LG Animal Nutrition products are available at Kelliher’s Feed and Agri

THE LG Animal Nutrition accreditation denotes varieties and mixtures that deliver superior nutritional value whilst maintaining agronomic qualities and yield.

Independent trials conducted by leading scientific institutes have shown clear increases in animal performance using LG Animal Nutrition products.

Feeding grass with improved quality allows producers to maximise efficiency and reduce production costs.

Animal feed, whether in the form of bought-in concentrates or home-grown forage, makes up a significant proportion of production costs. Increasing the nutritional quality of this feed helps increase milk and meat production.

Sinclair McGill has always been at the forefront of bringing the benefits of mixtures with enhanced nutritional benefits to customers, and was pleased to be the first to introduce LG Animal Nutrition (LGAN) accredited mixtures to the market.

LGAN offers a holistic approach to mixture formulation, balancing the important attricutes of WSC (sugars) with digestible fibre (dNDF), balanced protein, energy and D value.

In doing so, it ensures the mixtures exceed expectations for yield, ground cover, winter hardiness, disease resistance and, most importantly, palatability.

The use of NIRS (Near Infrared Spectroscopy) has enabled the valuation of nutritional attributes of a huge number of varieties.

This has enabled more informed choices in formulating grass and clover mixtures.

Although many mixtures will not achieve LGAN accreditation due to other agronomic attributes taking precedence, such as persistence in long-term leys, it does ensure that we can make vital tweaks to improve the nutritional quality of mixtures.

Work carried out at the Schothorst Research Institute in the Netherlands in 2013 compared a group of cows fed a diet including a high-quality LGAN grass mixture, with a second group fed a control dual-purpose mixture.

The group of animals being fed the LGAN mixture produced an additional 1.4 litres of milk per day.

This increase in production is worth an additional €126 a year per cow herd, at a milk price of 30 cent per litre.

Such products are available at Kellihers Feed and Agri Supplies, Ballymullen.

For further information, phone (066) 712 3446, or visit the ‘Kellihers Feed & Agri Supplies Ballymullen’ Facebook page.