Services

Grain Analysis

We Provide year-round testing of grain that is quick efficient and comprehensive. Analytical testing of grain is essential in the formulation of animal diets. Bandon Coop ensure the highest level of accuracy through regular comparative grain proficiency testing.

Forage Analysis

Forage quality analysis is an essential tool in formulating diets and calculating feed stocks on farms. Where the quality of the forage is not known, it can lead to losses through reduced performance or over supplementation of concentrates. In addition to this, a key parameter such as the dry matter content is important in working out the actual amount of feed available to you.

Fresh Grass analysis

Analysis of fresh grass for grazing provides an up-to-date picture of the quality of the grass.

We go to great lengths to know what we are feeding our cows during the winter, analysing silage and carefully balancing the ration to meet the cows’ needs, so why do it differently during the summer? Monitoring energy (ME) and protein in your grass will help you decide how much supplementation feeds are necessary.

Ensilability Testing (pre-mowing)

Reduce the risk of poor-quality preservation and know the right time for cutting with our pre-mowing testing. We can test your grass to determine the level of Nitrogen and sugars for optimal cutting time for your silage.

Farmers should target a High Sugar content and Low Nitrogen content when harvesting.

Soil Analysis

A soil test is vitally important for several reasons: to optimize crop production, to protect the environment from contamination by runoff and leaching of excess fertilizers, to aid in the diagnosis of plant culture problems, to improve the nutritional balance of the growing media and to save money and conserve energy by applying only the amount of fertilizer needed.

All farmers above 130 kg N/ha must take soil samples to get a P allowance. Where soil samples are not taken, then it is assumed phosphorus Index 4 and no P may be purchased.

Milk Quality Advisory Service

Our Milk Quality Support Team helps our farmers to achieve their milk quality requirements and objectives, ensuring a consistent supply of high-quality milk for processing. The Milk Quality Support Team works closely with all milk suppliers to ensure the quality, safety and traceability of milk supply.

We also assist and support our milk producers on all aspects of the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme including the audit process.

If you need of help with getting ready for an audit or closing out issues raised at an audit contact a member of the Milk Quality Support Team.

Nutritional Advice

At Bandon Co-op, we pride ourselves on being the leading supplier of dairy feeds. This position has been attained by providing our farmer and livestock producer customers with a complete feeds service based on our many years of experience.

We offer a total nutrition-based feeds service. Our team consists of highly qualified nutritionists that are available to you with practical and up to date advice on diet formulation whatever your farming enterprise is. We can formulate and balance your diet requirements to achieve the maximum performance from your stock.

Worm & Fluke Faecal Egg Count (FEC) Testing

Are you thinking of treating your animals for worms?

Bandon Co-op now provide rapid faecal worm & fluke tests in-house with same day results!

A faecal egg count (FEC) counts the number of worm or fluke eggs in faeces (dung) and is used to monitor the worm/fluke burden in ruminants. The results are presented as ‘eggs per gram’ (epg) of faeces and the number of eggs is an indication of the number of adult worms or fluke in the gut of the animals.

It has the potential to reduce labour, save money, provide early identification of infected animals, and reduce antimicrobial resistance by targeted treatment of animals at the correct time