Okato-based vet Stacey Bateman has been working with local farmers to improve their herd performance, using information and resources on feed management and nutrition from DairyNZ’s FeedRight programme. He’d been on other DairyNZ levy-funded training courses and decided he needed a good grounding in nutrition to provide a proper advisory service to his farmers.
“FeedRight training seemed a very good fit to complete the suite of services. I’ve applied the tools on a couple of farms so far. You can use it as part of a whole advisory package, or in a trouble-shooting capacity.”
Vet Stacey Bateman says being 'FeedRight-trained' is an advantage for rural professionals.
One of the farmers Stacey’s been assisting is Warea contract milker Scott Gawler. “We were finding our first season here pretty daunting and this has really helped,” says Scott. “We had a bit of an issue with overweight cows at calving. Using the FeedChecker tool with Stacey has helped us identify how much feed and minerals to use. We’ll definitely use other FeedRight tools to help us make decisions later this season around feed budgets and dry off.”
Okato farmer Jimmy Quay says he also heard about FeedRight from Stacey. “We had a small amount of milk fever on the platform and we were able to use FeedChecker and the FeedRight information to identify what was needed. Stacey showed us how easy FeedChecker was to use and understand. It gives you plenty of information to think about and help you make decisions. It also helped us to catch things early.”
Stacey says he’s also used FeedRight with a herd fertility focus group he runs, receiving great feedback. "FeedRight's package of tools and information covering the fundamentals of nutrition help to answer the common questions that come up through the season.
“I believe rural professionals will find they can easily integrate FeedRight into the services they already provide. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ programme. Being a vet, I obviously approach nutrition from an animal health point of view, but other rural professionals will be able to use the information and tools for their own line of work.
“I think being ‘FeedRight-trained’ is an advantage for our business and will be for other rural professionals, as well as farmers.”
Key points
- DairyNZ training for rural professionals adds value to them and their farmers. Search keyword 'training' at dairynz.co.nz
- Improve nutrition and feed management using FeedRight information and resources
- Check out the FeedRight training programme and resources online (including a list of FeedRight-trained RPs) at dairynz.co.nz/FeedRight or talk to your RP.
This article was originally published in Inside Dairy November 2018
