GP Feeds Ltd - Quality Products for Quality Production...

 

APRIL 2005 NEWSLETTER

This months linked article's:

SILAGE ADDITIVES...

DRY COW MANAGEMENT...

MYCOTOXINS...

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU...

SPRING / SUMMER FEEDING

Springtime is here again, a time when a natural instinct may be to say "bye-bye" to your feed merchant for a few months and produce all your milk from grass. This of course will be fine for a week or two but the repercussions could be catastrophic! Fresh spring grass can only produce 25 litres of milk, at best and the balance of each cows' production will come off her reserves unless you feed for it. As a result, a rapid loss of weight, loss of milk, infertility, poor milk quality and loss of income will occur. Of course you can drastically reduce your feed inputs in Spring, but let it be a planned, sensible operation that will help the cow to produce to her maximum, leading to more profit for you.

Milk prices are at a consistently low level and spring prices normally take further reductions. If this happens again this year, it will be even more critical that you produce as much milk as economically as possible without putting your cows under needless stress. Feeding silage, as a buffer feed, and perhaps incorporating a blend will produce better milk quality and better cow health. Because of the high protein, high energy and high sugar content of fresh grass, coupled with buffer feeding, a special type of blend or compounded nut is needed to balance it.

Spring grass is a wonderful product for producing milk but it is lacking in one aspect, digestible fibre. It is green and nutritious, full of nutrients and very palatable, but it is also full of water and high protein. The result of all this means it passes through the rumen very rapidly, in fact too quickly for all the nutrients to be absorbed and utilised to the full. This progression through the rumen has to be slowed down by the addition into the diet of some form of digestible fibre. By offering either grass silage or maize silage you are well on the way to balancing the problem, but as in winter your cows can only produce a certain amount of milk off a certain amount of forage, the rest has to be supported by an additional digestible form of feed and that of course is where we can help.

As we are very aware at GP Feeds, your margins are extremely tight and the need to produce milk from your own resources has never been greater. Where we differ from all other companies is in the area of formulating blends and compounds on a FIXED FORMUALTION basis.

Having discussed with each individual customer how to produce milk on his farm in the most economical way, we formulate to his individual requirements and needs. The blend or compounded nut we recommend is then guaranteed to remain constant in all its raw materials, with monitored updates being discussed through the summer with each individual customer, to balance the forage inputs as grass quality declines.

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU

We have been discussing spring and summer feeding for the last three months within the company and our suppliers. We have used the most up to date technology available, plus the latest thinking from research centres into our range of feeds for the spring. Energy levels of the feed are always a critical factor and we believe that the levels within our range are the highest you can buy within the region. Our range takes account of the declining grass values later in the year as well as the need for digestible fibre in early spring, and we are confident that we have a product to cover every individual dairy farmers' need.

As mentioned earlier all the products have a FIXED FORMULATION (fixed percentage inclusion of raw materials) along with a FIXED PRICE for the period. All our nutritionists are equipped with the necessary resources to help you produce milk efficiently so please give us a ring if you feel we can help you on 01948 661602 or your usual agent.

Some of the areas that have been developed are:

  • GP Feeds were the first to develop the approach of using lower crude protein diets for high yielding cows. Remember the dreaded Atkins diet?
  • We have customised blends that properly balance grass silage, maize silage and whole crop wheat.
  • Our beef diets are based on proven formulations delivering top performance.
  • GP Feeds dry cows rolls contain high quality ingredients and our mineral packages are designed to meet the requirements of the modern dairy cow.
  • We have 'off the shelf' minerals that do what they say on the bag, i.e., deliver the quantities of minerals required.
  • We make individual mineral formulation for specific problems.
  • We have been formulating compounds to meet the cows needs using selected raw materials only. This has lead to the introduction of 16% crude protein diets in the summer and the industry standard Excel 18.
  • GP Feeds supply dry cow tubs that actually contain the required levels of minerals.
  • We endeavour to provide increased levels of technical support to help our customers improve performance, reduce health problems and help profitability.

GP Feeds the leading feed Company, helping you to achieve.

STOP PRESS

John Eardley, a GP Feeds blend customer from Market Drayton has just won champion cow in the Western Holstein show with 'Primo Integrity Jenny'.

Congratulations to John and his family for all the hard work they have put in.

QUALITY PRODUCTS FOR QUALITY PRODUCTION

WE FORMULATE OUR OWN RANGE OF DAIRY, CALF, BEEF AND SHEEP COMPOUNDS WHICH ARE BASED ON A FIXED FORMULATION AND FIXED PRICE. THESE ARE FORMULATED TO STRICT NUTRITIONAL SPECIFICATIONS.

WE ALSO SUPPLY BLENDS MADE TO YOUR OWN SPECIFICATION(S) WHICH SUIT OUT OF PARLOUR FEEDING AND CAN BE MADE TO MATCH DIFFERENT FORAGES AS YOU GO THROUGH THE FEEDING YEAR. DON'T FORGET THAT WE ALSO SUPPLY MINERALS!

PLEASE RING : 01948 661602

WE WILL BE VERY PLEASED TO HELP.

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