APRIL O6 NEWSLETTER

This months linked article's:

SPRING / SUMMER FEEDING

Springtime will soon be 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.

With milk prices where they are today, 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 (if you have any left), and perhaps incorporating a GP Feeds 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, 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 if possible, 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.

HE Supreme HDF 16 Nuts

Ingredients (4% Oil, 16% Protein, 9% Fibre, 7.5% Ash, 13.2 ME mj/kg)
Sugar Beet Wheat Processed B Maize Citrus Maize Gluten Palm Kernel Rape Meal
Sunflower Soya Molasses Hi Spec Dairy Mineral Megalac Fat Premix

HE Supreme HDF 16 is our most popular spring / summer ration, it accounted for 40% of our spring / summer sales last year. This is a high quality nut, made of high quality raw materials. This ration will help to maximise your milk production whilst maintaining butter fat levels at a time when the grass will naturally decrease them.

Excel 16 Nuts

Ingredients (4.5% Oil, 16% Protein, 7.5% Fibre, 7.5% Ash, 13.5ME mj/kg)
Sugar Beet Wheat Soya Processed B Maize Citrus Palm Kernel Biscuit Meal
Maize Gluten Molasses Sopralin Hi Spec Dairy Mineral Megalac Fat Premix

Excel 16 is the Rolls Royce of our spring / summer range. We are very proud of this nut! With Sugar Beet, Wheat and Soya making up 46% of the total feed. Excel 16 has been especially formulated for spring calvers producing more than 40 litres. The emphasis is on lower protein and a range of quality energy sources. This ration will help to maximise your milk production whilst maintaining butter fat levels at a time when the grass will naturally decrease them.

Rich Dairy 16 Nuts

Ingredients (4.5% Oil, 16% Protein, 9% Fibre, 7.5% Ash, 12.6 ME mj/kg)
Maize Gluten Wheatfeed Palm Kernel Wheat Molasses
Rape Meal Sunflower Hi Spec Dairy Mineral Sugar Beet Fat Premix

Rich Dairy 16 is our most economic ration. It is aimed at herds producing up to 6,500 litres.

AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THESE PRODUCTS, THERE ARE NO 'FILLERS' AT ALL IN OUR RATIONS AND GUARANTEED FIXED FORMULATIONS. CAN YOU CURRENT SUPPLIER SAY THE SAME?

ARE YOU RUNNING LOW ON SILAGE?

WE HAVE SOMETHING TO SUIT ALL SITUATIONS & NEEDS

As you can see from previous months the list of products still available is now very limited so ring us now to book your requirements.

Product	DM (%)	ME MJ/KG DM	CP (%)	Fibre (%)	Description	Delivery to Cheshire
Brewers Grains	24	11.7	24.5	17	Moist brewing co-product from barley. Suitable for all ruminants especially dairy cows. 4kg can replace 1kg of concentrate.	Traditional £24.50 Mash Filter £23.50
Supergrains	26	14	30	20	A palatable, moist feed comprising cooked cereal co-products from grain whisky manufacture.	Artic Loads £36.00 Rigid Loads £38.00
Pressed Pulp (Ag bag)	29	13	9.4	18	Moist shreds of sugar beet. Energy rich feed.	Artic Loads £28.50
Sticky Orange Pudding	51	13.5	21.5	11	A moist blend consisting of a mixture of relatively even proportions of Pot Ale Syrup, Citrus, Processed Bread and Palm Kernel. Well-balanced in terms of energy and protein. Not suitable for sheep.	Artics only £64
Forage Saver Blend	88	12.6	15	9	A Coarse blend of palatable high digestible fibre products such as Sugar Beet, Citrus, Maize Gluten, Molasses.	5 tonne + £120

All prices (Apr 06) are only guides - dependant on exact delivery address and load size.

BEEF RATIONS

It is always very encouraging to report good news and at GP Feeds we were particularly pleased to hear that live animals, beef and beef products should be able to be exported by the end of April, this year... More>>

STOP PRESS

Watch underpayment on milk cheques - it has been reported in local press that some farmers have found discrepancies on what milk has been collected compared to what they have been paid for. It may be worth checking your paperwork.

back