Bulk Blown Delivery schedule for Winter 2011 is as follows:

Monday: West of Ireland deliveries

Tuesday: Kilbeggan, Mullingar, Kinnegad, Rochfortbridge, Tyrellspass areas.

Wednesday: South Offaly & North Tipperary.

Thursday: West Offaly & South Co. Westmeath. ie Cloghan, Ferbane, Shannonbridge, Ballinacarrigy, Rosemount & Moate areas.

Friday: Co.Laois & North / East Co. Offaly.

To ensure you get your delivery on time, please make sure to place your order before 1pm on the previous day. We will endeavour to deliver late orders as soon as possible, taking into consideration other deliveries in the area. Apart from bag or bulk blown deliveries, Bulk Feed is also available TIPPED by tractor and 12ton trailer. Minimum quantities will apply depending on distance from mill.

The feeding value of maize is determined largely by its starch and overall dry matter content. Final starch content is largely determined at this stage, but you can influence the final dry matter content. Do so by allowing the crop time to mature. Aim to have all the starch in the grain become at least cheesy ripe before harvesting. Ripe cobs should be hard, bright yellow and with a trace of milky starch at the tip of the seed.

Generally, crop dry matters will increase by about 2% per week from now on, so in general crops can be left in the field until late Oct /early Nov. Dry matters tend to increase rapidly after the first night’s frost because the frost kills the plant and therefore has much the same effect as mowing down a meadow for hay. But you do need to harvest the crop within 10 – 14 days of that frost.

Winter barley

Sowing should be finished by Oct 15th. Any remaining fields should be sown at 11 stone per acre. Annisette is the only variety left.

Winter Oats

 Seed is very scarce, small amount of Barra and Mascani left. The optimum time to sow winter oats is October 15th, but try and have it sown before the end of October, because we learned from the last 2 years that the more advanced crops had a better root system, therefore better anchorage in the ground, and were not as susceptible to the severe frost heave that occurred. Seedrate of 9.5 stone per acre is sufficient, but later sowings will need to be uped to 10.5 stone.

Winter Wheat

Growers are forgetting about the importance of a good rotation with wheat. You need fertile ground and preferably after grass or a break crop like beans. Remember the importance of latitude from year 2 to 5 after a break crop. Take-all was quite rampant this year. You have take-all decline from year 5, but it increases in severity up to year 5.Can be sown well into November, but the optimum time to sow is October 15th, Sow at 9 stone per acre, but increase seed rates for later sown. After October use faster maturing varieties like Einstein & Cordiale.

Aphicide timing on winter cereals is critical in order to combat this virus. Serious BYDV has the potential to cause losses of up to 40%

• Cereals sown in Sept & Early Oct must be sprayed at 2 to 4 leaf stage and possibly again in early Nov, if the weather remains mild.

• Crops sown from mid Oct onwards to mid Nov, one aphicide should suffice at 2 to 4 leaf stage.

• Crops sown from mid-Nov onwards, provided temperatures are low should not require aphicide.

• Contact products like Sumi-Alpha are recommended.

Aphid multiplication is favoured from temperatures of 10 to 18 degrees, so temperatures lower than this will help cut down on numbers.

Monday: Wholesale deliveries

Tuesday: Kinnitty, Clareen, Coolderry, Birr, Carrig, Lorrha, Rathcabbin, Banagher, Cloghan

Wednesday: Kilbeggan, Ballinagore, R’Fortbridge, Tyrellspass, Castletowngeoghegan, Mullingar.

Thursday: Mountrath, Clonaslee, Rosenallis, Mountmellick, Emo, Portarlington, Killeigh, Geashill, Daingean, Rhode, Edenderry.

Friday: Belmont, Ferbane, Shannonbridge, Athlone, Moate, Rosemount, Horseleap, Blueball, Rahan, Ballycumber, Tullamore, Clara.

To calculate the volume in pits in metres cubed (m3), multiply the average height by the average length by the average width and from the following graph you can figure out the volume of fodder you have.

Due to the strange weather patterns of recent times, it is hard to calculate the amount of fodder you need, but it is simpler to calculate an animal’s intake.

 Beef cattle will consume 2% of their bodyweight in dry matter daily, this means a 500kg bullock will consume 10kg of DM.

Shop Specials available this month include:

• Savage value on fluke & worm dosing

• Acorn Acomec pour-on available in 1lt, 2.5lt & 5lt

• Acomec 500ml injection only €35euro

• Bimectin Plus 500ml injection (fluke/worms) at €125euro.

• 20 space galv. ring feeder €1666euro (vat incl.)

• 8ft double galv. cattle trough €145euro (vat incl.)

• Now stocking a large selection of treated larch stakes.

Performance:

Animal performance is totally linked to feed intake of dry matter and feed quality. Intake of poor silage (60% DMD) versus excellent (75% DMD) can be reduced by over 25%. It would be fair to say that less than 10% of silage pits are analysed each year, and so we carry-on feeding a forage with no idea of its quality. The message is simple, get a sample of your home saved feed, bring it to us, we will get it analysed and our nutritionists will discuss the best and most viable way for you to feed your animals this winter.
An animals diet must be made up of energy, protein, fibre and minerals/vitamins

Energy, protein, fibre and minerals and vitamins:

Energy is the most limiting in the diet as 60 to 80% of it is used for maintenance and thus any energy surplus to maintenance is what the animal thrives on.

Protein is very important for growth and repair, which means in a fully grown animal, it’s requirement is greatly reduced. Protein is expensive and feeding surplus protein leads to an increased need for energy to breakdown and excrete the excess. Protein requirement in bulls is higher than steers or heifers due to a greater deposition of lean meat.
Crude Protein % required in finishing diets:
Bulls Growing 14-15%
Bulls Finishing 12-13%
Steers 11-12%
Heifers 11-12%

Fibre is essential in the diet to maintain normal body function and must make up 10% of the diet, in the form of long stemmy fibre like straw or stemmy silage.

Minerals & vitamins are essential for bone formation, mammary development, immunity against respiratory infections and healthy hair and hoof. Finishing Cattle on high concentrates are vulnerable to acidosis and associated lameness but this can be prevented by providing the correct macro minerals to maintain pH stability in the rumen.

Concentrate Feeding:
Feeding high levels of concentrates is very simple and requires very little work. The highest level of feed intake is attained from concentrate feeding. It works very well but a few simple management tools are essential. Slow and careful adaption is important in introducing animals to high concentrate levels. A rise of 1kg every four days must be maintained on route to ad-lib, and high levels with forage should ideally be split between morning and evening if not fed as a total mixed ration (TMR).

If changing diets, it is important to mix the diets for a few days prior to complete changeover. Access to long fibre like straw or stemmy silage is also required, along with clean, fresh water to maintain optimum rumen function and avoid acidosis. With ad-lib, it is essential that animals never run out of meal, as they will gorge themselves.

Nugget rations are particularly well suited to ad-lib feeding as they all contain yeasacc, which is of huge benefit to the rumen. Yeasacc helps stabilize the rumen, and therefore decrease the risk of acidosis, which occurs from the rapid breakdown of starch and the lowering of rumen p.H. Many trials have shown that the inclusion of yeast in rations can boost live-weight gain by up to 10%.

Following shows the advantage of feeding hi-levels of concentrates, in a finishing period where we aim to achieve 80-90kg of carcass gain, along with ad-lib silage
Conc.(kg/day) Carcass gain kg) Days to finish
2 0.40 200
4 0.54 148
6 0.75 107
8 0.80 100
10 0.95 84
12(ad-lib) 1.00 80

Nugget Super Bullbeef is perfect for this level of feeding followed by Hi-Maize beef finisher for the last ten weeks of finishing to cope with the increased energy demand of the beef animal at that stage.
Hi-Maize comes with a superb mineral which includes an increased rate of zinc, to protect hoofs in high concentrate diets and also a digestibility enhancer.

Beat the threat of pneumonia with Pulmosure!

Pulmosure is a new cost-effective support for animals in the fight against pneumonia, for use in a preventative manner. It is a new and clever way of dealing with the problem and has no withdrawal period.

• It works via an anti-bacterial effect.
• Stimulates specific immunity, supports a specific immune response.
• Facilitates easier breathing.
• Increases mucous production and therefore the removal of harmful pneumonia causing bacteria.

It comes in a 7kg bucket, which will treat 28 by 200kg weanlings for 10 days.
Dosage rate is 12.5grams per 100kg of bodyweight.
It is an extremely palatable powder which can be either mixed with meal or dusted on top of the feed.
Available from all our branches and now included in
Super Weanling Crunch + Lung Boost.
Feeding levels of 1kg per 100kg of liveweight per head per day for 10-14 days.