McLarnon Feeds deliver animal feed and agri-products throughout Northern Ireland.

ARGROS SPECIAL OFFER

Toomebridge brothers Nial and George Higgins finish beef cattle on land once home to film star Richard Todd. Today, as they explained to Alistair Sampson, left, Volac International, and Seamus McGuckin, McLarnon Feeds, the star performer on their farm is Agros Additive.

10% EARLY ORDER DISCOUNT DELIGHTS TOOME BROTHERS

TOOMEBRIDGE brothers Nial and George Higgins recently took advantage of a 10% Agros Silage Additive discount as they have registered their interest in using Agros this summer prior to 30th April 2008.

Nial explained why the Higgins brothers are planning to use Agros again.

"This past silage season we used an additive, Agros from Volac International, for the first time in 15 years and are now seeing dramatically improved performance in our beef unit," Nial explained.

"We make our own clamp silage over two cuts so had the flexibility to cope with this year's broken weather better than those tied to contractors. Once we opened the clamps it was clear Agros worked.

"There was a lot less waste with silage good right up to the cover thanks to an excellent fermentation." Large scale finishers of steers and heifers for Foyle Meats Nial and George Higgins are under no illusions about miniscule margins in the beef sector.

As George noted, " Given the meagre returns from buying in stores to finish the key question is did it pay to spend money on Agros Additive? The answer is yes! Our cattle are eating better, more palatable silage so intake is dramatically increased, as is their weight gain.

No surprise to Seamus McGuckin, commercial sales manager at McLarnon Feeds.

"Agros Additive delivers to every gram of grass treated at least a million lactic acid producing bacteria, which over whelm spoilage bacteria and produce a controlled fermentation with minimal protein loss.

"At IGER in Wales, where rainfall is even higher than here, adding Agros to silage ensured 28% more protein was retained. No wonder dairy cows in trials at Wye College produced 19 litres more milk per tonne of silage when Agros was used.

"Beef cattle, as Nial and George found, also do better on silage made better with Agros Additive. In a trial at Liscombe in the wet west country beef cattle ate more of the more palatable silage made with Agros. This boosted liveweight gain by up to a third giving an extra 19kg over 99 days.

"Almost as important using Argos Additive from Volac International at colleges and on local farms reduced effluent by nearly a third," commented Seamus McGuckin, who can be contacted on McLarnon Feeds or tel; 07788 146648.