Feast on yeast for £13 per bull benefit
The study looked at the effect of feeding Rumenco’s XPLS fermented yeast culture on the performance of intensively finished dairy-bred bulls fed ad lib cereals right through to slaughter. The trial commenced in mid August 2011 when 36 January to February born bulls (26 Holsteins and 10 Continental cross Holsteins) weighing around 320kg at seven […]
Compassion award is music to the ears of Hampshire Jersey Beef farmers
Teaching and playing the clarinet, saxophone and violin is perhaps not the usual sideline for beef farmers but that’s exactly what the owners of Woodlands Jersey Beef, Jane and Paul Denley, do. In fact, until four years ago farming was the sideline. The couple originally kept one Jersey cow to feed the family but today […]
Report published on welfare management for entire male pigs
It outlines the problems caused by housing entire males in commercial units, including aggression and injury caused by sexual behaviour and considers some of the options for reducing their prevalence. The report, entitled Entire Male Pig Production: Welfare Management Issues, was produced by agriculture and science consultancy Food Animal Initiative (FAI), and commissioned by Pfizer. […]
New high-health multiplier unit
Due to increasing demand for high-health status breeding stock, Yorkshire-based pig genetics company, ACMC, has established a new 350-sow nucleus multiplier unit at Fridaythorpe, near Driffield. The unit, which has just come on stream, will produce in excess of 2,000 AC1 hybrid gilts for the UK market as well as nucleus stock. AC1 gilts are […]
Pig farm worker jailed for cruelty
A stockman who beat and kicked pigs on the farm where he worked was jailed for 18 weeks after admitting animal cruelty in a case described by the district judge as “among the worst cases of animal cruelty I have seen.” Geoffrey Towell, 54, from East Harling in Norfolk, pleaded guilty to five counts […]
Ten things you didn’t know about British bacon
1. Bacon is Britain’s favourite According to the British Top 100 Foods Index compiled by Food Network UK, bacon is Britain’s favourite food. 2. The future of British bacon is under threat this summer Harvest failure around the world has made pig-feed so expensive that more British pig-farmers are quitting every week because of […]
Industry-first app to improve transition management
Poor transition into lactation for high yielding dairy cows is costing UK dairy farmers millions of pounds each year in production losses, in addition to potential implications for long term herd health. For the first time, Premier’s Transition Management System (TMS) app brings together a number of key pieces of transition data, which until now […]
Shoppers urged – act now to save our bacon
The rising costs of feed, coupled with supermarkets pushing down prices, means that pig farmers are now struggling to make a living and many small to medium sized producers will not survive at all. The issues facing the farming industry have largely been caused by consumers choosing to purchase cheaper meat from supermarket retailers. Buying […]
Persistence pays in Starling control
A review by Kingshay on the problem on 11 farms in Somerset and their views on the usefulness of various control methods was carried out last winter. The Somerset Levels sees particularly large numbers of Starlings because up to 9 million birds migrate there to roost for the winter months on its wetland, but other […]
