Publications

This Dairy Insight explores emerging diseases and the threats on the horizon for dairy herds, including bluetongue, lumpy skin disease and foot and mouth. It offers practical guidance on biosecurity, surveillance, animal movements and vaccination to help farmers stay one step ahead.

This Dairy Insight publication focuses on composting organic materials produced on the farm and does not cover green waste composting.

We explore how dairy farms can capture, store and utilise rainfall, covering everything from legislation and water quality considerations to system design, storage requirements and practical on-farm applications.

As drought conditions become more frequent and unpredictable across the UK, water security is rising up the agenda for farmers. Ensuring access to reliable water supplies is becoming increasingly important, not only for maintaining crop yields and livestock welfare, but also for safeguarding the long-term sustainability and resilience of agricultural businesses in the face of climate change.

This Dairy Insight focuses on the best practice use of boot dips for effective biosecurity for animal health and business resilience.

Rodents can be a serious problem on farm. They can spread disease to both humans and livestock, damage buildings, as well as consume and contaminate feed, causing financial losses. Good control is essential to reduce these risks.

This Dairy Insight focuses on best practice and regulations for the safe and secure storage and handling of fertilisers on farm, helping to protect your personal safety, ensure health and safety in the workplace, and prevent theft.

In this Dairy Insight we explore the role of sulphur for maximising grass yields, for cutting and grazing.

Soil is the foundation of any farm and investing time in understanding how healthy your soil is will always pay dividends. This Dairy Insight explores the soil health checks that can be easily carried out on farm.

Each year, the UK generates 83 million tonnes of livestock waste, with cattle accounting for 80% of this total. Of that, 47% is slurry – meaning farmers must manage over 32 million tonnes of cattle slurry annually. It's important to recognise that slurry is not a naturally occurring product. At grazing, cattle produce separate manure and urine, and it is only when these mix, they contribute to significant environmental challenges, including methane, ammonia, and hydrogen sulphide emissions.

With an estimated 4,000 to 50,000 species of micro-organisms per gram, soils are considered to be one of the most diverse habitats on earth.

This workbook brings together the technical concepts introduced in the following insight publications: • Boost Your Soil's Power: Understanding Cation Exchange Capacity. • Beyond pH: The Role of Base Saturation in Soil Health Cation Exchange • Soil pH and Liming – it's not all about Calcium! and provides a practical guide to choosing the right liming product and applying it at the correct rate for your soil.