ChewintheCud Podcast

ChewintheCud Ltd
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Andrew Jones and Sarah Bolt bring you kitchen table conversations for the dairy industry, produced in the South West of England and listened to around the world. Now in its fifth year, each episode Andrew and Sarah are joined by a specialist from inside or outside the industry to discuss the practical and technical topics that matter to dairy farmers, advisers, and other industry professionals. They want to make you think about what you are doing — and ask yourself whether it could be done differently. For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd. You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

  1. 2d ago

    Carbon Farmer of the Year: Anyone Can Do This

    There is no muck and magic behind Carbon Farmer of the Year 2025. Stuart Rogers, Partner at Longmoor Farm Ltd, runs a high-yielding Holstein herd in North Dorset on a Duchy of Cornwall tenancy, and the farm was named Farm Carbon Toolkit's Carbon Farmer of the Year in 2025. Stuart and Rob Purdew, Farm Carbon & Soils Advisor at Farm Carbon Toolkit, joined Andrew and Sarah to explain how a herd averaging around 11,000 litres has brought its footprint down to 0.8 kg CO2e per kg of fat and protein corrected milk, against a UK dairy average of about 1.2.  Stuart talks through the simple changes behind that figure. The hedges are left taller and cut less often, and now sequester around 155 tonnes of carbon a year, up from 14. There has been no fertiliser on the grazing for seven years, the platform is laid out in one-hectare paddocks, and the maize has been strip-tilled into cover crops for six years. Rob explains what Farm Carbon Toolkit measures across the Duchy estate, how soil organic matter can increase up to 60 metres into a field from a healthy hedge, and why he thinks of the topsoil as a current account and the soil beneath it as a savings account. Both are clear that none of this needs big changes. Stuart's advice is to find someone who has done it, trial it alongside what you already do, and make a start. Entries for the competition open around the first week of March, and the 2026 awards will be presented at the Carbon Farmer of the Year Awards Day at FarmED, Chipping Norton, on 15 October 2026: https://farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk/event/carbon-farmer-of-the-year-awards-day/ This episode was recorded in June 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording. Please note this transcript was generated using AI transcription software. Despite best efforts to ensure accuracy, there may be some errors in the final piece. If you could make one change on farm this year to cut both costs and carbon, what would it be? If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who would find it useful, subscribe so you never miss a release, and leave us a review. Send us Fan Mail For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

  2. Sep 15

    Epigenetics on Farm: What the Data Reveals

    A year on from one of ChewintheCud's most talked-about episodes, Ian Garner, Head of R&D at Antler Bio, returns to take epigenetics from theory into practice on real dairy farms. This time the conversation turns to application. John Walsh, Director at Friars Moor Livestock Health and a dairy farmer running 250 cows through four robots, joins to share how his practice used the ADOPT grant to fund EpiHerd testing across three of its own vets' farms. He walks through what the process actually involves on farm, from blood sampling to waiting on results, and how the trial came about in the first place. Ian explains how Antler Bio's database has grown since last year, now spanning farms across the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and Canada, and how that extra scale is sharpening the picture on signatures like vitamin D. Sarah and Andrew press both guests on cost, return on investment, and how quickly farmers can expect results back once samples are taken. For John's own herd, an early look at the results already has inflammation, immunity and protein metabolism high on the list to act on, with a full results meeting still to come. It is a candid look at what it actually takes to bring epigenetics onto a working dairy farm, warts and all. This episode was recorded in August 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording. Please note this transcript was generated using AI transcription software. Despite best efforts to ensure accuracy, there may be some errors in the final piece. Has your herd's genetics ever felt like it was underperforming its potential? If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it with someone in the industry, and leave us a review. Send us Fan Mail For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

  3. Sep 1

    Stride 2026: The Cost of Doing Nothing!

    Most farmers know lameness is a problem. Far fewer know what it's actually costing them, and the 2026 Stride survey suggests that gap is exactly what's holding the industry back. Andrew and Sarah are joined by Matt Dobbs, Vet & CEO of HerdVision, and Ian Lindsay, Business Development Director at LKL Services Ltd, to unpack the results of the newly released Stride survey on UK dairy mobility. With 173 producers responding on behalf of around 55,000 cows, the data lays out where the industry stands: the average cost of a case of lameness is around £330, yet nearly one in five farmers surveyed believed it was costing them under £100. Matt explains why lameness is a hidden cost in a way mastitis rarely is, and what that means for how seriously it gets taken on farm. Time comes out as the single biggest barrier stopping farms acting, but it's far from the only one. Ian draws a memorable comparison between a modern high-yielding Holstein and a Formula One car: however good the team around her, none of it matters if the tyres, in this case the feet, aren't right. Training, investment, and a lack of clear on-farm responsibility for mobility all feature heavily too, and Matt makes the case for farms appointing someone with the same ownership over mobility that a herd might give a dedicated youngstock manager. Stride is taking these findings on the road this autumn, with confirmed roadshow events in Somerset on Wednesday 14th October and Staffordshire on Wednesday 28th October, both run in association with the National Association of Cattle Foot Trimmers (NACFT - nacft.co.uk). Search www.stridemobility.co.uk for full details. This episode was recorded in July 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording. Please note this transcript was generated using AI transcription software. Despite best efforts to ensure accuracy, there may be some errors in the final piece. What's the one thing standing between your farm and a proper mobility action plan? Let us know, and if you enjoyed this episode, please share it, subscribe, and leave us a review. Send us Fan Mail For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

  4. Aug 18

    Revolutionising TB Testing: Is Bulk Milk the Key?

    This conversation was recorded back in December 2025 and sat on for the best part of a year, with Andrew and Sarah Bolt asked to hold it until the findings could be formally released. The wait was worth it: a GB-wide study of five thousand dairy herds found a quarter tested positive for bovine TB at least once during 2023, including a fifth of herds that were officially TB-free at the time and trading with no restrictions in place. The findings come from Rachel Hayton, Research Lead at Synergy Farm Health in the South West of England, recorded alongside Sarah Tomlinson, Lead Veterinary Science Expert at AHDB and the TB Advisory Service (TBAS). Rachel's team used the Enferplex test, a serological blood and milk test made by Enfer Group, applied for the first time at bulk milk level across whole herds, testing around five thousand herds across England, Wales and Scotland three times through 2023, in partnership with Sure Farm Ltd, National Milk Records (NMR), the UK Agri-Tech Centre and SRUC, with funding from Innovate UK. The detail that stood out to Rachel was the overlap: 20% of herds with no restriction history in 2023, believing themselves clear, tested Enferplex positive. Sarah Tomlinson said this confirms what vets have long suspected: that officially TB-free status after two clear skin tests doesn't mean infection-free, and that this is exactly how the disease moves into new herds through trade. Both guests want to see infected animals managed out on a realistic timescale rather than removed immediately, mirroring how Johne's disease is already handled. Since this conversation was recorded, England's bovine TB strategy refresh has been published, setting out exactly this shift. Hear what it actually changes in this week's other episode, TB Strategy Refresh: What Really Changes for You? Additional Help and Resources For more information on Bovine TB, please see the below links to associated websites: •      TBAS: https://www.tbas.org.uk/ •      TB Hub: https://tbhub.co.uk/ •      TB Free England: https://www.tbfreeengland.co.uk/ •      ibTB: https://www.ibtb.co.uk/ •      Defra TB website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bovine-tb •      Animal & Plant Health Agency, Recent TB Instruction Updates: http://apha.defra.gov.uk/vet-gateway/TB/index.htm •      Official Veterinarian (OV) Conference: https://officialvet.com Help & Support If you, or any of the farm team, are concerned about how dealing with bTB is impacting your mental health, help is available via several organisations including R.A.B.I, Yellow Wellies, FCN and YANA. You are not alone. For help, support, additional information or for someone to just have a chat with please visit the links below: •      Online mental wellbeing service – RABI: www.rabi.org.uk/how-we-help/mental-wellbeing •      www.farmwell.org.uk •      Mind Your Head – YellowWellies.org: www.yellowwellies.org/mind-your-head •      YANA: You Are Not Alone – Rural Mental Health Support: www.yanahelp.org •      www.fcn.org.uk •      www.thefarminglifecentre.org.uk This episode was recorded in December 2025, and all information was correct at the time of recording. Please note this transcript was generated using AI transcription software. Despite best efforts to ensure accuracy, there may be some errors in the final piece. If a bulk milk test could tell you your herd's TB status without the stress of a skin test, would you want to know? If you enjoyed this episode, please share it, subscribe, and leave us a review. Send us Fan Mail For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

  5. Aug 18

    TB Strategy Refresh: What Really Changes for You?

    Andrew fed England's new fifty-five-page bovine TB strategy into AI and got nine bullet points back — with no way of knowing whether any of them were actually right. So he called Sarah Tomlinson, Lead Veterinary Science Expert at AHDB and the TB Advisory Service (TBAS), instead. Sarah Tomlinson chaired one of the working groups behind the strategy, published in June 2026 with input from over a hundred farmers, vets and scientists — a marked shift from the government-led vision behind the original twenty-five-year eradication strategy in 2013/14. The headline that's grabbed attention is cattle vaccination by 2030, but Sarah Tomlinson was clear it's a smaller part of the strategy than the coverage suggests: field trials are largely complete, and the delay comes down to paperwork, trade rules and getting the DIVA test validated for distinguishing vaccinated from infected animals. Badger culling is ending in favour of vaccination, building on pilots like the one in East Sussex, delivered by local farmers and vets. The change most likely to affect farmers directly is around ancillary testing. Under current rules, a positive animal must be culled within ten working days, triggering movement restrictions and sixty-day testing — which is exactly why farmers haven't wanted more sensitive tests run on their own herds. The strategy proposes letting officially TB-free farmers use these tests without triggering any of that, mirroring how the industry already manages Johne's disease. Herd risk scores will also be shared directly with farmers for the first time, and a new industry-government delivery board will decide priorities and timelines. Sarah Tomlinson named local ownership as the real theme running through the strategy — government can't deliver this alone, and farmers and vets are already good at managing infectious disease without being told how. She also shared a message from a farmer she'd supported through TBAS that made the human cost of TB breakdowns impossible to ignore alongside the policy detail. The strategy also references Enferplex, the bulk milk test at the centre of a major new GB-wide study — hear the full findings in this week's other episode, Revolutionising TB Testing: Is Bulk Milk the Key? Additional Help and Resources For more information on Bovine TB, please see the below links to associated websites: •      TBAS: https://www.tbas.org.uk/ •      TB Hub: https://tbhub.co.uk/ •      TB Free England: https://www.tbfreeengland.co.uk/ •      ibTB: https://www.ibtb.co.uk/ •      Defra TB website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bovine-tb •      Animal & Plant Health Agency, Recent TB Instruction Updates: http://apha.defra.gov.uk/vet-gateway/TB/index.htm •      Official Veterinarian (OV) Conference: https://officialvet.com Help & Support If you, or any of the farm team, are concerned about how dealing with bTB is impacting your mental health, help is available via several organisations including R.A.B.I, Yellow Wellies, FCN and YANA. You are not alone. For help, support, additional information or for someone to just have a chat with please visit the links below: •      Online mental wellbeing service – RABI: www.rabi.org.uk/how-we-help/mental-wellbeing •      www.farmwell.org.uk •      Mind Your Head – YellowWellies.org: www.yellowwellies.org/mind-your-head •      YANA: You Are Not Alone – Rural Mental Health Support: www.yanahelp.org •      www.fcn.org.uk •      www.thefarminglifecentre.org.uk This episode was recorded in July 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording. Please note this transcript was generated using AI transcription software. Despite best efforts to ensure accuracy, there may be some errors in the final piece. Have you had a chance to read the strategy refresh yet, or are you waiting to hear what it means in practice first? If you enjoyed this episode, please share it, subscribe, and leave us a review. Send us Fan Mail For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

  6. Aug 4

    Feeding Calves for Resilience

    Calf nutrition has come a long way since we last covered this topic — and in this episode, we catch up with two of Trouw Nutrition's own experts to find out just how far. Georgina Thomas, Young Animal Feed Technical Sales Manager, and Dr Juliette Wilms, a ruminant researcher who did her PhD on fat inclusion in calf milk replacer, join us to talk through the shift from growth-focused feeding to what they call resilience-focused nutrition. We get into why eight litres a day is now considered moderate rather than generous, what a calf would actually drink if left on its dam, and why feeding more only works if you're feeding the right thing. The heart of the conversation is fat — specifically the short and medium-chain fatty acids that occur naturally in whole milk but have historically been almost impossible to replicate in a calf milk replacer. Juliette explains the science behind restoring these, and why the payoff shows up most clearly in gut and respiratory health, not just growth rates. We also get into the real cost of scours and pneumonia in the calf shed, what Trouw's own research trial found when comparing four litres against eight, and why getting the fat-to-lactose balance right matters just as much as how much you're feeding. We round things out with a plain-English explanation of osmolality, why whole milk and calf milk replacer each have their place depending on your situation, and where Trouw's research is heading next — including some early findings on dairy beef calves that could reshape how a growing share of the industry rears its animals. As always, it comes back to the basics: get your colostrum, hygiene, and stockmanship right first, then use nutrition to build calves that can cope with whatever a real working farm throws at them. This episode was recorded in July 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording. Please note this transcript was generated using AI transcription software — despite best efforts to ensure accuracy, there may be some errors in the final piece.  What's your own take on feeding more milk versus feeding it right? Share your experience with us, and if you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe and leave a review. Send us Fan Mail For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

  7. Jul 14

    More Copper Isn't Always Better!

    Published abattoir research found over 40% of cull cows had toxic levels of copper in their livers. Pull back to elevated concentrations and Annie Williams, independent mineral nutrition consultant at Mineral Advice Ltd, suggests more than half of UK dairy cows may be above the threshold — potentially suppressing performance in ways that are almost impossible to distinguish from deficiency. In this conversation, we examine why copper excess is a far more widespread problem than most farmers and advisers currently recognise, and what can realistically be done about it. The conversation covers the limits of blood testing, why liver biopsy is the only reliable measure of copper status, and how to conduct a proper mineral audit that accounts for every copper input across an animal's lifetime — including concentrates, forages, water, injectables, drenches, and boluses. Annie explains the role of antagonists, why grass-based systems carry higher risk than housed TMR, what palm kernel extract means for formulation, and how copper accumulated in the calf shed follows a heifer right into the milking herd. The area where knowledge is thinnest — and where Annie expects the most significant development — is the pre-ruminant calf. Adult cattle absorb less than 10% of dietary copper; a pre-ruminant calf bypasses the rumen entirely and absorbs somewhere between 60 and 80%. Current guidance recommends 5 mg/kg dry matter in calf milk replacer, five times what whole milk naturally contains, and nobody is entirely sure where that figure originated. Research underway at Harper Adams, led by PhD student Amy Marsh, is trying to establish what the correct formulation targets should be. If you rear your own calves in the UK or Ireland and are willing to supply survey data and have products sampled, the project would welcome your involvement — find out more at www.mineral-advice.com. This episode was recorded in June 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording.  Please note this transcript was generated using AI transcription software — despite best efforts to ensure accuracy, there may be some errors in the final piece.  Are you confident your current mineral programme accounts for the full lifetime copper picture — from calf milk replacer through to the milking herd? Share this episode with someone who might find it useful, and if you enjoy ChewintheCud Podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you listen. Send us Fan Mail For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

  8. Jun 30

    DCAB: Stop Being Afraid of It!

    The transition period is the twenty-one days either side of calving. Get it right and the rest of the lactation follows. Get it wrong and you could spend the next ten months firefighting. To kick off Year Five, we're joined by Vicky Ham, Ruminant Technical Services Manager, Europe for Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition, to talk about DCAB — what it actually is, why it still strikes fear into people who should know better, and why the research keeps pointing in the same direction. The work goes back to Dr Elliot Block in the mid-1980s and is reinforced by meta-analyses from J.E.P. Santos: cows fed a negative DCAB diet calve with better calcium status, suffer fewer transition diseases, and eat more dry matter post-calving. The evidence is there. The question is why more people aren't using it. We cover the basics of acidification and how urine pH testing tells you whether cows are actually where they need to be — and why there is no such thing as a partial DCAB diet. You are either acidified or you are not. On the practical side we talk forage mineral analysis, straw potassium surprises in drought years, protein source selection, palatability, mixing, and why consistency is everything. We also cover what happens post-calving, stocking density, feed space, and why cows need to come off the negative DCAB ration the moment they calve. We also get into newer thinking on inflammation — the emerging evidence that hypocalcaemia may be less about calcium deficiency and more about an activated immune system demanding calcium and glucose at the expense of everything else. Studies suggest close to sixty per cent of cows at calving show inflammation with no clinical signs whatsoever. Managing that inflammatory load is not a separate conversation from transition nutrition. It is the same conversation.  This episode was recorded in June 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording.  Please note this transcript was generated using AI transcription software — despite best efforts to ensure accuracy, there may be some errors in the final piece.  Are you running a DCAB diet, and if not, what's holding you back? We'd love to hear from you. Please share, subscribe, and leave us a review — it helps more dairy farmers find us. Send us Fan Mail For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

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About

Andrew Jones and Sarah Bolt bring you kitchen table conversations for the dairy industry, produced in the South West of England and listened to around the world. Now in its fifth year, each episode Andrew and Sarah are joined by a specialist from inside or outside the industry to discuss the practical and technical topics that matter to dairy farmers, advisers, and other industry professionals. They want to make you think about what you are doing — and ask yourself whether it could be done differently. For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd. You can also email us at podcast@chewinthecud.com.

Information

  • Creator
    ChewintheCud Ltd
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    84
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 ChewintheCud Podcast
  • Show Website
    ChewintheCud Podcast

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