Soil Mineral Dressings for Farming
The simplistic answer to a mineral problem is to spray a crop, bolus a cow or drench a lamb to remedy an observed deficiency. This is inefficient because the crop, cow or lamb has already suffered from the mineral deficiency before it was noticed and a further time lag occurs before we get round to doing anything about it. In that time the crop damage is irreversible, the mastitis leads to lost revenue and the lamb continues to scour.
Tailored mineral dressings applied after soil analysis to correct any deficiencies are a preventive medicine. If you guard against deficiency problems they will not happen. So now the crop continues to grow unchecked, the dairy cow needs no treatment and continues to produce milk, the lamb continues to grow and goes to market weeks earlier. The further bonus is that the treated land produces more and what it produces is of better quality.
Livestock Pasture Dressings
Dairy Cattle
Whether you are a conventional or an organic dairy farmer, the overwhelming problem has for some years been price. Between 1997 and 2008 the number of dairy farmers nearly halved, the GROSS profit per cow fell from £933 to £697 and in some years there was a NET loss.....
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Beef Cattle
Farming beef cattle in the UK takes several forms and the route chosen by producers is dominated by location and individual circumstances.
Pedigree suckler herds can be very profitable where there is an established demand for top quality breeding.....
Sheep
Sheep have an immensely important history throughout Britain and have been domesticated and bred for thousands of years. The wool trade was the principal source of England's wealth in the Middle Ages and Lavenham, one of Suffolk's wool towns, was the 14th wealthiest town.....
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Other Livestock
The Field Science System can apply to livestock other than cattle and sheep. If the animal grazes or is fed grown crops then that soil can be treated with a Field Science tailor-made trace element dressing and the animals will derive the benefit of a correctly mineralised diet.
read moreMixed Farming - Pros and Cons
Not so long ago mixed farming was the norm. Most farms were small, family run affairs, much of whose produce was sold locally. This meant that farmers were also retailers and the profitability was such that a very good living could be made on relatively few acres.
- Improved biodiversity and sustainability
- Increased rural employment prospects
- Reduced energy inputs and emissions
- Low wages, long hours, lack of housing
- Price competition from discount retailers
- Poor economy of scale
Pasture-Fed Livestock Association
Field Science Ltd is proud to be both a member and supplier to other members, of the Pasture Fed Livestock Association.
Grassland forms such an important part of the British countryside. It is an iconic symbol of rural landscapes and we naturally think of it as being the principal food for cows, sheep and all other animals that graze our fields..........