The Rumen Room Podcasts

Our latest episode in our four-part, worm-themed podcast series focuses on setting up forage crops for success, to maximise the chances of crops helping beat the worms in lambs and calves. Forage crops fit so very well into the worm-battling, whole-farm based Wormwise ‘FARMED’ approach to managing youngstock on farm (F=Feed, A=Avoidance, R=Refugia, M=Monitor and ED=Effective Drenches) https://beef...

Ongoing resistance challenges by sheep and cattle worms to drenches - what a headache for us!! We're now needing alternative, non-drench strategies to work alongside a more limited and targeted use of effective drenches to beat worms. Might forage crops help reduce the need for regular, repeated drenching of our lambs and calves? YES, potentially! Forage crops fit perfectly into the worm-battling,...

Could bigger, faster-growing young ruminants be better equipped to handle incoming worm L3 larvae than smaller, slower growing animals of the same age? Yes, potentially! In our latest podcast, the second in our four part series all about nutrition and worms, we explore the reasons why fast growing heavier lambs and calves (expressed as a % of mature weight) are potentially more resilient in the fa...

How might improving the nutrition of young sheep and cattle help with our battle against sheep and cattle internal parasites (worms) that’re resistant to common anthelmintics (drenches)?   Our latest podcast explores ways in which improved nutrition of lambs and calves might reduce our reliance on regular, repeated use of drenches to control worms. This is part 1 of a 4 part miniseries that will e...

Continuing the dietary protein journey started in Podcast No. 66, our latest podcast picks apart the pros and cons of crude protein (CP) as a proxy for dietary protein. Fantastic as CP is for quickly and easily balancing diets on the basis of CP supply vs. CP demands of ruminants, some limitations of CP mean that sometimes protein nutrition needs a bit more detail than just CP. Metabolisable prote...

In our latest short, ‘bite-sized’ podcast, we start a two-part series on the basics of protein in ruminant nutrition. This first episode explains what determines a ruminant animals' demand for protein, and explains why protein requirements differ across animal classes with different physiological states (e.g. lactation, pregnancy). We break down the fundamentals of amino acids and their role in bu...

How do we wean calves from liquid milk or calf milk replacer (CMR)? For each and every calf weaning set up, there’s no doubt a broad range of different ways to wean calves - and no two systems will be the same! In this our latest Rumen Room Podcast, we explore some of the different approaches to weaning dairy calves (heifer replacements and dairy beef) off milk or CMR. The sudden stopping of milk...

All the hard work has been done, your four day old calves have grown well and it’s time to think about weaning the calves from milk or calf milk replacer (CMR). Our latest Rumen Room Podcast steps through the range of factors that collectively give us guidance to when a calf is ready to wean. There're many factors to think about, including the age and liveweight of the calf, daily liveweight gain,...

With winter just around the corner for New Zealanders, our latest topic focuses on the effects of cold temperatures and frost on forage plants. We investigate how frosts damage our plants during the freeze-thaw cycles, “messing” with a plants wellbeing. Thankfully – and given time for plants to adjust to the cold - Mother Nature steps in and helps a plant develop some degree of resilience to cold...

This is the second in a two part series all to do with Autumn Ill thrift in grazing ruminants. Part one (Episode 61) explored some of the nutritionally-based reasons that may contribute to animals appearing ‘ill thrifty’ when pasture quality shifts from standing, poor quality summer pasture to very high quality, lush autumn green feed. The potential for animal-health related challenges to contribu...

After a long, hot and often dry summer when pasture quality might be rather poor and in short demand, we’re always keen to see the onset of autumn rains. At last, we can expect improved amounts of pasture on hand and the silage wagon can be parked up for a while. Improved feed quality of autumn pasture is an added bonus, likely being much better than what stock have been grazing through the summer...

Like anything in life, too much of a good thing can end badly. The same can be said for copper nutrition in ruminants. Required in just trace amounts, copper is needed by all ruminants - but too much copper places the wellbeing of ruminants at risk. Worst case, too much copper can prove fatal for our farm animals. Part four in our four-part copper themed podcast covers off risk factors for copper...

What are some of the ways that we can test feed or other samples to assess the likelihood of copper deficiency in sheep, cattle or deer? Part three of this four-part copper themed miniseries moves the topic to defining the copper status of your farmed ruminants. The strengths and weaknesses of different testing methods for copper status are discussed. If a copper deficiency is very likely / has be...

Dairy, sheep, beef, or deer farming? There’s something for everyone in our latest “bite sized” copper-themed miniseries podcast. Building on the introduction to copper nutrition in Episode 57, this podcast explores signs that ruminants might (or might not) show when copper deficient. Often we don’t see obvious signs of copper deficiency - this is called a “sub-clinical” deficiency. Which means ani...

Read the side of any bag of trace mineral additives or feed products, and there’s good chance copper will be listed as one of the ingredients. Just what is copper and why should we be interested? Our latest copper-themed miniseries offers in a “bite-sized” manner four short and snappy podcasts all to do with copper.  Why do ruminants (sometimes, but not always) need copper?  What “jobs” does coppe...

This latest “bite sized” short podcast takes a look at summer crop establishment in New Zealand, including a detailed look at the tiny (unwanted) herbivores that eat forage crops. Charlotte Westwood chats with PGG Wrightson Seeds agronomy guru Greg Zeuren to hear about the successful establishment of spring planted summer forage crops in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. In a...

Amazing feed quality or compost? This second of a two part podcast series focuses on how to make sure we get the very best quality feed from plastic-wrapped bales. Part 1 focused on how to assess baleage, and the importance of getting the dry matter (DM) % right to ensure a  tasty, good quality end product. In this, part 2 of our baleage series, we look at further factors that impact balelage qual...

Baleage can be a fantastic way to conserve pasture or crop, moving forage from times of feed surpluses to times of feed deficits. Once wrapped in plastic, all baleage looks somewhat the same. Yet behind that plastic lurks all types of feed, from very high quality baleage through to absolute compost. This latest podcast focusses on assessing the quality of baleage as a feed for your stock. After di...

Hypothermia is a real risk for newborn lambs and calves - and is a significant cause of loss of newborns born outdoors during cold weather.   When body heat is lost to the environment faster than a lamb or calf can replenish core body heat from within, hypothermia is likely. What factors influence the amount of heat that a lamb or calf can generate to keep itself warm, from the 'inside-out'? In ou...

Building on this mid-winter topic introduced in Episode 51, this podcast explores practical, farm-based things that we can do to help our cows well in cold weather.  As a nutrition-themed podcast series, our latest episode focuses unashamedly on the importance of nutrition, but other topics are explored too.  The role for shelter for reducing effects of wind chill is discussed. Just why cows need...

Cold winter weather. Great if you love skiing, not so great for us and our ruminants when we’re out and about in rough weather. That said, ruminants can be remarkably resilient in cold winter conditions – to a point. In this, part one of a two part podcast series, we explore why ruminants (focusing specifically on dairy cattle) can tolerate moderately cold winter conditions.  Risk factors that inf...

Ingestion of soil during grazing of pastures and forage crops is a common and unavoidable event.   Soil contamination of silage and baleage is another challenge that we sometimes need to deal with. Our latest episode explores the whole topic of soil ending up where it doesn’t belong. How much mud and dirt do animals eat during grazing? What factors increase risk of animals eating too much soil? Ar...

Well known New Zealand-based veterinarian, nutritionist and farmer Dr Sue Macky joins Charlotte Westwood in our latest podcast. Sue steps us through everything to do with the individual dairy cow during the dry and transition periods - from the cow's point of view. Too often we get overly focused on the detail of the diet and management dry and transition dairy cows - and forget about focusing spe...

All plants would be green slime growing sideways along the ground if it wasn’t for lignin– True!  Find out more in our latest podcast covering everything from the good, the bad and the ugly about lignin. Learn how lignin impacts overall quality of ruminant feeds, and how feed management decisions change how animals process and digest lignin in their day-to-day diets. Find out how the lignin conten...

Sliced on our morning cereal or perched on top of our iconic New Zealand dessert Pavlova, kiwifruit deliver a tasty powerpack of valuable nutrients for us humans. What about ruminants? Are reject kiwifruit from your local packhouse equally as good for our dairy cows and other animals on farm? Yes! A valuable source of energy delivered largely as water soluble carbohydrates, whole kiwifruit can be...