As we approach the upcoming lambing season, it is important to carefully manage each factor contributing to your ewes’ nutrition and overall health to help improve conception rates at joining, increase the lambing percentage and maximise your breeding profitability. Simply put, ewes in a good...
One strategy to improve farm profitability within a sheep breeding enterprise is to improve conception rates at joining to increase the lambing percentage. Providing the key nutritional requirements for ewes and rams prior to and during joining, whilst undertaking simple management strategies can ensure better...
Is Pregnancy Toxaemia Affecting Your Flock? Pregnancy Toxaemia is a metabolic disorder in ruminants that is a result of a high carbohydrate or energy demand by the foetus exceeding what the mother can supply from her diet during the last trimester of pregnancy. Pregnancy Toxaemia is...
Interesting Facts Magnesium (Mg) is a silvery white and very light metallic element found abundantly in nature; it occurs naturally, but only in combination with other elements, such as carbon, calcium, and oxygen, and is a crucial macro mineral. Magnesium was discovered in 1808 by...
Interesting Facts Zinc is a bluish-silvery metal that is mined in about 40 countries. Zinc is found everywhere in daily life; in every cell of the animal body (it’s the second most abundant trace mineral after iron), it is estimated to comprise 0.004% of the Earth’s...
The Importance of calcium for the breeding cow There have been a number of reports this season of breeders in good condition, experiencing calving losses. In most cases, these animals are up to date with vaccinations and veterinary investigation has ruled out any underlying diseases. In...
Interesting Facts Calcium is a necessary component of all living things and is also abundant in non-living things, particularly those that help support life, such as soil and water (Pedersen, 2020). Calcium was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1808 in London and the name...
Introduction Vitamins are nutrients that animals require in very small quantities for normal growth and maintenance of life, and the requirements for each differ considerably. Vitamins are involved in metabolic processes as co-factors in energy, protein and fat utilisation as antioxidants, assisting in the uptake of...
Interesting Facts Phosphorus (P) was discovered in 1669 by Hennig Brand when he extracted it from buckets of urine and because the substance glowed in the dark, he initially called it “cold fire”. Due to its reactive nature, and its use in poisons and nerve agents,...
When horses bolt down concentrate feeds they are not chewing as thoroughly as what they do hay or grass, and this decreases saliva production and if feed is not moistened thoroughly, they may be at risk of choke. Here are a few things to try to...
Be Ready for the Heat! We are coming into Summer and it’s that time of year where we start cranking up those air conditioners. Like us, animals also suffer from the effects of heat and now is the time to start preparing or thinking about how...
What is Sulphur? Sulphur (S) comes from the Latin word sulphurium, meaning ‘burning stone’ or, as it is colloquially termed throughout history, ‘brimstone’. Sulphur is a chemical element found near hot springs or in large quantities of rock located in various volcanic regions all over the...
