Dairy Farmer articles from November 2008

Dairy Farmer archives from November 2008

NMR's record year.(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... NMR has reported an increase in net profit to #353,000 for the first six months of the year, from April to September 2008. That's a rise of more than 400% compared to the same period in 2007. Turnover has increased by 10.6% (compared with April...

COMMENT: What price sustainability.
November 6, 2008... What early-breakfast consumers made of the Farming Today series last week goodness only knows. Against the background of two producers quitting every day, the lowest production for 30 years and the on-going importation of 1m gap-filling...

Concern grows over freshnlo milk strategy.
November 6, 2008... Tesco's controversial Freshnlo deal once again created a stir this month following the retailer's 0.75ppl increase to its supplying farmers. Speaking at Tesco's Wiseman producer conference, the NFU's director general, Richard Macdonald, pulled...

NFSCo scraps membership fee.(National Fallen Stock Company )(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... The National Fallen Stock Company has announced plans to scrap its annual membership fee and to move to monthly "user pays" billing instead. From December 1, the #18.00 NFSCo annual membership fee will be replaced by a #1.75 monthly...

Defra introduce new NVZ number.(United Kingdom. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)(nitrate vulnerable zones )(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... Defra may have imposed a multi-million pound bill on farmers because of added nitrate controls, but now help is at hand thanks to a new `package of measures' for farmers. With farmers having to invest an estimated #50,000 each to enable them to...

Hayley gets new dairy role.
November 6, 2008... After five years the NFU's dairy policy adviser Tom Hind has moved on to take the role of the organisation's Economic and International Affairs adviser. Taking his place as the new chief adviser is Hayley Campbell-Gibbons, who has been working...

OFT astounds industry with Stilton competition referral.
November 6, 2008... In one of the most astonishing decisions to go against the dairy industry, The Office of Fair Trading has referred the miniscule purchase of Dairy Crest's Hartingdon Creamery by Long Clawson to The Competition Commission. The organisation said:...

First Milk refocuses creameries.
November 6, 2008... First Milk has announced it is "refocusing its cheese business" and, as a result, its two plants at Haverfordwest and Aspatria are shedding jobs. The moves are a reflection on dwindling milk supplies. However there was some better news for the...

Increasing your returns.
November 6, 2008... North-west producers are invited to an evening meeting at Reaseheath College to look at increasing returns without resorting to buying in expensive supplements. The panel will consist of well-known dairy farmers, a local vet, and Peter...

Differing fortunes of co-ops laid bare.
November 6, 2008... In moves that are being interpreted as a measure of widely differing business performance, Dairy Farmers of Britain has cancelled interest payments on member investments for the period April 1, 2008 to September 30, 2008, while Milk Link has...

COWMEN COMMENT: It's a mucky, dirty job, and there are unsociable hours.(Viewpoint essay)
November 6, 2008... A trip to the Global Dairy 500 conference in Kentucky may have offered Tim Gibson some welcome respite, but a small matter of steaming corn in the grain store was waiting on his return. As reported last month, I attended the Alltech Global...

Tackling the burping bovines and one legless Limousin bull.(Statistical data)
November 6, 2008... The Kiwis are trying to keep the grass greener on their side of the fence by reducing cow emissions as Sally Leaney has discovered. So Defra is to be culled. Will it be missed? I doubt it very much. Under the appalling stewardship of Mrs...

End of the line for trusty old baler does bring its bonuses.
November 6, 2008... It can be a lonely life down on the farm for Paul Higgins now the joyous community spirit of yesteryear has departed. Have you ever come across grass heads? The children have brought them back from school or Brownies over the years....

Damage limitation as a crisis of confidence hits DFB members.
November 6, 2008... Ian Potter takes a look at the latest goings-on in the dairy industry and contemplates the fate of dairying in the dragon's den. I initially wrote this article before leaving the office to watch England win their World Cup qualifying game...

EU NEWS: Refunds would help bridge the price gap.
November 6, 2008... Richard Wright reports on dairy industry news and developments in Europe, including the modest price increase and getting market support restored. Thanks to the numbers that have quit the UK dairy industry, farmers have enjoyed the...

Germans change conversion factor.(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... As the European Commission continues to insist that an increase in milk quotas will be part of the CAP health check, the German government has come up with a back door way to cut its milk quota. It is pushing through legislation that will...

Ministers' views on extra milk quota.
November 6, 2008... EU farm Ministers have confirmed that the allocation of additional milk quota will be the major obstacle to a deal on the health check review of the CAP. Stances range from demands to maintain quotas, to massively increase them now, or to avoid...

`No' to milk fund.
November 6, 2008... The European Commission has said it recognises that dairy farmers' incomes are under pressure, but it has rejected suggestions that a special `milk fund' should be set up to help farmers hit by poor prices. The Commission says member...

Choosy over imports.
November 6, 2008... EU farm commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, has admitted European farmers are hampered by regulations that do not apply in countries exporting into Europe. She said, however, that she would be `uncomfortable' with any attempts to impose EU...

LETTER: Neospora - fox or not?(Letter to the editor)
November 6, 2008... From: Simon Goss, s.goss@tiscali.co.uk I write to you to point out that an article written by Chris Watson may have made a mistake when writing on Neospora. I have just discovered my dairy herd has contracted this disease and it seems it is...

LETTER: Why the cost of buying into processing can be excessive.(Letter to the editor)
November 6, 2008... From: David Halhead, Newland Home Farm, Bay Horse, Nr Lancaster LA2 9AA. There has been some debate recently about the need for farmers to buy into processing but the cost to farmers for doing this is never really gone into. In the case of...

BREEDING: Kiwis enter the race to bring genomics to British farmers.
November 6, 2008... The theory of genomic selection is at last moving into commercial practice - UK milk producers will soon have access to a wide choice of young, genomically selected sires, as Ann Hardy reports. New Zealand genetics entering the UK next...

GENOMIC TECHNOLOGY.(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... * The genomic selection of livestock is based on the measurement of the animals' DNA, which can be taken from almost any cell in the body using, for instance hair, blood or semen. The measurement reveals a pattern based on different DNA...

BREEDING: Caution over genomics.
November 6, 2008... Geneticist Marco Winters cautions against the heavy use of genomically evaluated sires, describing them as `young bulls with a bit of extra information based on genomics'. "The reliability of their genetic evaluation is around 55-60% on...

Sell-out success of Cogent's bull selection scheme.(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... Cogent's innovative scheme to involve young dairy farmers in their process of bull selection has already proved to be a great success. The first bull to be chosen by the four young cattle breeding enthusiasts who were selected for the scheme...

Bringing elite genetics to UK with Kingstreet Sires.(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... A Cheshire farming family has set up its own semen selling company which promises to bring the world's most elite genetics to British farmers. And at the heart of Kingstreet Sires is one of the most renowned international Holsteins: the red and...

ANIMAL HEALTH: Keeping on top of Johne's with milk recording samples.
November 6, 2008... Johne's disease is a chronic wasting disease affecting dairy cattle and for which there is no known cure. It is on the increase in UK herds and Defra estimates around 50% of British herds may be infected. According to the Leicestershire...

ANIMAL HEALTH: NML launches first milk screening programme.
November 6, 2008... National Milk Laboratories' (NML) has launched the UK's first Johne's disease screening programme on milk samples. It is available to producers through their vets who can incorporate the screening as part of an on farm Johne's management plan....

ANIMAL HEALTH: Don't let pneumonia depress performance of your heifers.
November 6, 2008... With the peak pneumonia season fast approaching, Intervet/Schering- Plough Animal Health's veterinary advisor Rosemary Booth explains the new disease treatment landscape. Last year results from a major study conducted in association...

Using sand as winter bedding to keep infection rates down.
November 6, 2008... For the Tregibby herd, with over 60 years of breeding behind them, maintaining good herd health is fundamentally important. Debbie James reports on how Hefyn and Ffion Wilson make sure everything is in order. A Pembrokeshire milk producer...

ANIMAL HEALTH: Lungworm makes comeback.
November 6, 2008... Vet Mark Burnell of Synergy Farm Health at Southfield Veterinary Centre, Dorchester, tells us why lungworm is making a comeback on dairy farms. Sometimes on my rounds it seems to take a short while to tune into a seasonal problem, then I...

ANIMAL HEALTH: High kill rates of key mastitis pathogens.
November 6, 2008... Boehringer Ingelheim has launched a new broad spectrum mastitis antibiotic tube, which will deliver high kill rates for all the major mastitis pathogens. Ubrolexin? is the first new mastitis therapy in the UK with a unique combination of two...

DAIRY SHOW: Imports waiting to come in to plug short home market.
November 6, 2008... Despite having to think about third-cut silage and maize harvest, farmers turned out in their droves for the Dairy Show at Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Peter Hollinshead reports. Just as Milk Link and Tesco announced their price increases,...

DAIRY SHOW: Farm vet practices to merge.(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... Two West Country farm vet practices are merging to offer what is believed to be the first professionally monitored replacement heifer rearing system in the country. The large animal side of the Crewkerne-based Kingfisher Veterinary...

DAIRY SHOW: Low cost grazing leads couple to award victory.
November 6, 2008... It was third time lucky for Neville and Suzanne Loder, who swept ahead this year to take the coveted South-west Dairy Farmer of the Year award. The couple from Dairy Farm, Oborne, Dorset, only started milking in March 2000 on a County...

DAIRY SHOW: Supplement could bring extra four litres a day.
November 6, 2008... Mexican trials with a new feed supplement are showing a staggering milk lift of four litres a day and a drop of 57 days that cows are open, with culling rates being slashed in half. The new TMR supplement, currently being trialled on four...

DAIRY SHOW: Getting more milk from maize.
November 6, 2008... When it comes to measuring the value of maize, what producers really want is more milk. That is the opinion of seed merchant David Bright, who has just secured the sole UK marketing rights for Syngenta's latest forage maize variety NK Smile....

DAIRY SHOW: Beware poor samples of cereals this autumn.
November 6, 2008... Milk producers offered cereals this autumn for animal feed should inspect the sample carefully before deciding to purchase. "There are some poor samples about this year," warned Penrith-based independent nutritionist Jerry Trowbridge. "You...

DAIRY SHOW: Ayrshires back with a bang.(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... For the first time in 12 years an Ayrshire took the supreme championship at the Dairy Show, with the astonishing score of 50 out of 50. Five-year-old Sandyford Clover 10 was bred by its exhibitor E T Tomlinson from Loughborough, Leicestershire....

DAIRY SHOW: Dairy award for Nicholls.(Barry Nicholls of Milk Link Ltd.)(Brief article)
November 6, 2008... Winner of the prestigious Dairy Industry Award this year is former Milk Link chief executive Barry Nicholls. The award is made in recognition of an individual's outstanding contribution to the development of the industry in 2008. Mr...

MILK PRICES: Autumn price increases average 1ppl.
November 6, 2008... Confirmed autumn milk price increases appear to be averaging around 1ppl. Tesco was the first milk buyer to move on milk price adding 0.75ppl for members of The Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group (TSDG) who have signed up to Promar costings (about a...

WORKSHOP TIPS: Improving AI facilities needn't cost a fortune.
November 6, 2008... As we are constantly being told, protracted calving intervals cost money but maybe better AI facilities would go some way to improving things. The journey of a sperm from straw to egg may not be very far, but it can be difficult. Any...

GOOD EVANS: For whom the cow bell tolls.(Viewpoint essay)
November 6, 2008... This month Roger Evans juggles with dirty water, secures a good deal on his calves and finally gets his hands on a Swiss cow bell. Years of meticulously-kept records (that I scrupulously convert into statistics) prove beyond any shadow of...