DairyCo
Welcome to DairyCo
Scotland
Introducing the Extension Team in your area
An important part of being an extension officer is understanding
farmers' needs and helping to identify practical and realistic
tools to assist your farming business.
Our team covers areas like herd health and welfare, working with
different groups and demonstrating tools such as the heifer rearing calculator,
and increasing awareness of different control strategies that are
available.
What's coming up?
Day: Herdsman training events
Purpose: Two events are planned with dates to be
confirmed, lookinjg at reducing lameness & foot trimming
Date: December 2011
Venue: Stranraer
If you would like to know more about what's coming up in Scotland for 2012 or have any requests, please call Heather (07876706391) or Sophie ( 07717500877).
What's been happening?
We ran our second Planning for Profit workshop in Scotland earlier this month, with 6 participants.
These two day workshops are a fantastic opportunity to take time away from your business and be completely focused on where you want your business to go; without the daily farm and family distractions.
It has helped those who attend to challenge, scrutinize and reassess their business with three specialised consultants on hand to help throughout, not forgetting the support of other farming colleagues on the course.
Through this course we have seen farmers change their business infrastructure, herd feeding policies, buy and rent new farms/land, put up new buildings/parlours/rotary units the lists of opportunities and challenges that you can throw at this program are endless.
If you feel ready to take on new challenges with your business but would like the extra support and confidence to do so then call Heather on 07876706391 to book a place on the next course which will hopefully be end Feb early March 2012.
Monday 7 November saw Dr Sam Leadley from Attica Veterinary
Associates join the community group at East Pitforthie, the group
discussed 'gold standard' calf rearing and discussed ways to
improve the already existing and many different calf rearing
policies group members currently have in place.
His three main key points were - Keeping calf mortality low,
maintaining healthy calves and measuring calf growth.We hope to
hear more from Dr Sam Leadley in February 2012.
For the full report visit QMS - Monitor Farms or contact Sophie Kinnear 07717500877 sophie.kinnear@dairyco.ahdb.org.uk to find out more.
It was good to see so many attending this year's AgriScot event at the royal Highland centre. We hope you had a chance to visit our stand and see what DairyCo has on offer for you as Levy payers.
This year saw the launch of the Healthy Feet Programme. A service aiming to help dairy farmers reduce the number of lame cows on their farms by identifying and applying the right management techniques.
For more information visit Healthy Feet Project or contact Jo Speed on 07976 133405; joanne.speed@dairyco.ahdb.org.uk
We are also encouraging dairy farmers across the Scotland to take part in Milkbench+, it is your free, unbiased, confidential benchmarking service. It looks to examine the financial performance of the farm together with the management system used. For more information visit Milkbench+ or contact Derek Carless on 07817257471; derek.carless@ahdb.org.uk