At Alltech, a primary focus in RWA feed development is achieving an ideal stomach pH in pigs after weaning. This starts digestive enzyme secretion as soon as possible, leaving less undigested nutrient for pathogens, explains Aimé Roy, Alltech technical swine liaison in Canada.

What can I do to help protect myself and my coworkers at my dairy? Alltech's Dairy On-Farm Support website provides fact sheets in both English and Spanish. 

As COVID-19 continues to spread across the country, it’s likely your employees have questions about the virus. Fortunately, Jorge Delgado Alltech’s dairy employee training expert, put together a fact sheet that can help all employees understand the virus and what they can do to help prevent it on the farm. 

Click here for full article. 

David Collier and his team run a busy beef finishing and tillage farm in Kilbride, Co. Carlow. He finishes over 600 beef cattle every year and the vast majority of his feed is grown on his own farm.

“Pulp nuts and hipro soya are the only feedstuff I buy in,” says David. “Otherwise, we incorporate home-grown barley, wheat, oat, beans, maize, straw and silage into our ration. Every day, 6.2 tonne of beet is chopped and mixed into the total mixed ration (TMR). This way, we don’t need a separate beet chopper.”

David was a long-time owner of a 14 m³ KEENAN Klassik. But, after 12 years of service, he traded it in against a bigger, 17 m³ KEENAN Approved MechFiber350 used paddle mixer.

“The KEENAN reliability is something I don’t want to miss,” explains David. “We use the machine 365 days a year, this is why I went for a KEENAN machine.”

The MechFiber350, with a high feed-out, has everything that David was looking for — a Hardox-hardened steel liner to prolong the life of the mixing chamber and a bale handler to incorporate bales into his ration.

“Straw and silage bales are quickly dissolved in the bale handler and incorporated into the TMR,” David remarks. “The mix quality with the new machine turns out to be better because of the bigger capacity.”

As an additional feature, David added reflective strips onto the machine and supporting beams in his shed. A light connected to the machine illuminates the reflective materials and makes manoeuvring the machine in tight feed passages easier.

David’s experience attests to the longevity and quality of KEENAN diet feeders. He was able to find the perfect machine for his farm requirements with a KEENAN Approved used machine.

By Dr. Kayla Price, Alltech Canada technical manager 

Over the years, improving genetics have allowed poultry to become more efficient at growth and development in the egg and on the farm. Additionally, producers are becoming more efficient at managing production of the breeders and the offspring.

AMAIZE® encourages ruminal digestion for better nutrient utilization, supporting rumen development while enhancing ruminant productivity.

Global animal feed production decreased by 1.07% to 1.126 billion metric tons in 2019 – the first decline in nearly a decade, Alltech reported in its annual Global Feed Survey. The drop is attributed to the impact of African swine fever (ASF) and the related decrease in swine feed production, which fell by 11% globally, but by more than 26% in Southeast Asia.

Saving time, creating a good quality TMR ration and improving milk quality were some of the challenges Jeremy O’Toole successfully tackled last year. Jeremy runs a 40/60 autumn/spring calving herd with 230 cows in Tullow, Co. Carlow. He plans on reducing cow numbers to between 170–180 in a bid to reduce his heavy workload and achieve a better work/life balance.

One way of achieving time savings was by replacing his second-hand MechFiber340 with a larger KEENAN MechFiber360.

“This is the best machine we have had so far,” says Jeremy. The bigger machine doesn’t only reduce feeding time; it also creates a better mix. A higher capacity machine offers more room in the mixing chamber to create an even and consistent mix that’s light and fluffy. Jeremy remarked that they saw an improvement within the mix itself — the smaller machine was overloaded, negatively impacting the mix quality.

With the improved mix quality produced by the bigger machine, Jeremy saw a subsequent improvement in milk quality — yield and solids — and, most noticeably for him, herd health.

“We had no milk fever since early 2017 and very few occurrences of holding the afterbirth,” explains Jeremy. He attributes this to the combination of the KEENAN machine and the InTouch nutrition support.

Regular maintenance of the machine is something Jeremy takes seriously — every fortnight the machine will be greased, and the oil is topped up. “We want to prevent a machine break-down. Cows are fed every day. We can’t afford to have the machine stop.” Once a year, Martin Nolan, KEENAN service engineer for the South East, services the machine and gives it a full 40+ machine check-up.

The main reason Jeremy gets a regular service is to avoid downtime. Martin Nolan is also available anytime, should something go wrong during feeding season. At the yearly service, Martin flags any parts that need attention or replacing.

To make it even easier to achieve a good quality mix, Jeremy will be adding an AutoStop at the next service appointment. The AutoStop switches the PTO off, avoiding overmixing of the ration.

Jeremy summarises that “the machine does run better when a service is done.”