November 18, 2011
Schothorst Feed Research starts trial on dairy project
The Netherlands based Schothorst Feed Research (SFR) start a research project on feed additives in feeds on dairy farms in the area.
SFR has signed contracts with a number of dairy farms with more than 200 cows to investigate the effects of additives and concentrates on health and fertility of the cows.
The methodology for this research on a practical scale is unique, because the animals can be divided in test groups on a single farm, which makes the results more significant.
SFRis an independent international research institute on animal nutrition, which has continuous research on the effect of feed additives and compound feed on milk production and feed intake on its own dairy farm with 210 cows.
The influence of nutrition on fertility and health are better and more accurate with larger groups of animals. That is why SFR has taken the initiative to equip a number of large dairies with adjustments in feeding systems and data recording to obtain more significant results.
The health and fertility data and milk production records will be extracted from the farms' management systems and further analysed.