The Rumen Room Podcasts

Nov 05 2024 56 ep. 45 mins 10

The Rumen Room Podcasts artwork

“What’s the guts??”. Deep within the interior of ruminant animals is a fascinating digestion system that enables animals to digest fibrous feeds that we as humans can’t. Focusing on how ruminants work, The Rumen Room Podcasts cover a broad range of topics that bring together the nutrition, health, reproductive performance and well-being of ruminant animals. Presented in a practical, down to earth manner by New Zealand veterinarian and nutritionist Dr Charlotte Westwood, The Rumen Room Podcasts are a must for anyone with an interest in ruminant animals. Based largely on topics contained in the Facebook group ”The Rumen Room”, these podcasts also include new content not published previously on Facebook. Proudly supported by PGG Wrightson Seeds New Zealand, the Rumen Room Podcasts are well worth a subscribe so you can be the first to tune in to the latest episodes. Thanks for joining us.

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56. Ruminants aren’t the only herbivores that eat forage crops!

Nov 05 2024 21 mins

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 o

55. Baleage – A mystery surprise or valuable nutrients for our ruminants? Part 2

Oct 30 2024 33 mins

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 impac

54. Baleage – A mystery surprise or valuable nutrients for our ruminants? Part 1.

Oct 24 2024 49 mins

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

53. Switching on ‘the heater’ inside newborn ruminants – The role for brown fat reserves

Sep 09 2024 33 mins

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 'ins

52. Wild winter weather. Part Two, Farm-level practical concepts

Aug 08 2024 28 mins

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

51. Wild winter weather. Cattle outside, how we can help - Part One

Jul 30 2024 37 mins

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. Ri

50. Soil contamination of feeds – any issues for our ruminants?

Jul 04 2024 50 mins

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 t

49. Dry cow and transition cow management – it’s all about the COW. Featuring Dr Sue Macky

May 30 2024 24 mins

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 ab

48. Lignin – From pine trees to pastures – What do your grazing animals reckon?

May 18 2024 38 mins

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 ho

47. Kiwifruit as a feed for ruminants

Apr 28 2024 48 mins

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 k