Lack of available nearby land is a frequent restraint on farm expansion but a South Canterbury couple reckon they've found a solution. Mark and Amelia Dale have invested in an Australian-designed feed system for chitting barley with a tailor-made nutrient mix reports The Rural News. The result, the Australian promoters say, is a feed which produces substantially better livestock performance than a dry barley or similar supplement. Greater weight gains and conception rates in sheep, cattle and deer are claimed, but the evidence is largely anecdotal and Australian to date. With the help of nutritionist Garth Nielsen-Vold of Vetlife, Ashburton, the Dales aim to correct that, for sheep and cattle at least. "˜The whole idea of the trial is that it is run in conjunction with a normal New Zealand system,' says Neilson-Vold. Two mobs of 50 randomly selected one-year-old Friesian bulls will be fed either as they would be on the farm, on pasture or kale, or on breaks half the normal size with fodder from the feed system plus hay/straw roughage making up the balance. A third mob of 20 is being confined in the equivalent of a feedlot situation and fed entirely on FodderTech feed plus roughage. The initial work will use FodderTech's rule of thumb allocation of 2% of liveweight of fodder plus 1% of liveweight as dry roughage. Weights in all trials will be taken fortnightly to gain a mob average and range figures so top and bottom performance can also be tracked. Bloods and liver samples are also planned. FodderTech general manager Sue Korevaar says it wouldn't be surprising to see a slight dip in performance as livestock transition to the feed but later growth rates should compensate. Their $315,000, fully-insulated and air conditioned shed has been operating for a couple of months and bar an initial hitch with some low germination barley, it's now pumping out 2.5t/day of feed with costs close to FodderTech's predictions. "˜We've just had the power bill for the first six weeks. It was $1480,' says Mark. Labour at about six hours/day to feed out from 56 trays, clean and reseed them is also more or less in line with FodderTech's 3.5 hours/day prediction for the 1.25t/day shed. With their 2.5t/day shed the Dale's plan to run 200 more finishing cattle and an extra 1000 lambs per year.
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