Winter of discontent in the pipeline for livestock

THE next six months are set to be expensive for most livestock farmers, according to Stuart Somerville, the business services manager with the Scottish Agricultural College.

He said: "This will be a challenging winter for many Scottish livestock producers and farmers should be planning their feeding strategies now. Variable forage quality and higher cereal prices mean that feeding costs will be significantly higher than normal. On some farms foot-and-mouth movement restrictions also resulted in less autumn grass and stock going into the winter in poorer body condition than normal.

"As a result it will be more important than ever to get forage independently analysed and have cost-effective rations prepared. The temptation to reduce supplementary feed levels must be resisted if performance is to be maintained and welfare problems avoided."

According to Somerville, forage analysis and ration formulation using SAC's "Feedbyte" system can establish the composition and daily quantities of supplementary feeding required for optimum performance.