Mineral Advice - Dr Annie Williams

23/10/2026

Lucky to get so much variety in my job, all related to feeding cows! 🐄

A week in Argentina 🇦🇷 exploring the dairy supply chain. Fitting in as much steak and Malbec as possible.

🐄 On farm will always be my favourite place to be and one of the things I love most about visiting farms around the world is seeing just how much farmers have in common.

🌍 Whether in Argentina, Europe, or elsewhere, the conversations often come back to the same topics: fluctuating feed costs, succession planning, and the challenge of farming in a changing climate. Challenging economic backdrop a particularly hot topic in Argentina.

We saw two systems while we were here, TMR in a dry lot and grazing ryegrass and lucerne with self-feed maize silage. A changing climate a challenge for both pasture based systems and dry lots, predominantly because of flooding 🌧️

👏👏A big thank you to Arla Foods Ingredients América Latina and CREA for making the visit possible and for expertly translating between Spanish and English, especially when my questions became very specific about cow nutrition!

Just a 14 hour flight back home to go …. ✈️✈️

20/10/2026

🗓️ November is all about beef cattle! 🗓️

We might still be in October but I’m busy prepping for November, where I have six talks to give on balancing minerals in beef cattle.

1️⃣ Kicking off in New Brunswick, Canada at the start of November.

2️⃣ Followed by North Wales Farming Connect

3️⃣ Finishing in Southern England Friars Moor Livestock Health

Balancing minerals in different beef systems is critical to performance. Considering where in the production cycle they are vulnerable to under supply can help us to supplement in the most effective way.

26/09/2026

Excited to head back to Canada in November!

26/09/2026

Happy to be heading back to Canada!

Why should you come to the 2026 Maritime Beef Conference? 🤔

Because bringing the right information back to your farm can make a real difference! This year’s program is packed with practical, producer-focused sessions you won’t want to miss.

One highlight is Dr. Annie Williams, joining us from the UK on Saturday afternoon to talk about "Mineral management for beef cattle - and what Canadian beef producers need to know."

With a PhD in mineral bioavailability and a background in mineral consulting with vets, farms and nutritionists around the world, Annie brings a wealth of knowledge to the table.

📍 Delta Beauséjour, Moncton, NB
📅 November 6–7, 2026

Early Bird Registration ends October 8! Register early and take advantage of the early bird rate. Beef producers and students - make sure to use promo code BEEF or STUDENT for 50% off‼️

Register today: www.maritimebeef.ca/events

26/08/2026

🐄 Copper in dairy calves….. not stopping until we solve the problem! 🐄

🫵 You can help inform new recommendations for copper in calf milk replacer and starter feed by participating in the survey.

📸 Video tells you how!

❓Any questions let me know.

06/07/2026

Research! Something I don’t speak much about, but a really important part of my work to translate the latest research into commercial practice…… 🐄🐑

I haven’t done any “active” research since completing my PhD (pictured 📸) 2016-2020 at Harper Adams University but I keep up with all the latest research so I can apply it for my clients.

More recently, I’ve stepped back into a more active role. Not in the lab, that’s definitely not for me 😂 but to help design research projects that help us to improve knowledge in real life situations.

Two that are active at the moment:

1. Copper in dairy cows/youngstock with a fab team at Harper. You can hear about it on an upcoming episode of and read in this months

2. Cobalt in dairy cows in Sri Lanka…. More information on that one soon

21/06/2026

🐄🐄 Last weeks and farm meeting, hosted by Babbacombe dairy.

A bit of rain ☔️ did not stop some great discussion. Think farm meetings this week may look a little different! ☀️☀️

01/06/2026

It’s and coincidentally exactly one year since I joined ! 🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄
Also the perfect day for Arla to announce a major merger to become the biggest dairy company in Europe 🌍

As well as the mineral consultancy that I run I work in Arla’s global agricultural sustainability team, looking after feed, nutrition and scope 3 emissions in our whey supply chain. Working on innovation, implementing the latest scientific research and transitioning that through the teams in the market.

Would also consider myself a chocolate milkshake connoisseur and this one from is one of the best!

31/05/2026

May wrap-up a really busy month, with a little bit of downtime squeezed in the middle:

1. Started out with a week at Arla HQ in Denmark 🇩🇰
2. conference talking about sustainability in feed and nutrition
3. Straight over to hopefully to inspire a few people to think about applying for a scholarship 🌍
4. Caught up with some clients while I was over 🐄
5. Article published in on balancing minerals for dry cows
6. Catching up with friends from all over the world at Nuffield Agri-summit in Ireland 🇮🇪
7. Mr Guinness discussing: Feed the world, our responsibility?🍺
8. Battling my way back from Ireland. Very lucky to have friends that come to the rescue when travel plans go wrong! ✈️
9. Final webinar of the Spring series. Thank you so much for your support on these! I’ll be back with new ideas in 2027 🥳
10. I have enjoyed some chill time this month 🧋

June looking even busier, diary to come soon. But definitely features lots of time in south west England so do get in touch if you would like some in person consultancy.

24/05/2026

The Nuffield Agri-Summit…. What an event!
First of all congratulations to the organisers, an amazing line up of inspirational speakers 🎤

I find stepping out of my day-to-day both important and energising. This event had absolutely nothing to do with cattle 🐄 nutrition, but focused on global economics, agri-policy and trade.

Some speakers were pretty frank (which I love!) in their views about import, export, trade deals, decisions driving economics, politics and how this effects agriculture as a whole, but with particular focus on the UK and Ireland who can be pretty divergent when it comes to trade! Also some politicians doing some serious fence sitting….. don’t love that so much

Could write a lot more about what I learnt but left with a feeling you always get at a Nuffield event

“The world is ruled by those that show up”

Loved catching up with friends from around the world 🌍
📸 2024 scholars from UK, Ireland, France, Netherlands and Australia

Congratulations to 🇮🇪