AFBI operates a commercial forage analysis service based at
its Hillsborough site. The Hillsborough Feeding Information System (HFIS) is an innovative
commercial forage analysis service based on high quality, peer-reviewed research. It embraces
new techniques and methods to reduce costs and speed up analysis time. The HFIS is available to
the farming industry in the whole of Ireland and beyond.
Service details
At present AFBI routinely analyses:
- Grass, maize and whole-crop silage
- Grass for ensiling
- Grass for grazing
The service differs from conventional analytical services in that it incorporates performance prediction tables covering dairy cows, beef cattle, suckler cows, growing lambs and ewes in addition to the normal analytical parameters of protein, fibre, dry matter etc.
The service:
- Is fast
- Is accurate – a large sample better reflects the sample pit
- Is non-destructive and non-polluting
- Predicts biological parameters which cannot be determined directly by wet chemistry e.g. intake, Metabolisable Energy (ME)
AFBI guarantees to report within 4 working days in the case of grass silage and 10 working days in the case of maize and whole crop silages.
Grass reports are usually same day, or for samples received late in the day, by noon the next day.
Service costs
For the 2007/8 season:
- Grass silage including 1 feeding report £14.50
- Additional feeding reports £2.00
- Pre-paid postage bags £2.00
- Maize silage £14.50
- Haylage £18.50
- Whole crop silage £18.50
- Grass for ensiling £12.00
- Grass for grazing £10.00
All + VAT @ 17.5%
Contact details
