Top Tips For The Best Colostrum

Calf looking at camera

1,2,3 1. 1st Milk (Colostrum) 2. Within 2 hours of birth 3. 3 Litres  How important is Colostrum for your calves? Inadequate colostrum intakes can have devastating effects on calf health. It’s free, nature has designed the young calf to obtain its immunity from the first milk of its mother! While many synthetic options are […]

Maximising Profit by Optimising Milk Solids

cows grazing in a row

Due to this increasing financial pressure, it will be crucial for producers to focus on efficient feeding strategies with the aim of improving milk solids to increase their margin per litre. There are a multitude of factors that will affect milk composition such as genetics, stage of lactation, milk volume produced and nutrition. Focusing on […]

Fight Low Butterfat Levels With MAG 12

cow grazing in the grass

Milk fat percentage has huge potential to be suboptimal during the period of peak milk production from April through to June. Dr. Morgan Sheehy said that a recently published peer-reviewed paper by UCD and Devenish showed that 10% of herds had milk fat depression (bulk tank for milk fat below 3.3%, with a normal milk […]

Heat Stress

Cow grazing in a field

What is Heat Stress? Heat stress is when cattle fail to control their body temperature and it starts to rise. A cow’s body temperature needs to remain a constant 38.8 oC (± 0.5 oC). To maintain this, the heat generated from normal rumen digestion and metabolism must be lost to the environment. However, when the environmental temperature […]

Cow Feed Intake

cow eating looking at camera

1. Animal Factors affecting DMI (dry Matter intake) 2. Meal factors affecting intake 3. Management factors affecting intake 4. Substitution rates of different feed ingredients on Silage intake.  FEED INTAKE & UTILISATION Digested feed clearly has a major effect on nutrient supply, the most important factor governing the extent to which cows can meet their […]

Maintain Performance at Grass this Season.

Dry matter intake is the key driver to maintaining performance at grass and can fluctuate dramatically due to a multitude of factors. Dry Matter Ranges from 12% – 20%. The higher the dry matter percentage, the more a cow can eat. If there is a lot of water in the grass for example, grass with […]

The Smell of Silage – What it can tell you?

silage

Can you tell the quality of silage by the smell?The answer to that question is sometimes yes, but sometimes no. When producers detect ‘sweet’ smelling silage, they often think that this is good. However, this is not necessarily so, since that sweet smell is probably coming from high concentrations ethanol (produced by spoilage yeasts) mixed […]

Lice Management for Livestock

With the increased housing of animals, lice will start becoming more of a problem on farms. There are two types of lice:1. Biting lice – these primarily eat dead skin and scabs and are mostly found on the neck, shoulders, back and rump. They bite into the skin and cause greater irritation than sucking lice. […]

Ewe Feeding

Why is it so important to have high levels of Vitamin E in Ewe diets? All Smyths Daleside Feeds Ewe diets have at least 150 iu/kg of Vitamin E. Good Body Condition is important from mating through to the first month of lactation post lambing. Feeding correctly and having the Ewe in the correct body […]

Smyths Daleside Announce Balmoral Show Sponsirship

Smyths Daleside, a leading animal feed manufacturer in the North-West of Ireland is excited to commence a new partnership with Balmoral Show, seeing them sponsor the Holstein and Hereford sections plus the Hampshire Down and Charolais sheep sections.  Smyths Daleside have developed a renowned reputation in both the North and South of Ireland for manufacturing the […]

Smyths Daleside Launch Mmore Fibre Range

Leading animal feed manufacturer, Smyths Daleside, who have a track record of feeding champions, are proud to introduce their new high fibre feed range, ‘MmoreFibre’. This new range has currently four dedicated products covering lambs, baby calves, weanling and show animals. Containing a balanced combination of cooked products, pulps, cereals and high quality proteins, essential […]