Technical Services

The range of Technical Services available from NWF include:

• Dairy Costings
• Beef Costings
• Ration Planning
• Diet Sieving
• Dung Sieving
• Forage Analysis
• Clamp Capacities
• Body Condition Score Monitor
• Locomotion Score Monitor
• Dry Cow Check
• Mineral Analysis
• Interherd Report using NMR and CIS Data
• Heifer Rearing Calculators
• Youngstock Growth Monitor
• Soil Analysis
• Water Testing
• Cow & Calf Signals

NWF operates a state of the art laboratory at Wardle and process over 8,000 silage samples per year

The laboratory analyses:

• Fresh grass
• Silage – grass, maize, whole crop
• Haylage

FREE analysis for NWF customers with results processed within 24hrs* of receipt of sample.(*48hrs during peak season).

NWF Agriculture is a longstanding member of the Forage Analysis Assurance Scheme. The FAA Proficiency Test Scheme provides each member with a set of standardised test samples every month from summer to late spring. These, in turn, are assessed to ensure the samples are homogenous and each lab is receiving the same sample. Each laboratory analyses the samples according to their normal commercial method and reports the results to the group. The results are then statistically reviewed and compared to two standards.

• Firstly, against a Master NIRS Instrument (NIRS is Near Infra-red Spectroscopy) and is a widely used rapid technique for forage analysis in laboratories and on farm.
• Secondly, against the gold standard of wet chemistry analysis carried out by an ISO accredited laboratory.

Having both these sets of results allows the laboratories to confirm that their instruments are calibrated and performing correctly and that the rapid analysis techniques are a good reflection of wet chemistry results.