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Listen to farmer Darren McMurran discussing how working with InTouch, KEENAN and Alltech has helped him maximise his milk from forage while improving rumen health on his dairy farm in Banbridge, Co. Down.

Working to improve rumen health

Have you ever considered how well your cattle’s diet is performing? Is it being utilised as efficiently as possible? Feed represents up to 70% of beef and dairy production costs. If feed is not being utilised efficiently by the animal, it not only can be a considerable cost but can also lead to less milk produced in dairy cows or reduced weight gain in beef cattle.

Carrying out a simple digestion analysis, also called manure sieving, can provide information on how well the animals’ feed is being utilised while helping to identify the amount of undigested feed passing through the animal. Finding a lot of grains or large fibre particles in the manure can indicate that the feed is not being retained in the rumen for an adequate amount of time or that it is not fully utilised while there. The digestion analysis can provide information on rumen health or how well your cattle are digesting the diet. It can also help diagnose areas for improvement in both ration formulation and the management of the herd.