Technical Services
TECHNICAL SERVICES
Harpers Feeds are proud to be able to offer you a wide range of technical services. All of our feed representatives have been trained in each of the services we offer and are happy to come on farm and carry out each of these for you.
We are experienced in managing the requirements of milk purchasers to meet your assurance standards. We will help record the necessary data for carbon footprinting, condition and mobility scoring your cows, and help prepare your farm for audit.
Forage Sampling
At Harpers we always advise you to get your silage tested. We can test hay, haylage, big bale silage and clamp silages of grass, wholecrop and maize! We pride ourselves on having an in-house testing facility allowing us to test most silages ourselves with fast results.
Body Condition Scoring
All of our reps are experienced at scoring cattle. It is recommended that your cattle are scored regularly to monitor their performance and condition.
Locomotion Scoring
It is always good to keep an eye on the locomotion of your cattle; it can help identify cows in the early stages of lameness before they become chronic and problematic. We can also look to add biotin into the diet if you are getting a lot of cows with high locomotion scores.
Soil Sampling
We have a soil core sampler available to take samples from your fields. We have facilities to do summary analysis in-house and have a good relationship with a local agronomist who can test for a full, comprehensive soil analysis.
Water Sampling
We are able to come and take water samples to be tested for pH, minerals and microbes in the water.
Dairy + Beef Costings
We have a computer system that is specific to dairy farms. It covers cows in milk, cows dry, cows sold, milk sold and kept, milk price, concentrate cost and more! Using this we can help you look at your margins and compare to previous years and months. We are also able to offer beef costings to compare margins year-on-year.
Mineral Analysis
Our partnership with Trouw Nutrition allows us to send samples of water and feed/forages for mineral analysis. Using this, we can formulate a specific mineral pack for your farm. This is particularly handy for formulating dry cow rations as they are very sensitive to mineral imbalances.
Diet Formulating
All of our feed reps are FAR registered and use our state-of-the-art diet formulating software capable of making you tailor-made feed plans specific for your farm and needs.
Herd Report Analysis
With your consent, we are able to access data from NMR and CIS to analyse your milk report data and use it to help us formulate diets specific to your needs.
Dung Sieving
Our reps are always ready to get their hands dirty and sieve your cattle’s dung! We have a specialist sieve and each rep has a small sieve at hand for on the spot sampling to see how well the current diet is being digested.
Milk Quality Blueprint
This service encompasses all of our services allowing us to come up with a proposal specific for you. We come on farm and talk to you about what you are wanting, whether it is to boost your butterfats or reduce days open, we can come up with a solution.
Milk Forecast
With the following information we are able to predict your monthly milk production, which is becoming mandatory from some milk companies; cows currently in milk, cattle and heifers calving every month, cows being dried off each month, and your monthly milk average yield.
Pre-Cut Testing
With our continued development we are proud to say we are able to analyse grass samples in-house and give comprehensive advice within 24 hours of receipt of the sample.
Dairy and Youngstock Signals
The fundimental building blocks of a healthy, efficient herd which will allow you to get better production per lactation and more lactations from your cows are feed, water, light, air, rest and space. Cow Signals is a structured approach to assessing how well your system provides these building blocks. Speak to your Feed Specialist for more information.
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