What farmers say...

"You'd be silly not to feed crimp..."

ALVIS BROS are one of the leading cheesemakers in the West Country, based near Bristol Airport. Three herds are run, one in organic conversion. Johnny Alvis shown here looks after a 340-head herd and he has fed crimped wheat since 1997. "I tried caustic but the biggest problem is that we dried it, put it in a bin, took it out of the bin, got it wet again. It seems like hard work. The caustic isn't very nice to handle, and for a herd this size you're mixing up a 3t batch three or four times a week. The beauty of this crimp is that we work really hard for three days and then it's done. I'm really chuffed to bits with Crimpstore. "There's no waste and we feed straight from the clamp.
Johnny reports that they have been able to cut back on the more expensive bought-in protein, and feed crimp. His biggest problem was getting cows back in calf easily and quickly. "We've noticed an improvement in fertility levels since feeding crimp. You'd be silly not to feed crimp. It only costs the farmer what it costs to grow."

"My contractor flatly refused to
combine green wheat"

"My contractor flatly refused to combine green wheat. He's lost my business - this crimp is absolutely fantastic." After two desperate years of trying to keep his wheat dry, Cheshire-based John Roberts decided to try crimping. But his regular contractor flatly refused to combine the green wheat. "He wouldn't even come and discuss it - you'll never do it he said. So I got a local farmer with a big New Holland who rattled it off. We had a few teething problems, but we learnt what not to do and I must say the crimped wheat was absolutely fantastic stuff. Alan Bennion did the crimping and it went really well."
John got off 6-7t an acre totalling around 150t in all. The amount of quality straw surprised him. "Straw is a good commodity for us dairy farmers. We do need straw for bedding purposes and feeding."
The crimp forms part of a mixed ration with soya, rape and minerals, bicarb and Megalac mixed up twice a week to feed his 200 milkers and 150 followers.
John was most worried about the crimp going off once the clamp was opened. With a thirty foot face he thought that once the crimp started to move it would go off, "But it has remained stone cold. The Crimpstore has certainly done its stuff. It looks delicious, you could eat it yourself."

Lupins trial
He has also crimped seven acres of lupins as part of a two year trial. "They talk about whole cropping them, combining dry and rolling, I still think crimping is the best one. We'll try again this year."
"You only do it once"

Top bull thrives on crimped feed

Northern Ireland pedigree bull breeders, Martin and Geoffrey Rogers are delighted at the improved performance from crimped cereals compared with their conventional rolled cereal feeding system. Their herd of 100 commercial and 70 pedigree cows, calves from January to March and is well known in the province.
Heifers from the commercial herds are finished and bullocks sold as stores. In recent years, the family have had much success in show circles including Limousin Show Bull of the Year.
In 1999 a Korte crimping machine was used to crimp 85 tonnes of wheat and 50 tonnes of barley that were treated with Crimpstore 2000S and ensiled on the farm.

Useful dry roller
The crimper has also been used to dry roll wheat, barley and oats at home and for neighbouring farms, the high throughput and low cost makes this operation most attractive. The Rogers substituted crimped cereals for dry rolled cereals on an ad-lib basis for the pedigree bulls and were pleasantly surprised.
The animals were more content on the crimped cereal diet and found it more palatable. Feet problems have been minimised and growth rates are as high, if not higher, but certainly more consistent. Since changing to crimped cereals all animals have reached their target weights for age, with excellent conformation. The crimped cereals are mixed with a specially formulated 20% protein blend and a mineral formulated to balance the diet.
All animals are weighed weekly with Daily Live Weight Gains (DLWG) of 1.92 kgs being recorded on the pedigree bulls (two pedigree limousins have recorded a weekly LWG of 25kgs each). Young bulls are achieving DLWG of l.70kgs. Footnote: Hillhead Orinoco sold for 4000gns at Borderway Mart on March 10th, well above the average of £2166 for bulls at this breed society sale.