Waste not, want not
In February we reported on preliminary results from a pilot study that Alltech carried out in dairy farms across England and Wales, in conjunction with leading industry experts. The study highlighted the scale of the feed wastage issue, said Ian Leach, retail programs manager with that company.
“What we are highlighting is that the feed losses on average are considerable. If you work on the basis that these herds are housed for an average of a 200-day winter-feeding period, then across this pilot study group of 34 farms, the minimal losses identified were just short of £160,000 (US$206K) of feed losses per farm.
"Of the 34 farms, the group average was 181 herd size, with annual milk output of 1.6 million liters; so for this group alone, that equates to £5,5m worth of feed losses in total,” he told this publication.
That research also confirmed there is scope for huge improvement across the spectrum of UK dairy farms, particularly in relation to feed conversion efficiency (FCE) improvements, he said.
