Huw McConichie of Winnstay joined us two days ago as we carried out a grass silage, corn silage and TMR analysis at the Oakshall Farm, just outside Pentesbury. 

Sam Pearson wished to have the quality of his feed checked and he wanted to see how the different cuts of silage he made during the summer were performing in terms of nutrients. We analyzed 6 samples of grass silage, 4 samples of corn silage and 3 samples of TMR: the results were ready in less then 10 minutes!!

It was a cold and crispy morning yesterday when we arrived in Pentesbury, sunny but with the hills covered in snow: perfect weather to perform a NIR analysys with our portable AgriNIR™ feed analyzer. Sam Pearson, dairy farmer of the very well organized Oakshall Farm decided to have both corn silage and grass silage checked, so we picked samples from the silage pit and went to his office. The analysis of each sample took us less then a minute and the results were recorded on a USB stick and printed out. Sam had a real time picture of what he is actually feeding his cows !! No sample preparation, milling, drying and other time consuming activities: we scanned the samples as they were taken from the silage pit. Once again the simplicity of the process, the speed of the analysis and the accuracy of the machine made a strong impression, even on someone as technologically minded as Sam (during the process he was already posting photos and comments on Twitter!). “With this system” he said ” it is possible for me and for my consultant to monitor what I am feeding my cows and to adjust the diet of my cows any time if necessary” “Keeping under control the feed is strategic for any farmer” added Huw McConichie. “If a dairy farmer with 200 cows is overfeeding protein by 2%, with this system I could potentially save him up to £15.000 over winter”.  It is indeed satisfying that our AgriNIR™ can help farmers saving money, especially considering the difficult economic climate!