GAIN Momentum Programme

PROGRAMME

About the programme

From Tirlán, GAIN Animal Nutrition is the animal feed brand trusted by customers to provide a wide range of expertly formulated feeds for your farming needs.

Our ‘GAIN Momentum Programme’ has been developed to add tangible value, increase efficiency, environmental performance and profitability on farm. This is a results driven integrated programme comprised of four main categories; Great Grass, Herd Nutrition, Herd Health and Milk Solids. Our GAIN Business Managers will work collaboratively with you on farm to ensure you are maximising your farm’s potential.

HERD NUTRITION

PROGRAMME PROGRAMME

Soil Analysis

Tirlán FarmLife provide a standard soil sampling service along with a new comprehensive “Soil Nutrition Programme”. This new programme allows the creation of a practical nutrient management plan that will benefit your farm. Using a tailored nutrient product solution, this plan can support better on-farm decision making in correcting lime deficiency and maximising slurry usage. In addition, any product recommendation provided, will focus on best environmental practice. This programme is designed for you with the support of our Business Managers.

Forage Analysis

Home-saved forage will be sampled & analysed with our NIR4 machines on a regular basis, by our Business Managers. Results are given for Protein, pH, DMD, ash, NDF & PDIN, PDIE, PDIA and likely performance for different groups of animals. Mineral analysis can be completed separately in order to tailor specific recommendations for your farm. These results are inputted into your overall nutrition programme.

Grass Analysis

Our Business Manager team will walk your farm and advise on how to maximise grass within the cow’s diet. This includes discussions on grassland measuring, grass analysis (which includes mineral profiling), and using the best quality grass varieties on the market in order to increase efficiency within your herd. As part of “Great Grass”, our Business Manager team will be able to access your farms performance against industry standards and make recommendations in order to drive efficiency.

Ireland has a natural resource of almost four million hectares of grassland which combined with our mild, moist and changeable climate allow us to grow abundant grass, and produce milk naturally and at low cost.

We are currently not optimising grass production and utilisation. Teagasc research indicates that the current levels of grass growth can be increased significantly.

Our Great Grass programme is here to help you improve soil nutrition and grassland yields.

Our expert team of Business Managers will formulate a suitable diet for your herd. Using real data we gather from your forage, coupled with your milk data, we then formulate a diet to suit the needs of your herd. Diets are developed for the full lifecycle of the animal, from calf pen to parlour.

Heifer Rearing

Heifer calves, as the milking cows of the future, are a priority group of animals on the farm and their management in the first weeks and months of life will have a significant impact on both their lifetime production and on the long-term profitability of the dairy herd. Heifers that start milking at 24 months and achieve target growth rates will have the ability to realise their full genetic potential within the herd. Calving heifers at 22 - 26 months of age is a key performance indicator to improving lifetime production and increasing farm profit. We have developed our own GAIN Dairy Heifer Rearing Programme that outlines key milestones and practices that you should implement on farm throughout the lifecycle of the heifer. This programme has specific emphasis on animal health, nutrition and husbandry.

Lactation Performance

Lactation performance is optimised by grazing quality grass. Grass measurement is important to manage grass supply and allows surpluses to be taken out, surplus in the form of quality silage. Cows must be fed high quality forage to

reach their potential. Our Business Managers using their NIR4 device will analyse grass and forage quality, as animal intake during the breeding season will have a big impact on both production and fertility performances. The dry cow period alongside transition cow management around calving are both very important. It is critical to feed a high quality pre-calver mineral during the dry period to achieve a calving season free from metabolic issues such as milk fever, ketosis, displaced abomasum, retained placenta, fatty liver syndrome and untimely reduced or delayed fertility. In Irish production systems, spring can be a stressful period, and setting the herd up to avoid any additional issues is a worthwhile consideration for everyone.

Rumenade

Our Business Managers use a bespoke diet formulation software package, ‘Rumenade’ on farm to facilitate diet formulation and output expectancy. Our Business Managers use this tool to ensure the herd’s requirements are being met, e.g. breed, cow live weight, typical output, stage of lactation, alternative feeds/forages available. Included in our GAIN Animal Nutrition feed range are a variety of feed additives that deliver added benefits in the form of, performance enhancement i.e. Novatan and the environment in relation to methane reduction i.e. Agolin. The overall aim being to optimise farm efficiency and milk solids.

Save money, enhance the environment!

HERD HEALTH

There are four key areas that define the overall health of your herd:

Herd Disease Screening

Many diseases can be screened for at herd level by testing a bulk-milk sample. The results will be representative of a large proportion of the adult dairy herd. Bulk milk testing is one of the easiest and most economical ways of screening your herd for infectious diseases. Screening a herd to identify the presence (or absence) of disease is the first step towards disease control. Once the disease status of the herd is established, steps can be taken to control it at farm level. Monitoring disease levels in the herd can be carried out by regular bulk milk screening during lactation. The following infectious diseases and parasites are currently included in Tirlán’s HDS programme:

Diseases:

• Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR)

• Salmonella

• Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD)

• Leptospirosis

• Neosporosis

Parasites:

• Liver Fluke

• Ostertagiosis (Stomach worm)

Anthelmintic Planning

Anthelmintics are convenient and reasonably priced but misuse can lead to the development of resistance, making them ineffective in the future. Monitoring parasites by faecal sampling youngstock can help in identifying the ideal time to use anthelmintics most effectively and keep an eye on product efficacy throughout the year. We offer a Faecal Egg Count service to help assist you on farm with your anthelmintic planning.

Vaccination Planner

MILK SOLIDS OPTIMISING PERFORMANCE AND OUTPUT

PROGRAMME PROGRAMME

Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways to control disease within your herd and reduce the need for antibiotics to treat illness. Vaccines, when given correctly provide optimum protection for the animal and have the potential to improve colostrum quality. Always ensure animals are in good health before vaccinating.

Vaccination, as disease control, works best when supported by additional on-farm protocols in biosecurity and diagnostic testing.

The cornerstones of good disease control are:

• Recording herd health status: keep up to date disease records, complete routine disease screens using bulk milk, individual milk or individual blood tests, good stockmanship

• Biosecurity/bio-containment: best practice needed especially when buying/selling animals and controlling visitor access to the yard and contact with animals

• Vaccination programme: Document all vaccines administered and ensure correct timing and dose rate

Our team of Business Managers will help you compile your vaccination planner each year, to ensure the right plan is in place for your farming requirements.

Udder Health

Dairy hygiene products include both dairy detergents and teat care products, these play an important role on your farm. Firstly, dairy detergents are required for effective cleaning of the milking machine and bulk tank. Secondly, teat care products are critical for teat hygiene and udder health. Teat disinfectants play a vital role in mastitis control and prevention by lowering the bacterial load on the teat skin, thereby reducing new infection rates by up to 50%. Milk culturing and sensitivity results provide the milk supplier with a useful management tool in choosing the most effective course of action in treating clinical and sub-clinical mastitis. It is essential to know which bacteria are present if such issues are to be resolved in a timely and effective manner. Our Milk Quality team in conjunction with our fully accredited laboratory can provide this service for you, to ensure the appropriate action is taken.

Our programme aims to assist you in improving your milk solids production. Our unique tool ‘Milkade’ will outline your milk solids supply pattern. Our dedicated Business Managers can recommend solutions to optimise your performance and output.

This programme focuses on milk solids produced per cow annually as well as milk solids produced per hectare. The main objective is to increase milk solids and therefore increase profitability. Increasing this figure will be dependent on multiple factors, which can be discussed with your Business Manager i.e. genetics, herd nutrition, animal health, grassland management etc. The aim is to ensure an enhanced level of economic viability and sustainability for you and your farm.

Milkade

Milkade produces data from your farm such as, milk solids output per cow, milk butterfat percentages, milk protein percentage, butterfat to protein ratios, milk urea, milk volume output, etc. This data is crucial and can be used as a key decision making tool in regards to grassland management, herd genetics, dry cow management, animal nutrition etc. This will ensure that you are maximising the potential from your farm and maximise your return financially and sustainably.

500Kgs milk solid target is as per Teagasc blueprint.

450Kgs/550Kgs milk solids reflect the average Tirlán supplier producing similar solids.

Target performance for Dairy replacement heifers (Kgs) of different genetics (based on Spring Calving and a mean calving date of midFebruary). NB: These targets are considered minimum. Heavier weights at mating tend to produce significantly more milk in the first lactation.

8 (6.4) Third Cut 5 75 (60) 10 (8) 75 (60) 6 (4.8)

First

Second Cut 7 90 (72) 14 (11.2) 75 (60) 8 (6.4)

Third Cut 5 75 (60) 10 (8) 75 (60) 6 (4.8)

• Adjust figures above to take account of soils below/above Index 3. The application of nitrogen should be in-accordance with the Nitrates Directive.

• Remember Organic NP&K applied can substitute for chemical NPK.

Target performance for Dairy replacement heifers (Kgs) of different genetics (based on Spring Calving and a mean calving date of midFebruary). NB: These targets are considered minimum. Heavier weights at mating tend to produce significantly more milk in the first lactation.

Tirlán Support Schemes and Initiatives

Tirlán, through our Living Proof sustainability strategy and alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals works to deliver the social, economic and environmental requirements for a sustainable future through initiatives such as the GAIN Momentum Programme.

The information contained in this document is provided by Tirlán for your information only and has not been independently verified. While Tirlán endeavours to ensure that all information contained in this document is correct, no warranty is given that the information is accurate. Tirlán disclaims any and all liability to any party for any direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from the use of the information contained in this document.

Tirlán, Abbey Quarter, Kilkenny R95 DXR1, Ireland. LoCall 0818 321 321

Email info@gainanimalnutrition.com

www.tirlanfarmlife.com