RABDF NMR Gold Cup Open Day
Haselbury Plucknett, Crewkerne, Wednesday 25 May
Meet Neil Baker, current holder of the RABDF NMR Gold Cup and find out more about how his 1,700 cow Holstein unit achieved UK dairy farming’s most prestigious award.
That’s not all. Visitors will have the opportunity to take home valuable information from a series of speakers which they can introduce to their own herds the next day.
Targeting zero antibiotic use: Kite Consulting’s Duncan Williams will be discussing
• Antibiotic resistance - an increasing global threat to human health
• Why all members of our industry have a responsibility to engage in reducing antibiotic use
• Why we need to more accurately measure both disease rates and antibiotic use
• How to reduce antibiotic use by driving down disease, rather than allowing it to increase
• And finally, with high hidden costs, reducing disease will increase both farm profitability and animal welfare
Want to save money? Pick up some practical day to day dairy tips at the RABDF NMR Gold Day with Precision Nutrition’s Graeme Smith being among the day’s speakers discussing:
• Attention to detail
• Prevention better than cure
• What’s achievable
• Pregnancies pay
• Be like a Royal Marine
You’ll also be able to tour Neil Baker’s 1,700 cow herd and find out more about what it takes to win the RABDF NMR Gold Cup, UK dairy farming’s most prestigious award.
Would you like to know more about using genomics and Genetracker for profit? Priestcliffe’s Lucy Andrews-Noden and Genus' Andy Rutter will be speaking on:
• how genomics and Genetracker are now cost effective and simple to sample
• why heifers are your potential new employees, with genomics being their CV
• how to find the best maiden heifers to target sexed semen on
• increased accuracy of breeding value – four weeks of age is now the same as at four years
• validating parentage to ensure accurate breeding decisions
Find out about reducing costs by calving heifers younger with Synergy Farm Health’s Kat Bazeley, Tom Shardlow and Esme Moffett. They will be discussing the below:
• Rear your heifers well to improve their future performance in the herd and to reduce rearing costs
• Monitor heifer performance - growth, mortality, fertility and age at first calving, so you can build on successes and target weaknesses in your heifer-rearing system
• Achieve excellent growth rate to weaning by feeding calves well, controlling disease and keeping calves warm
• Make sure that every calf gets enough good-quality colostrum within six hours of birth
• Pay attention to detail at every stage, but particularly for young calves, which means making enough time for calf-care and ensuring excellent stockmanship.
Want to know how to build resilience into the business? Neil will be discussing his plans going forward which focus on five key areas with accompanying tactics:
• Improving forage management to reduce feed cost inputs
• Fine tuning replacement policy by culling poor cows more quickly
• Reducing antibiotic interventions by reducing mastitis, dealing and fresh cow issues and lameness
• Improving manure utilisation by spreading at the right rates at the right times
• Improving breeding selections by increasing beef calf sale values and breeding heifers from best animals
“Building resilience in to the business is essential for the future. Some of these measures are incurring big changes, others small, however when added together should have considerable impact,” he says.
Pre-registration for this event is essential; please click here
