November 30, 2007

Scotland warns livestock farmers of more feed price hikes in 2008

The next six months are set to be expensive for most Scottish livestock farmers, according to Stuart Somerville, the business services manager with the Scottish Agricultural College.

Somerville said the winter would be "challenging for many Scottish livestock producers and farmers and they should be planning their feeding strategies now". He said variable forage quality and higher cereal prices mean that feeding costs will be significantly higher than normal with some restrictions on foot-and-mouth-disease will also result to less autumn grass and stock going into the winter in poorer body condition than normal.

As a result it will be more important than ever to get forage independently analysed and have cost-effective rations prepared, he said. The temptation to "reduce supplementary feed levels must be resisted if performance is to be maintained and welfare problems avoided."

According to Somerville, forage analysis and ration formulation using new system can establish the composition and daily quantities of supplementary feeding required for optimum performance.