A network of ruminant nutritionists - enabling exchange of ideas and experience among professionals, to understand and improve health and productivity of ruminant livestock.
A network of ruminant nutritionists - enabling exchange of ideas and experience among professionals, to understand and improve health and productivity of ruminant livestock.
Knowledge base...
Members
Dr Emma Cuttance, Facial Eczema
Dr Emma Cuttance has been key in the recent research carried out in NZ for facial eczema (FE). Within her presentation, she walks through the impact of FE, the damage caused by FE going untreated, and the reliability of treatment
Dr Lance Baumgard, Inflammation
Lance kick started the session with an over view of the GIT, and the impact of how overall health can stem from the GIT. He discusses the thickness of the rumen which can be > 10 layers thick, compared the
David Pacheco – Options for abatement of enteric methane emissions from ruminants
During this session David covered the indirect and direct options for mitigating enteric methane. Indirect options include improving feed quality and animal health for improved animal efficiency and reduction in GHG . Direct interventions act directly in the rumen to
Andre Mazzetto – Life Cycle Assessment – the importance of feed in the footprint of animals
Lifecycle assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, system or service. In this session, Andre covered what different components make up an LCA and talked about the importance of accounting
Paul Sharp – Feeding food waste to cows
Paul’s years of experience working with farmers who have access to food waste coming from the human food chain shone through in his session. Paul talks about what type of waste products he uses on a common basis as well
Dr James Drackley – NASEM Requirements for Calves and Update on Intensified Feeding
Dr. Jim Drackley is Professor of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Jim grew up on a small dairy farm in Minnesota and received his Ph.D. in nutritional Physiology from Iowa State University. Since joining the
Understanding and mitigating heat stress in NZ dairy cows – Kirsty Verhoek
Kirsty gave an overview of heat stress, measuring and mitigating heat stress and the new research in heat stress within NZ. In the summer of 2023 Dairy NZ carried out a trial reviewing heat stress, and while this was one
Farm systems and driving revenue – Pip Gale
Pip starts the session by outlining some key factors that we need to reach broad agreement about with regard to dairy productivity and profitability. “Can we agree that”…. 1) The three bottom lines of animal welfare, environmental and economic sustainability
Transition Feeding – Sue Macky
Sue Macky discussed the challenges she has come across and highlights areas to focus on during transition feeding in an interactive session. She bounces from nutritional aspects to animal behaviour and cow comfort, to the animal health challenges. Sharing the
Using Minda data to diagnose opportunities for reproductive improvement – Jair Mandriaza
Jair showcased the latest in the LIC statistics for the 2023/24 season. These results where compared against previous years with discussions looking at the use of wearable and none wearable herds. The data set outlined the national ranking, with cows
NZARN news...
OverseerFM – What is new, and the path ahead Alastair Taylor, Overseer Ltd.
OverseerFM is an online software that connects farmers to science to support sustainable farm businesses that protect the environment. OverseerFM is built on 30 years of science. The OverseerFM model has been updated to make nutrient budgeting more user friendly,
Nitrogen and Feeds – David Pacheco, AgResearch
Farmers use Nitrogen (N) to increase forage yields and increase profitability, however, there has been increasing requirements to minimise environmental impact and for this reason N use on farms is under scrutiny. N that is not used in an animal
Enteric Methane and Feeds – Arjan Jonker, AgResearch
Methane (CH4) is mainly formed in the rumen (87-92%) by methanogens which utilise microbially hydrogen produced in the rumen during fermentation of ingested feed. CH4 from animals is measured via gas exchange using flux methods like respiration chambers and marker methods
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