesome. So, the term is meant to shock us into rejecting animal production. The term originates
Large vs Small – challenging the misconceptions
It’s not size that matters….it sounds obvious, but there are parallels in all aspects of life. I went to a school with 50 kids and then a school with over 2000 kids. The strengths and weaknesses were different and could not be generalised to other schools. This applies to our village compared to the metropolis
Hoof trimming
There are two options for foot trimming training: Attend a formal training course. Nick is one of the instructors on the RAU level 4 course (click here for details) Staff training on own farm. This works well for making assessments of equipment and challenges specific to a farm Lameness and foot health courses can be
Actiphage for Johne’s and bTB
Actiphage looks the test of choice for confirming Johne’s status of cows positive by milk Elisa, but it also has potential for bTB eradication. However, the laws on the use of novel bTB tests are strict. More information can be found here. More details about the lab providing the Actiphage test can be found here.
Polled genes at 5%
Polled sires come at a cost in terms of lag in production, but it’s not a major sacrifice and the performance improvement is at a similar rate to the best sires. If ever there was a case for restricted gene editing this is it. Take a look at this (non-peer reviewed) article.
Monitoring cow comfort
Thanks to Sam from Radio York for the chance to talk about “Fit Bit for cows”. The affordability of 3d accelerometers (pedometers) has been talked about for a number of years but it has needed some clever engineering to make the equipment tough enough for the cow, to gather sufficient data, transmit it effectively, hold
Read a great article today about feedback
Feedback must be accurate – get your facts right first It should focus on success behaviours not personality faults No shocks or surprises – timing is crucial, so be timely Show you care, prove you’re reliable Is there anything else?