Provita Animal Health had the pleasure of hosting a group of Norwegian beef farmers. During their time in Northern Ireland, the Norwegian visitors had the chance to see several different farms that use Provita products giving them the opportunity to see the products in action. Those that visited from Norway highlighted the differences in the Norwegian agricultural environment and that of Northern Ireland. Whilst the overall annual GDP of agriculture in both countries works out at roughly 2%, the percentage of the land cultivated in the two countries is very different. Norway has only 3% of the land cultivated, due to the cold climate, thin soils and mountainous terrain, whereas 78.8% of Northern Ireland’s land is under cultivation for grazing, crops, forestry and fruit.
Cool Brae Farm near Kircubbin in Co Down is home to highly respected, award winning livestock producer Sam Chesney. He manages a herd of Limousin suckler cows mated to British Blue and Limousin sires. This gives Sam the option of finishing animals for beef or selling them as stores and replacement suckler heifers. Sam hosted the Norwegian visitors and gave them a tour of his farm, where he advocates the use of Provita Protect POM-VPS as a tried and tested means of preventing scour on his farm. Sam also uses many other Provita products including Advance+ to improve silage quality. Sam’s impressive attention to every aspect of his business – using accurate data costs and benchmarking in order to guide the development of his production system and invest in inputs – have marked him out as a winner. Giving every newborn calf the best possible start to life is a key priority for Sam.
“The calves receive Provita Protect POM-VPS as soon as they are born. Experience with the product has confirmed that it significantly reduces the incidences of scour. In the event of any calf coming down with the problem, we have found that it is much easier cured. I would heartily recommend its use to any dairy or suckler herd owner.”
Rodgers Livestock also hosted the Norwegian group. Geoff Rodgers runs the family farm in Dromara, Co Down which sustains a herd 120 pedigree and commercial cows comprising of Blonde, Limousin, Charolais and Shorthorn. Rodgers Livestock family farm uses Response Paste on all their calves as soon as possible after birth in order to give them a kick start. Provita Response Paste is an orally administered paste which provides energy, colostrum, probiotic bacteria, egg powder and vitamins to help give newborn calves a lift to get them up and sucking quickly.
Declan Rafferty, from Pomeroy, Co Tyrone runs a beef farm and is committed increasing weight gains through silage. He has used Provita Advance+ and has seen better quality of silage when viewing split silos. When the Norwegian visitors came to see around his farms, they were able to see the different benefits using the silage inoculant can have on a beef farm, in comparison to the benefits previously seen on Wright’s dairy farm.
Jim and Dean Wright from Portadown have used Provita Advance+ since its launch in 2013 and have targeted more milk from forage as an essential performance target, their farm was therefore a great one to show the Norwegians. Dean has used Provita’s Advance+ inoculant on all his silage crops, including wholecrop over the past number of years. But it was only when he had the opportunity of taking part in a mini silo test, that he actually got a very clear idea of just how effective the product can be. “The samples were taken from the same part of a particular field,” Dean explained. “In that way the grass samples were as identical as they could possibly be. The silos were sealed and then opened at the beginning of December. Provita co-ordinated the analysis of both forages. The difference in the quality of the two silages was more than significant. The treated forage was superior on all counts,” concluded Dean.
Declan Rafftery, from Pomeroy, Co Tyrone runs a beef farm and is committed increasing weight gains through silage. He has used Provita Advance+ and has seen better quality of silage when viewing split silos. When the Norwegian visitors came to see around his farms, they were able to see the different benefits using the silage inoculant can have on a beef farm, in comparison to the benefits previously seen on Wright’s dairy farm.
3B Services distribute Provita Advance + in Norway, where much of the grass is squeezed in round bales and there is still a lot of formic acid. However more and more farmers are now seeing the advantage of inoculants such as Provita Advance + both in terms of equipment wear, performance benefits, quality forage results as well as being cost-effective.
Provita’s Advance+ silage inoculant is a unique formulation combining EU approved lactic acid and acetic acid bacterial strains as a guaranteed rate of 1.2 million cfu per gram of forage. Performance benefits include +1 litre of milk per cow per day and +30% better growth rate. Excellent forage figures are also produced: 46% more sugar, 33% less ammonia, 3% units more DM giving 12.6% extra and doubles stability time at feed out.