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Welcome to the Carrs Billington Newsletter - in our Winter 08/09 issue:
If you would like further information on these or any other topics please contact customer services on 01768 889800.
Many Holstein bull calves are still being shot leading to a net loss of £30.00 per head by the time disposal costs are taken into account. However with 520 kg fat bulls averaging 120p/kg, totalling £624 per head at 12 to 13 months old, the potential exists to boost farm profits with a beef enterprise particularly if your farm has a suitable building.
These bulls would need about 2.2t of concentrates to finish, this would cost between £340 - £440 per animal, depending on whether feed is home mixed or purchased and at what time of year the feed was/is purchased. Adding on other variable costs of £100 per head for bedding, vet costs, transport, calf rearing etc and a calf value of £30 if sold in the auction we have total variable costs of £470 to £570 per head.
At current sale prices the gross margin would between £54 - £154 per bull, a significant improvement over a year ago. Many of the fixed costs on farm e.g. labour, machinery etc would be there anyway, therefore, the income from a bull beef enterprise could be a useful addition to the business. Recent reports have also highlighted that the average cull cow price has risen more than 50% since the beginning of the year (peaking in June), are you maximising your returns from these animals?
 There is strong export demand for manufacturing beef thanks to the pound weakening against the euro. Cattle numbers continue to drop both here and in Europe (down 8% in Ireland) and any challenge from South America is unlikely to damage the generally good prospects for British beef in the short to medium term.
Ask us about our range of beef cakes and blends that will suit all circumstances and the Complete Beef Package of services to help maximise profitability.
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It is rapidly becoming clear that balancing this winter’s silage is more of a challenge than we have seen for many years.
Some of the problem will be due to how cows were fed (or not) through this wet summer season. Underfeeding on many farms has had serious effects on cows that were in early lactation but are now in mid and late lactation, the damage done some months ago cannot now be easily and cost effectively rectified. Once a cow’s metabolism has been switched off from milk production and she starts diverting nutrients towards pregnancy and weight gain there is little that can be done to turn milk production on again – try over feeding DUP for one month but if there is no response save the cost.
Here are some prompters to consider when balancing this years silage:
- Many silages are low in energy and some quite dry – choose high balanced energy or high starch diets such as Crest, Pinnacle 21, Dynamic Super 18 and Power Plus 20. High starch balancer blends are ideal for inclusion in feeder wagons and if necessary protected fats can be added to boost the energy density for high yielding cows.
If the silage is very dry causing the overall diet to have a dry matter greater then 55 % then using moist feeds such as brewers grains, draff, Supergrains, roots or adding water to reduce a TMR to 50 % would be sensible.
 For wet, low pH, high lactic silages – consider feeding a high energy, high digestible fibre (HDF) brands including our own Crown, Buttergold and Peak 21 if feed rates need to be relatively high in the parlour. Balanced energy source brands could still work well if a HDF blend is fed out of parlour. Consider including buffer salts such as Acid Buff and Biosaf yeast in bespoke balancer blends to give the correct dose across all cows.
Soya Hulls are an excellent HDF raw material - an economic replacement for sugar beet feed and also a part silage replacer if forage is in short supply. It is one of the few concentrates that can replace up to 30 % of silage dry matter intake and does not reduce overall dietary M/D compared to feeding brewers grains and straw.- By pass rumen protein (DUP) supply could be limiting many cows performance this year. Average crude protein levels of grass silage are low but even silages with a crude protein of 15 % or higher only supply low levels of DUP. This is because most of the silages analysed have come back with high nitrogen degradability values indicating that 65 % or more of the protein is rapidly degraded in the rumen.
Extra DUP can be supplied in two ways. Firstly by over supplying crude protein by selecting high protein cakes or blends, however this approach will also oversupply ERDP to a point where it could reduce available energy supply for milk production and have a negative impact on fertility. A better way is to select concentrated sources of DUP such as AminoMax S and R and to a slightly lesser extent soya and maize germ.
In a few cases, particularly for very high yielding cows, a positive
response can be achieved through balancing the diet for by-pass amino acids by feeding Metasmart in a bespoke blend.
- Whole crop cereal silages are highly variable some wet, acidic and low in starch whilst others are very dry and the grain possibly not properly processed because of a last minute effort to save a failed grain crop; many are overheating. Apart from well processed alkalage,
assume the energy of
fermented whole crop to
be no higher than 10 MJ /
kg DM. Maize silage
crops grown in the North
of England and Scotland
have been starved of
sunlight hours and could
be low in starch.
To replace this starch consider using Carrs Billington blends containing maize germ, wheat, barley, wheatfeed and maize sugar but beware of oversupplying starch if the silages have a high acid loading. Maize silage cut too soon will not only be low in starch but be low in dry matter, high in sugars with a real risk it will have a low pH and be very acidic.
Conversely there have been some examples in the south of our trading area that are very high in dry matter (over 38%) and starch but a lot of the grain is passing through the cows undigested and the cows are not milking. In the short term more fermentable energy is needed but hopefully this maize silage will soften after another month in the pit.
- Poorly consolidated grass and whole crop cereal silages are already posing a problem on some farms. Yeasts and moulds are rapidly multiplying and causing silage to overheat thereby affecting feed value in a number of ways: reducing ME levels, increasing protein degradability, depressing intake and producing mycotoxins.
Try and avoid feeding this type of silage to vulnerable cow groups especially dry cows and cows in early lactation but Carrs Billington can provide mycotoxin binders such as Mycosorb where there is no option. We also have products that can be added to complete diets to prevent feed overheating in troughs where unstable silage is being used.
 Silage chop length. There have been a few cases where new forage harvesting equipment has been used for the first time this year and either deliberately or by default chop length has been too long to the point it has led to an increased risk of aerobic spoilage in the silage pit and increased sorting and reduced forage dry matter intake by the cow.
For those with feeder wagons that can chop the silage it is not an issue so long as it is recognised but for others the effect on forage dry matter intake must be taken into account when balancing the total diet.- One last point relates to caustic treated wheat. In an understandable effort to save costs some dairy customers are using their own home grown caustic grain or buying it in; some of this wheat is low in bushel weight, energy and starch content.
Potentially worse is that a lot was harvested wet with a high risk of mycotoxin contamination that caustic treatment will not destroy. Replacing some or all of this grain with another starch source or using a mycotoxin binder must be seriously considered.
Carrs Billington have precise quality standards laid down for the purchase of all raw materials used in our compounds and blends, so you can buy our products with complete assurance of guaranteed quality and safety.
It is vital to know how much and of what quality of silage is in your pit and be prepared to try different balancing options than you may have done in the past as it is quite likely this years silage is very different to that made in previous years.
Duncan Rose
Chief Technical Officer
Carrs Billington Agriculture
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 Avail is a unique Phosphorus fertiliser enhancer exclusively available from Carrs Fertiliser, which prevents valuable phosphate from locking up in the soil, leading to more efficient use of fertiliser.
- Avail is applied directly to the phosphate in your fertiliser.
- It “protects” the phosphate to maintain it in a form available to plants.
- Avail will last all season.
- Safe and leaves no environmental footprint.
Benefits
- Helps maximise the uptake of phosphate fertiliser
- Improves rooting, plant metabolism and leads to higher returns
- Maintains phosphorus levels in forage which will help cow health.
Fertiliser prices are at an all time high so soil reserves and slurry content should be accounted for.
 20/10/10 and 25/5/5 are not always the correct ratio on NPK.
Ask us about New Choice 20/5/12 + Sulphur + Avail and 22/4/6 +Sulphur + Avail.
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 Helps improve the cow’s energy balance in early lactation by providing a source of rumen by-pass energy.- Provides a concentrated source of sugar to stimulate forage intakes and digestion by increasing the number and activity of rumen microflora
- Contains proven buffers, including live yeast, to help prevent lactic acid build up and potentially acidosis. This stabilises rumen ph within optimum limits, reducing the risk of digestive upsets, ensuring feed intake is maximised to support optimum health, fertility and performance.
- In pre launch trials 10-12 dairy units saw a 1-2 litre increase in yield with a cost of 15-18p giving a typical profit of 10p per cow per day.
All trial farms reported an improvement in bulling activity.
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By the end of October the Dairy Herd Health and Productivity Service at Edinburgh University had identified five herds with liver fluke in blood test profiles that month. They advise that following the wet summer, this winter is likely to be bad for fluke and to watch for signs of infection including thin cows that are not milking as well as expected particularly where milk protein levels are low.
Fluke can be brought onto the farm by sheep, e.g finishing lambs or overwintering ewes, so even if you have not had the problem in the past keep fluke in mind.
Diagnosis is difficult; blood or milk testing informs of previous exposure whilst regular dung testing is needed to spot eggs because they are only produced irregularly.
The best policy is to treat cattle at drying off using a recommended flukicide. Your local CBAL branch will have AMTRA qualified staff who can give you advice.
Also still available - our Spring 2008 issue which includes: Can I still afford to feed concentrates this summer?
How Much Milk Can I Get From Grass? Butterfat and Spring Grass, Crystalyx Dairy “Health Check” and Feed Ingredient Update.
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