As you spread your fertiliser, spare a thought for the animals who will be grazing the grass. While farming publications applaud new innovations helping to improve nutrient management, animal production losses still continue to plague the industry. Fertiliser nutrients taken up by the plant create their own unique mineral profile for grazing animals, and therein lies the problem- it seems the connection between fertiliser and production problems continues to be overlooked. Fa

Recently, I attended a couple of Beef and Lamb field days on the subject of Management of weaner dairy & dairy beef stock. It was surprising and disappointing that the treatment of trace element nutrition by presenters was minimal. Advice ranged from merely stating that feeding stock well will mitigate trace element deficiencies (it does help, but depends on the severity of the deficiency) through to outright hostility to any specific recommendations of the use of trace eleme