Technology is taking over the world of agriculture. The challenge… Going into a feedlot or a dairy and delivering the proper amount of nutrition to your livestock. It's more complicated than you think under present circumstances but Animal Health International and their subsidiary Turnkey has just made a huge contribution. Director of Marketing, Bill Sirico: Micronutrient feeding machines have had great success and great benefit to beef feedlot managers and we also see as dairy operations are getting larger and larger in terms of the number of cows, there is great application in the dairy feeding area. These machines ensure that the ration that is prescribed or directed for a particular feedlot pen or a particular state of Cal, whether they be a dry cow etc., they deliver the precise ration as needed for that animal or that pen. The way that the machine works differently than some traditional operations, when rations are being mixed it is often by scoop. A large scoop into a bag or a bucket into the ration mix. The micronutrient machines delivery much more precise ration. With a scoop, there's obviously a lot of room for error whether it be human or environmental. Wind can blow expensive mineral nutrients away, for example. The micronutrient machines are enclosed and feed the micronutrient to the ration via a hopper which then creates a slurry which is mixed into the feed. Feed is then brought out to the feed yard and individual pens get the proper individual ration that they have been directed to.
