Meat processing and packing plants have temporarily closed or slowed line speeds as a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, causing backups on farms as many producers are unable to bring their animals to market on time.

These unprecedented times present new challenges for farmers. Restrictions of farm visits mean that it is harder for farmers to access the support they need to make the best of their production.

But help is still at hand. KEENAN, along with InTouch nutritionists, continue to work remotely, providing support and on-farm results for customers. In this challenging period, we are inviting new and existing customers to take part in our Proven Results Programme.

Young farmer seeing immediate results

Aaron Holden milks 120 British Friesian cows in a spring calving, grass-based system outside Piltown, Co. Kilkenny. Taking over the farm aged 18, after the passing of his father, Aaron has made significant strides toward a successful operation. He has doubled cow numbers and, in 2015, built a new milking parlour. When taking up the reins, Aaron identified improvements he wanted to make. One was to introduce a diet feeder — something he had never used before.

“My father used to dream about buying a KEENAN,” explained Aaron. “On the way home from the ploughing last year, I passed by the factory in Borris, and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to buy one of those’.”

A week later, Aaron agreed a deal on a KEENAN Approved MechFiber340 with a bale handler and KEENAN controller with the Intouch nutrition package. InTouch feeding specialist Mark Moloney now works closely with Aaron.

“Mark called out the first day and helped to get me set up,” Aaron said. “He looked at the cows and tested the silage. I’ve had two more visits since then, and he’s always at the end of the phone if I have any questions.”

Mark told Aaron that by implementing the Proven Results Programme he could:

• Increase MS by 40 kg per cow within one year.
• Reduce issues at calving.
• Reduce Negative Energy Balance in early lactation and improve breeding performance.

This has provided great results. Most notably, Aaron is impressed with the success of the transition period and improved performance in early lactation.

“All in all, the calving season went very well,” admitted Aaron. “The cows were in great order and calved down brilliantly. They also got going a lot quicker after calving as well. They have never been milking as well.”

Last year, Aaron’s herd produced 400 kg of MS. This year, he is targeting a 40 kg MS/cow increase. Current yield is 28 litres (3.98% butterfat, 3.38% protein). Early lactation production has grown, with an extra 30,490 litres of milk (2,352 kg’s MS)  compared to last year. This translates as an increase of 21 kg MS/ cow so far this year and Aaron looks well on his way to exceeding the 40kgMS/cow target.

Diet feeding provides options for grass-based farmer

Chris Catherwood farms in partnership with John and Jason Rankin, outside Newtownards in Co. Down. They milk 265 Holstein cows in a spring calving system. It is a shared milking arrangement, with Chris acting as farm manager.

Chris was crowned the 2018 Northern Ireland, Young Farmer of the Year. But along with this success, the Carrowdore native also faced challenges on-farm.

“We were very low on winter feed due to the drought conditions across the country in 2018,” explained Chris.

Chris began looking into diet feeding, leading him to begin working with KEENAN.

After contacting his KEENAN regional business manager, Gareth McAllister, Chris availed of the three-month rental scheme KEENAN was offering at the time. Seeing the benefits, Chris purchased a KEENAN MechFiber360 the following year.

While initially purchasing the machine to improve the farm’s adaptability after the drought, after speaking with Gareth, Chris identified other areas he wanted to address with KEENAN’s help, such as:

• Dry cow period.
• Maintaining milk solids during transition and early turnout.
• Increasing early lactation yield.
• Saving forage in winter.

Since purchasing his KEENAN machine, Chris has seen significant improvements in key areas of his farm business.

“We saw a massive saving in silage tonnage (300 tonnes) used by incorporating straw into the dry cow diet,” said Chris. “This allowed us to not only save silage (1 kg of straw saved 5 kg of silage) but also improve cow body condition. Cows have calved down extremely well and intakes within the first 30 days of calving have increased rapidly”.

“The increase in milk production from this has been incredible,” Chris added. “Cows are currently averaging 30.5 L/day out at grass, night and day, only being buffer-fed TMR for a short time after each milking.”

These results were achieved through working closely with InTouch feeding specialist, Aislinn Campbell, and following the Proven Results Programme. Current yield is 30.4 litres (4.51% fat, 3.3% protein). Previously, yield was 28.4 litres (4.31% butterfat, 3.10% protein). This translates as a 2 litres/cow/day (0.28 kg MS/cow/day) production increase.

Total production between 2018 and 2019 increased from 565 kg MS/cow to 594 kg MS/cow, with concentrate usage down 273 kg/cow. (Note that concentrate usage was high during the 2018 drought year.) Chris’ production looks set to increase significantly again this year.

The KEENAN Proven Results Programme is available to both new and existing customers. Contact your KEENAN regional business manager today for a free remote farm assessment. Take a look at some of our models in our new virtual showroom.

Alltech has always been ahead of the curve as an animal health company and they are leading the way when it comes to response to the COVID-19.

If you have googled, “Is cabin fever a real thing?” in the past few weeks, you are not alone! Forced to restrict our movements, it is reasonable to feel claustrophobic and a little out of our depth.

Parents are trying to do their best to entertain and educate kids in these strange new times, but with so many resources available for kids, both online and offline, it is easy to get overwhelmed. So, we thought it would be helpful to round-up our current favourite online resources for children — farm-themed, of course!

Here are our current picks!

Design your own ear tag

Dalton Tags have launched a fun initiative where children can design their own cattle ear tag. Click here to visit Dalton Tags competition section. Download the entry form and get your kids designing. Two winners will each receive their design on a personalised keyring with a bag of goodies. Move quickly though — closing date is May 10. Under 16s only!

Countryside Classroom

The Countryside Classroom has lots of free resources with themes of food, farming and the natural environment. Created to provide resources for teachers and home-schoolers, this attractive website allows you to search thousands of pieces of quality-assured educational content, representing the very best-in-class. The ability to filter the search results by age is a significant time-saver!

We especially like their Home Education HUB: Activities for Spring, which includes inspirational ideas on springtime activities to support home educators. As the weather improves, why not try their Outdoor Magic Number Square. All you need are sticks, chalk and to get the kids to gather up individual tokens (pebbles, leaves, etc.). A magic number square is a grid in which every row, column and diagonal adds up to the same number (the magic number).

Cocoon your kids – literally!  

In the current fear of scarcity, it may be unwise to wrap your child in toilet paper! However, Castlecomer Discovery Park in Ireland has created a beautiful page of resources based on the theme of cocooning and butterflies.

What a lovely way for kids to discover why their grandparents or someone close to them is cocooning!

By exploring the lifecycle of a butterfly, children learn why cocooning is an essential part of the butterfly’s life. The attractive resource also has instructions on making your own cocoon (from a toilet roll holder), colouring in a pre-coded butterfly, completing some butterfly maths challenges and exploring the garden for cocoons.

Genus ABS

We love this idea from Genus ABS, which is available on their Facebook page. This fun activity combines cutting, colouring and collage to produce a fine-looking paper cow! With five breeds to choose from, you can encourage your children to make an entire herd if they wish. Safety first — for the younger kids, do not forget to supervise the cutting with scissors!

JCB Kids

JCB Kids is the official JCB kids Facebook page for families with young JCB fans. JCB is the third-largest manufacturer of construction equipment globally, with 22 factories around the world. Their signature yellow machinery is a favourite among fans, both young and old.

We loved their short animation clips so much that we posted them onto our own KEENAN Kids page. The four short animations are around 15 seconds long, and each clip poses a question to encourage close observation. We admit to a little bias, as one of the clips features an animated KEENAN diet feeder!

Alltech at Home

Alltech has just launched a new initiative, Alltech at Home, which is sure to keep the family entertained during this period! Here you will find a whole bunch of farm- and animal-themed activities and games, specially designed with all ages in mind!

Keep an eye on this page, as it will be regularly updated with new materials to help bring a bit more fun to your day!

​​​​​​​We hope you like our round-of materials for this week. Check out our KEENAN Kids page for some additional material. Feel free to share with your friends. Stay home, stay safe!

We are recruiting a team leader to ensure smooth and efficient operation, communicate company goals, safety practices and targets to the team. They will also continually develop and make improvements in their area and achieve essential production and quality targets.

KEENAN part of the Alltech Group are leaders in the field of feed efficiency technology and the manufacture of the KEENAN range of diet feeders. A growing global company, we are looking for MIG welders / fabricator welders to join our manufacturing facility at Borris, Co. Carlow.

COVID-19 is affecting us all. As part of the global food supply chain, the aquafeed industry has not escaped the impacts of these unprecedented times. Patrick Charlton, CEO of Alltech Coppens, summed up the situation: “As with all food sectors, the impact varies from region to region and country to country. Markets primarily dependent on export have been the first to see declines in demand and are responding accordingly. Producers are adapting by managing their stocks to prevent an oversupply,” he told Aquafeed.com.

Thank you for submitting the form! A KEENAN team member will be in touch soon!

We have launched this Virtual Showroom with video overviews of many of our machines to ensure our team can continue to support you in your new machine research, decision-making and purchase process.

We understand that it can be difficult to make investment decisions when market conditions are challenging and have several support initiatives in place as follows:

• We can remotely value your trade-in machine
• We have a range of attractive finance plans available
• We offer flexible payment options – such as deferred payment

Reach out with any questions – our team are available via our contact form, phone or email and are happy to help with any queries you may have.

KEENAN MechFiber^® Range

KEENAN Vertical Auger Range

KEENAN Self-Propelled Range

Safeguarding herd health by supporting a balanced microbial profile to target complete gut health

Sustaining a healthy gut involves much more than protecting your dairy herd from potentially deadly issues, such as hemorrhagic bowl syndrome; it means maintaining the right amount of beneficial bacteria in both the rumen and the lower digestive tract to improve performance and reduce the need for costly therapeutic treatments. Select BAC includes a blend of Alltech’s technologies, along with Bacillus licheniformis and other direct-fed microbials, to target complete gut health and stability.