With winter just around the corner for New Zealanders, our latest topic focuses on the effects of cold temperatures and frost on forage plants. We investigate how frosts damage our plants during the freeze-thaw cycles, “messing” with a plants wellbeing. Thankfully – and given time for plants to adjust to the cold - Mother Nature steps in and helps a plant develop some degree of resilience to cold and frosty weather. Despite this, frosts can damage pasture plants, causing a drop / fall in pasture...
May 19, 2025•30 min•Ep. 63
This is the second in a two part series all to do with Autumn Ill thrift in grazing ruminants. Part one (Episode 61) explored some of the nutritionally-based reasons that may contribute to animals appearing ‘ill thrifty’ when pasture quality shifts from standing, poor quality summer pasture to very high quality, lush autumn green feed. The potential for animal-health related challenges to contribute to autumn ill thrift issues is covered in this, our latest episode. First up, the role for intern...
Apr 24, 2025•43 min•Ep. 62
After a long, hot and often dry summer when pasture quality might be rather poor and in short demand, we’re always keen to see the onset of autumn rains. At last, we can expect improved amounts of pasture on hand and the silage wagon can be parked up for a while. Improved feed quality of autumn pasture is an added bonus, likely being much better than what stock have been grazing through the summer months. With the change of season from summer to autumn, pasture quality can shift dramatically fro...
Apr 18, 2025•36 min•Ep. 61
Like anything in life, too much of a good thing can end badly. The same can be said for copper nutrition in ruminants. Required in just trace amounts, copper is needed by all ruminants - but too much copper places the wellbeing of ruminants at risk. Worst case, too much copper can prove fatal for our farm animals. Part four in our four-part copper themed podcast covers off risk factors for copper toxicity. Just why some ruminant species can be at greater risk of copper toxicity than others is ex...
Jan 12, 2025•23 min•Ep. 60
What are some of the ways that we can test feed or other samples to assess the likelihood of copper deficiency in sheep, cattle or deer? Part three of this four-part copper themed miniseries moves the topic to defining the copper status of your farmed ruminants. The strengths and weaknesses of different testing methods for copper status are discussed. If a copper deficiency is very likely / has been defined, this episode covers different ways to provide additional copper to your ruminants. **Not...
Jan 05, 2025•38 min•Ep. 59
Dairy, sheep, beef, or deer farming? There’s something for everyone in our latest “bite sized” copper-themed miniseries podcast. Building on the introduction to copper nutrition in Episode 57, this podcast explores signs that ruminants might (or might not) show when copper deficient. Often we don’t see obvious signs of copper deficiency - this is called a “sub-clinical” deficiency. Which means animals simply don’t grow or perform well but don't show any classic signs of copper deficiency. A "cli...
Jan 03, 2025•24 min•Ep. 58
Read the side of any bag of trace mineral additives or feed products, and there’s good chance copper will be listed as one of the ingredients. Just what is copper and why should we be interested? Our latest copper-themed miniseries offers in a “bite-sized” manner four short and snappy podcasts all to do with copper. Why do ruminants (sometimes, but not always) need copper? What “jobs” does copper do throughout the body? How do deficiencies of copper come about on farm? Sheep and cattle – do we n...
Jan 03, 2025•24 min•Ep. 57
This latest “bite sized” short podcast takes a look at summer crop establishment in New Zealand, including a detailed look at the tiny (unwanted) herbivores that eat forage crops. Charlotte Westwood chats with PGG Wrightson Seeds agronomy guru Greg Zeuren to hear about the successful establishment of spring planted summer forage crops in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. In a down to earth, practical manner, Greg scene sets around deciding between direct drill or cultivation...
Nov 06, 2024•21 min•Ep. 56
Amazing feed quality or compost? This second of a two part podcast series focuses on how to make sure we get the very best quality feed from plastic-wrapped bales. Part 1 focused on how to assess baleage, and the importance of getting the dry matter (DM) % right to ensure a tasty, good quality end product. In this, part 2 of our baleage series, we look at further factors that impact balelage quality, including chop length, bale compaction, individual or tube-wrapped bales, how to handle bales an...
Oct 30, 2024•33 min•Ep. 55
Baleage can be a fantastic way to conserve pasture or crop, moving forage from times of feed surpluses to times of feed deficits. Once wrapped in plastic, all baleage looks somewhat the same. Yet behind that plastic lurks all types of feed, from very high quality baleage through to absolute compost. This latest podcast focusses on assessing the quality of baleage as a feed for your stock. After discussing how to assess baleage, we move onto the importance of getting good quality forage into a ba...
Oct 25, 2024•50 min•Ep. 54
Hypothermia is a real risk for newborn lambs and calves - and is a significant cause of loss of newborns born outdoors during cold weather. When body heat is lost to the environment faster than a lamb or calf can replenish core body heat from within, hypothermia is likely. What factors influence the amount of heat that a lamb or calf can generate to keep itself warm, from the 'inside-out'? In our latest podcast, we investigate how mother nature has designed a range of inbuilt systems that help n...
Sep 10, 2024•34 min•Ep. 53
Building on this mid-winter topic introduced in Episode 51, this podcast explores practical, farm-based things that we can do to help our cows well in cold weather. As a nutrition-themed podcast series, our latest episode focuses unashamedly on the importance of nutrition, but other topics are explored too. The role for shelter for reducing effects of wind chill is discussed. Just why cows need more feed during a range of different winter weather events is covered. How the “Heat of Fermentation”...
Aug 08, 2024•28 min•Ep. 52
Cold winter weather. Great if you love skiing, not so great for us and our ruminants when we’re out and about in rough weather. That said, ruminants can be remarkably resilient in cold winter conditions – to a point. In this, part one of a two part podcast series, we explore why ruminants (focusing specifically on dairy cattle) can tolerate moderately cold winter conditions. Risk factors that influence the degree of tolerance by cows to cold conditions are discussed. The range of coping mechanis...
Jul 30, 2024•37 min•Ep. 51
Ingestion of soil during grazing of pastures and forage crops is a common and unavoidable event. Soil contamination of silage and baleage is another challenge that we sometimes need to deal with. Our latest episode explores the whole topic of soil ending up where it doesn’t belong. How much mud and dirt do animals eat during grazing? What factors increase risk of animals eating too much soil? Are there any health or nutrition issues we need to think about when animals eat too much mud and dirt? ...
Jul 04, 2024•50 min•Ep. 50
Well known New Zealand-based veterinarian, nutritionist and farmer Dr Sue Macky joins Charlotte Westwood in our latest podcast. Sue steps us through everything to do with the individual dairy cow during the dry and transition periods - from the cow's point of view. Too often we get overly focused on the detail of the diet and management dry and transition dairy cows - and forget about focusing specifically on the cow herself. Not in this latest episode, this is very much about the cow herself! S...
May 31, 2024•24 min•Ep. 49
All plants would be green slime growing sideways along the ground if it wasn’t for lignin– True! Find out more in our latest podcast covering everything from the good, the bad and the ugly about lignin. Learn how lignin impacts overall quality of ruminant feeds, and how feed management decisions change how animals process and digest lignin in their day-to-day diets. Find out how the lignin content of feeds changes with feed type and feed management, and what you can do to reduce intake of lignin...
May 19, 2024•39 min•Ep. 48
Sliced on our morning cereal or perched on top of our iconic New Zealand dessert Pavlova, kiwifruit deliver a tasty powerpack of valuable nutrients for us humans. What about ruminants? Are reject kiwifruit from your local packhouse equally as good for our dairy cows and other animals on farm? Yes! A valuable source of energy delivered largely as water soluble carbohydrates, whole kiwifruit can be a very useful feed. However… as for any byproduct feed, kiwifruit may not always meet our expectatio...
Apr 28, 2024•48 min•Ep. 47
A fundamental basic of ruminant nutrition – energy density of feeds – is covered in this latest Rumen Room Podcast. Expressed as Megajoules of Metabolisable Energy per kilogram of dry matter (MJME/kgDM), energy density is an important driver of animal productivity and profitability. In a down to earth, practical “gumboot level” manner, Dr Charlotte Westwood explores the basics of MJME as a concept and covers how feed testing laboratories measure MJME. How we use MJME values of a feed on farm on ...
Mar 18, 2024•48 min•Ep. 46
Our latest podcast explores DCAD - one specific aspect of the diet of “springer” (“close-up”) dairy cows. The Rumen Room Podcast has briefly discussed DCAD previously (Episodes 10 and 34). Changing the DCAD of a springer cow diet potentially reduces risk of hypocalcaemia (low blood calcium) in cows before, during and immediately after calving. This latest episode takes a deeper dive into the detail of DCAD, explaining what DCAD is, what stock class stands to benefit the most from changing dietar...
Feb 16, 2024•46 min•Ep. 45
Our latest podcast carries on with our heat stress 'theme' from episode 43, where we explored the challenges of hot temperatures on pasture species. We’ve moved the theme of heat stress across to how heat stress effects dairy cows. We discuss how heat stress bothers cows, and investigate strategies to reduce the effects of summer heat on lactating cows of hot summer temperatures. Featuring expert heat stress guest podcaster, Lori Grinter, this episode covers a wide range of heat-related topics. ...
Jan 28, 2024•50 min•Ep. 44
With the New Zealand summer in full flight during early 2024, it’s timely to review how hot temperatures potentially alter the dry matter yields and nutritive value of our temperate pasture species. Exploring first how hot temperatures impact dry matter yields (kilograms of dry matter grown per hectare per day), the podcast looks at effects of hot weather on New Zealand’s most common pasture species combination, perennial ryegrass ( Lolium perenne ) and white clover ( Trifolium repens ). Other s...
Jan 19, 2024•54 min•Ep. 43
Thiamine (Vitamin B1) deficiency - a nutrition/diet-mediated animal health condition sometimes seen in ruminant species - features in this, our latest Rumen Room Podcast. Most often seen in young, spring-born ruminants during their first summer of life, thiamine deficiency is a sporadic animal health condition that most New Zealand dairy, sheep and beef farmers will be familiar with. Featuring five sections packed with information about thiamine, Dr Charlotte Westwood steps us through this podca...
Nov 23, 2023•44 min•Ep. 42
Our latest episode features guest speaker Dr Ginny Dodunski who joins Rumen Room host Dr Charlotte Westwood for a chat about all things internal parasites. As a New Zealand-based veterinarian and self proclaimed “gumboot parasitologist”, Ginny requires little introduction to most kiwis involved in farming. With a background in veterinary practice, farm consultancy and more recently, working part time with Wormwise, Ginny joins us to cover a range of topics relating to internal parasite managemen...
Oct 16, 2023•54 min•Ep. 41
This episode takes a deep dive into the topic of dietary iodine requirements of cows - and the relationship (or not) of iodine intake with the reproductive performance of cows. Iodine is well down the priority list when tackling challenges of poor reproductive performance. Body condition score at calving and the extent and duration of body condition loss (‘negative energy balance’) are by far the more important factors that drive successful reproductive outcomes in dairy cows. That said, iodine ...
Oct 06, 2023•39 min•Ep. 40
With the ever-increasing inconsistencies of summer weather impacting on dryland dairying, forage crops deliver a valuable bulk of high-quality summer and early autumn feed. In our latest dairying-themed podcast, host Charlotte Westwood is joined by Waikato dairy farming couple, Mark and Courtney Harris - to learn of their investigations into the fit of different summer forage crops for their dairy business. Farming across two properties in the northern and southern reaches of the Waikato, summer...
Sep 25, 2023•35 min•Ep. 39
With spring planting coming up fast for us here in New Zealand, our latest episode focuses on decisions around choosing the right pasture and forage crop seeds. Host Charlotte Westwood chats with guest podcaster, Southland agronomist Brian Young about all things seeds. Brian’s background includes farming (sheep and beef, and dairy), shearing, working as a rural retail rep and, for the last 9 years, working with PGG Wrightson Seeds, advising farmers how to grow the very best pastures and forage c...
Sep 21, 2023•20 min•Ep. 38
This episode carries on from Episode 36, expanding the topic around feeding ewes well through lambing. First up, we cover off on the challenges of stress, and of pre-existing animal health conditions on the ability of a heavily inlamb ewe to look after herself and her unborn lambs well, from a nutritional point of view. The importance of getting stocking rate right at the point of set stocking is discussed, and we investigate ways to calculate what your stocking rate should look like. Lower than...
Aug 28, 2023•49 min•Ep. 37
Our latest sheep-themed podcast covers a topic that can challenge our pregnant ewes when they have a belly-full of lambs in late pregnancy. Pregnancy toxaemia is a metabolic disease of ewes caused by underfeeding and/or stress when ewes, often those carrying twins or triplets, reach the final stages of late pregnancy. The podcast covers off what pregnancy toxaemia is (and how and why it occurs), clinical signs you might see in affected ewes, then finishes up with an overview of approaches to tre...
Aug 25, 2023•40 min•Ep. 36
During mid-winter, it’s not uncommon to start the morning with frosted forages (pastures, winter brassicas, fodder beet and green feed cereals). For break / strip grazed animals that are hungrily waiting for their regular shift onto a new break, frosted forages can potentially increase risk of rumen bloat or "frost bloat". In this our latest “bite-sized” Rumen Room Podcast, we cover why grazing ruminants, cattle particularly, are at greater risk of rumen bloat when they eat frozen pastures and w...
Aug 11, 2023•14 min•Ep. 35
In this our latest podcast, we focus exclusively on the diet of “springer” dairy cows (otherwise known as “close up dry cows”). Many factors are important when designing springer cows diets – relating not only to calcium metabolism but also to do with dietary energy, protein, fibre and, of course, the requirements for other minerals and vitamins. Focusing specifically on how a springer cow diet influences calcium metabolism through calving and during early lactation, we’ll cover a range of diffe...
Jul 23, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 34
