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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