ChewintheCud Podcast

A clamp covered in mould may carry very little toxin, while feed that looks perfectly clean can carry a significant load. Mycotoxins are hard to see, hard to test for and easy to underestimate. Peter van der Vegt, Global Lead Technical Service at Volac International Limited, and Amanda Clements, Key Account Manager for Central England and Wales at Volac, joined Andrew and Sarah to explain what they are, where they come from and what they do to the dairy cow.
Amanda explained that moulds produce mycotoxins when they are under stress, and that Fusarium, probably the most common group in the UK, comes in from the field on the crop. With maize short after the drought, cutting low to make up the shortfall could bring more of it into the clamp. Peter shared findings from on-farm testing in the Netherlands, where concentrates carried higher levels of mycotoxins than the TMR/PMR, putting much of the risk outside the farmer’s control. He also explained why a clay binder will not deal with every toxin: aflatoxin binds easily, while DON, zearalenone, T-2 and HT-2 need to be transformed and degraded.
Amanda set out the symptoms to watch for, from loose manure and unexplained drops in milk to lower intakes and poor fertility, and why chronic, low-level exposure matters for high-producing cows already on a knife edge. Andrew described a herd whose milk fell off a cliff after a poorly filled maize clamp, and the practical reality of acting before test results come back. The conversation also covered feeding rates, sampling properly, feed bin hygiene and why a low-risk result is not the same as no risk.
This episode was recorded remotely in September 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 ever chased a herd problem you couldn’t pin down, only to find mycotoxins were behind it?
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A club formed in 1946 to get the latest research into farmers’ hands is still doing exactly that. Matt Gue, Chair of the British Cattle Breeders Club (BCBC), joined Andrew and Sarah to explain what the club stands for and why beef and dairy breeders keep learning from each other. Matt is a vet whose family are behind the well-known Huddlestone Holsteins in West Sussex, and he was clear that the conference is for farmers: research that can be used on farm now, not pie in the sky.
The 2027 conference, Breeding for a Brighter Future, runs from 25 to 27 January at the Telford Hotel & Golf Resort. Matt previewed a Beef Day focused on feed efficiency, with Lee Leachman coming over from the US to talk about Stabilizer cattle. Dairy Day is built around breeding for better cow outcomes, from heat stress in dairy housing to using trimming data to tackle lameness. This year’s Monday afternoon workshop is run by the British Embryo Transfer Association and covers getting started with embryo transfer and getting more from an existing programme. Matt makes the case that ET still carries a stigma as a tool for pedigree breeders, when it has a real commercial place.
The conversation also covers genetic diversity and creeping inbreeding, why phenotype data still matters, and Matt’s view that the next five years will blow the last fifteen out of the water, from gene editing to using TB test results as breeding data. 
Conference details and booking are at www.cattlebreeders.org.uk/conference/ 
This episode was recorded remotely in September 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. 
Would you consider embryo transfer for a commercial herd?
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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.

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?
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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.

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?
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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.

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.
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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.