The driest July since 1935, with little rainfall since, has put pressure on grazing and forage stocks, with many farmers already feeding silage intended for winter and later silage crops being lighter than expected. Maize in many areas is also particularly badly affected.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of doing things as they’ve always been done and overlooking how they could be improved. 

This was the case on Plas Onn Farm near Welshpool in Powys, where father and son team, Martyn and Gruff Jones, admit they reared their beef in a similar way to their father and grandfather before them. This meant buying in weaned dairy x beef calves and selling most of them at around 18 months as strong stores. A group would also be kept until they were finished, often leaving the farm at up to 36 months, with killing out weights of over 400kg.

Switching from entirely big bales to clamp silage involved a leap of faith for Shropshire farmer, Henry Roberts. But he took the opportunity to set up a system from scratch, putting best-practice in place all the way through.

Just before last Christmas the Kelvin Cave sales team were invited by Salinity, the manufacturers of Safesil Pro and Safesil Challenge, to visit their new factory at Falkenberg, on the south west coast of Sweden. 

Having worked independently in beef nutrition for 14 years, I can certainly say that crimping grain has made a huge difference to a number of my customers, and the answer is yes, seriously consider crimping.

Henry Ford was once quoted as saying of his iconic Model T motorcar that “you can have it in any colour you like, so long as it’s black.” Yet, despite his somewhat intransigent attitude to customisation, he went on to become one of the most successful car makers of all time.

Organic farmer, Matt Ridley, has finished his lambs without concentrates for the past seven years. He explains how high quality silage, preserved with organic-approved Activator + CA, is the basis of this process.