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The merits of Body Condition Scoring are often debated within sectors of the dairy industry, given its subjectivity and potential for variance. However, from the perspective of monitoring cow health and performance, it remains as a key factor to ongoing success.

Facial eczema is a common condition that affects cattle, sheep and deer during summer and early autumn. Once confined to East Gippsland, cases are now frequently detected throughout Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand.

Autumn or split-calving patterns are now a reality for many dairy farmers. The following practical tips can help set your autumn-calving cows up for a productive season.

Over the past 20 years, most dairy producers have become quite familiar with the need to provide unique rations during the pre-calving period in order to reduce the incidence of clinical and sub-clinical milk fever.

Dairy cows are more susceptible to heat load and stress than most farm animals due to metabolic heat production, which is strongly correlated with rumen fermentation, in combination with their low surface area:mass ratio.

Naturally inheriting their working instincts, the best reward you can give a working dog is to allow it to work! To get the best out of your dog, it is important they are in peak condition, both inside and out.

Challenging harvest conditions means there are large on-farm stocks of feed grade barley and wheat. Value add nutrients to finish your lambs through summer and into autumn with CopRice Lamb Finisher, a complete ration for lambs being finished in a feedlot or grazing declining pastures.

Key grains, such as barley, wheat, maize and canola, are often in short supply at this time of year as stocks of last year’s harvest are depleted and spring-calving herds come into full production. Maize is an ideal partner for cereal-based rations.

Improving reproductive performance is a complex challenge that requires a strategic approach to management and nutrition throughout the season. Throwing a bit of extra resource at your cows a week before joining will be ‘too little too late’.

CopRice Flexiblends™ delivers balanced feed solutions. Flexiblends Lamb Safe Start is formulated to safely introduce lambs to grain-based supplementary rations.

CopRice Flexiblends Lamb Safe Start is a specially-formulated low starch ration designed for safe introduction of lambs into feedlot or containment areas.

It’s wonderful to see paddocks full of green feed after widespread rains during autumn. After so many months (and years) supplement feeding, it will obviously be tempting to allow mother nature to take care of your ewe’s nutritional requirements over winter and spring. 

While many Australian lamb producers revelled in record lamb prices during spring, two Leeton lot feeders can lay claim to having made history by setting a string of records for the nation's highest-priced pens.