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With the temperatures currently skyrocketing are your chickens in need of some extra TLC? Barastoc Poultry have put together some handy information for chicken owners to help you keep your chickens safe and healthy during summer. Chickens feel the full brunt of summer when temperatures start going outside their ideal ambient temperature of 18-25 degrees Celsius, the other element that amplifies the severity of their heat tolerance is humidity. The combination of high temperatures plus high air humidity will increase your bird’s discomfort and chances of heat stress. Unlike humans, chickens don’t have the ability to sweat and therefore have...

The condition 'bighead' was first diagnosed in Australian horses grazing subtropical pastures in 1974. Since then it has been widely recognised in horses grazing buffel, pangola, setaria, kikuyu, green panic, guinea and signal grass. These tropical grasses, planted along the seaboards of Australia, contain oxalate - a chemical that significantly interferes with mineral utilisation by horses. In bighead-producing grasses the major portion of calcium is present as crystalline calcium-oxalate which is insoluble, making the calcium unavailable for absorption in the gut. Grasses with more than 0.5% oxalate are capable of inducing bighead. There are three clinical manifestations of the bighead...

Do you have a horse or pony who gets hot or fizzy? A horse that can’t focus? A horse that you suspect of having hindgut acidosis or stomach ulcers? Or perhaps a pony prone to laminitis or EMS? Going grain free may just be the key to solving your horse’s underlying issue.