Keenans nutrition re-launch
The company says that many Irish farmers have failed to accept the limitations of pasture for the modern cow, which often suffers from poor rumen health, as a result.
Infertility, displaced abomasum, and milk fever are also associated with struggling cows, says Professor David Beever, Keenan International Nutritional Director, who has helped to develop the new "Rumans" package now on offer.
It is built around a dry cow diet of 40% straw, seen as the ideal fibre to get the cow's rumen working properly (of which more aggressive cud chewing is the telltale sign).
Starting at €3,000 per year, Keenans offer a feeder wagon for preparing the straw based diets, plus three advisory visits and telephone and fax contact, for analysis of monthly reports submitted by the farmer, and monitoring to achieve the projected herd performance improvement.
Based on the operation of a similar package in France, the company says Rumans offers a potential 10% cut in the herd size, easier compliance with the EU Nitrates Directive, and a cut in daily milking time, input costs and veterinary charges. Performance improvements gains are estimated at over €8,000 for a 60 cow herd. The company says they are challenging decades of practice in the Irish dairy industry, radically revising current nutritional practices with their plan for preparing cows for the whole lactation with a mixed ration of 40% chopped straw, 40% conserved forages, and 20% concentrates. Cows have no trouble eating the 4 or 5 kg per day of straw on offer.
Keenans visualise no straw supply problems for dairy farmers, pointing out that much of it is ploughed in on tillage farms. The company says it has the resources to cope with up to 500 farmers using their new Rumans package. Up to one full day would be spent with clients at the start of the year's service, followed by two half day visits later in the year, with the ongoing promise to respond to farmers needing extra help as the year goes on.
In turn, farmers will be required to submit monthly reports of yields, cow health, dung consistency and other measures of cow performance.
According to Professor Beever, grass variability is a big problem for Irish dairy farmers.
He said grazing must be supplemented with concentrates, because only 26 litres of milk can come from grass. He sees a place for straw in lactation diets also, combined with access to pasture.
According to Keenans, more than half of the country's dairy farmers have more cows than they should have, relative to their farm buildings, and the Rumans strategy could change the life and times of the Irish dairy farmer, through reduced herd sizes.
Company chairman Gerard Keenan says: "Rumans has been tested, cross-checked and applied in the company's markets. In France alone the testing and evaluation spanned more than three years.
"What we're offering is a system, a strategy, that will allow those who want to continue expanding to do so, but allow others to keep fewer cows and make more money with less stress."
Keenans is a family business with sales of feed wagons and nutritional services worth €60 million a year.
