News &
Insights

Fane Valley is excited to commence a three-year partnership with Markethill Primary School, offering expert agriculture awareness and good practice farming techniques plus mentorship for pupils as part of a STEM project. Trevor Lockhart – Fane Valley, Group Chief Executive commented, “We have great relationships with many schools across the province and when possible, try…

Bought in feed prices are at record high levels making it more important than ever to maximise production from forage. Achieving a fast, efficient fermentation and a silage which is stable are key to maximise the production and quality of your maize silage.   Maize silage can be prone to losses from an inefficient fermentation…

Correct dry cow nutrition especially during the close-up period, is essential for optimum performance in the next lactation, both in terms of milk yield and fertility, and to reduce the incidence of metabolic disease during the fresh period. The Role of Calcium There are many aspects of dry cow nutrition that need to be considered,…

Harvest 2022 was memorable for all the right reasons with ideal conditions for getting grain cut and dried, and straw gathered up and undercover. Now our attention turns to autumn drilling and selecting the most suitable variety for your farm. At Fane Valley, we offer a carefully selected portfolio of varieties to help build resilience…

Many fields in arable rotations in Northern Ireland could benefit from a more diverse mix of cropping.  Oilseed rape is a useful break crop, and with current favourable gross margins it can also provide many other benefits across the rotation.  These include helping to reduce the threat of soil borne disease such as take-all, the…

2022 has proven to be a good grass growing season for most and with many silos already full, this provides an opportunity to remove fields for reseeding this August, allowing for maximisation of production and fertiliser efficiency in the years ahead. Reseeding grassland can improve grass yields and quality, resulting in higher performance from the…

Sowing a forage crop for winter feeding can produce valuable, low-cost forage whilst also reducing pressure on housing and slurry capacity on farm. Options for summer planting, include brassica crops such as forage rape, hybrid rape or stubble turnips and cereal crops such as rye can also provide fresh forage for the winter. Now is…

Winter cereal crops are now fast approaching the stage suitable for cutting for wholecrop. Feeding wholecrop cereal silage alongside quality grass silage can significantly increase the animal’s dry matter intake and help maximise rumen function. For these reasons wholecrop is becoming an increasingly popular feed on livestock farms. Cereals crops such as wheat, barley, oats,…

Reducing the age of first calving (AFC) to 24 months is now the target on most dairy farms, given the associated benefits of reduced rearing costs, higher lifetime yield and increased longevity. This is still a challenge on many farms as NMR’s most recent key performance indicators show that the average AFC is 26.5 months….