Cashing in on goat fibre
Last month's inaugural New Zealand Cashmere Conference saw the opening of a new fibre processing facility.
Dairy goat farmers should carefully plan the feed requirements during the lead up to transition and the early lactation period.
How you manage the nutrition at the different stages of this period will need to change constantly as the requirements change, but every stage of this period is equally important in order to maintain a healthy productive animal into the next lactation.
Read: Keeping ketosis away from goats.
Correct transitioning should see us preparing the animal for the stresses leading up to the birth and then supplying adequate nutrition to support the heavy demands of early lactation. A failure at any stage will have serious consequences and will increase potential losses and negatively impact production during the following lactation.
Things that should be done:
1. Plan feed demands well in advance, ensuring feed levels will be adequate and of the right quality for each part of the season: the dry period, the transition, and the early lactation periods. If feeding silages, make sure that these are lactic acid fermented silages. With correct fermentation good quality silage will not contain butyric acid. The correct silage inoculant can be very beneficial to ensure a correct fermentation and a better quality final product.
2. Make sure animals are well conditioned without being over conditioned at the end of lactation and during the dry period.
3. Plan to feed increased levels of energy leading up to birth, and then plan to rapidly increase energy levels once lactation is underway, while all the time taking precautions against acidosis.
4. Carefully consider the correct balance of minerals, vitamins and amino acids required -- those being delivered through the feeds naturally, as well as supplementation of additional quantities into the feed. These will be very important co-factors in efficiently utilising the feed.
Certain key amino acids and vitamins, while not taking the place of adequate feeding, are essential to the production of energy and the utilisation of dietary protein.
In the scientific world these are called methyl donors; they are essential at the cell level in energy production as well as the utilisation of protein.
Methyl donors of most importance to ruminants are choline, methionine, betaine, vitamin B12, and vitamin B2.
• Chris Balemi is managing director of Agvance Nutrition. www.agvance.co.nz
As a farmer it is important to carefully plan the feed requirements during the lead up to transition and the early lactation period.
One of the country's leading experts on China has praised the NZ Government for its handling of the recent incident with China over that country's cyber attack on two of our parliamentary institutions in 2021.
The world’s largest wool processing facility, badly damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle over one year ago, has re-opened following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project.
Kiwi rugby star Renee Holmes is set for a fruitful year.
A new report has revealed the full impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on Hawke’s Bay’s principals and teachers.
The Commerce Commission says connectivity options for rural New Zealanders are front-of-mind as it begins a formal investigation into the future of the copper network.
Grand Finalists have been selected, all regional finals have concluded, and the journey towards the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final is underway.