I use DietCheck to plan, check and tweak diets for my 700+ dairy herd in Cheshire. The software allows me to incorporate homegrown forage values to formulate the best ingredients for my blends. As a farmer I know my cows well and DietCheck is a real benefit as you can see what suits the cows straight away.
I use the “What If” function on a regular basis as it gives the ability to formulate diets and adjust them for maximum performance at the lowest cost, saving me money in the long term without impacting on output.

Dairy Farmer, Nantwich, Cheshire 

I’ve used DietCheck for a number of years, as a veterinary surgeon and also in my retirement looking at rations on farm. It became apparent early on in my career that in order to provide the best all round service for our Dairy Farmers we needed to understand the importance of nutrition and provide information around it. DietCheck enabled us to do this and is a really useful tool. I mainly used the software when we needed to look at specific problems on farm that could be related to nutrition. For example, when looking at freshly calved cows. The dry cow diet is crucial to the transition period and DietCheck helped us to look at energy and protein levels and was used a lot to monitor macro-mineral levels and for DCAD formulation.
The software system makes it easy to import analyses from the forage samples we collect on farm. It also provides access to the Nutriopt Dairy Model from Trouw Nutrition which we have found useful in assessing the suitability of dairy diets and in particular the risks to rumen health.
DietCheck was originally recommended to me from a number of nutritionists and farmers. I find it really easy to use and it worked for the vet practice as we weren’t required to purchase the whole system - it was a bespoke package for our needs. DietCheck also have a good training and support team.
It would be difficult to run a dairy veterinary practice without a tool like DietCheck - nutrition is often the key to getting things right!

I use DietCheck everyday as part of my role as a veterinary nutritionist providing technical support to the rest of the team. It’s a great tool for reviewing and checking diets as well as formulating them, giving you confidence in your work.
As a reviewing and checking tool, you can easily check data from one user to another and look at differences in outcomes. It works well from the point of view of understanding rumen function and manipulating this from paper to animal. You can check data coming back from the farm easily, so where you may have calculated diets per head and if the data coming back is for the group, you can input this back into the system to ensure you’re getting things right. The “What If “and “Mix-In” functions are really good for comparisons.
As a diet formulation tool, the way I use it depends on the farm. DietCheck is really flexible allowing you to formulate basic diets for some clients or to really drill down into detailed information for others. With an understanding of the cows being fed, DietCheck is really good at pinpointing any issues on farm.

Nutritech was one of the first companies to adopt DietCheck and we have been using it for over 15 years. We chose the software as we need a tool that would empower our Area Managers to be leaders in Animal Nutrition.
As the Technical Service Manager, I use DietCheck daily to check and communicate with the area manager on rations sent to me from the field, to run TMR’s and Premix formulations. I couldn’t do my job without it! The programme is easy to use and accurately reflects what we are seeing in the field. It helps us to improve animal health and production in a pasture based system. I particularly like the the DCAD calculations and the the “What If” functions as they provide an extra benefit to get the best out of the diets.
The support from the team at DietCheck is excellent, they always get back to me on time and are happy to help. I’d definitely recommend the software, it gives you an edge over your competitors.

As a business we strive to be as professional as possible and that extends to all of the software and tools that we use on farm. It is important that our sales guys can send us diets without complicated email protocols if they require assistance, but also they need to be able to send them to clients via email easily and with the ability to add notes, which DietCheck allows them to do.
From a more technical point of view it allows me to monitor my diets to whatever level of complexity I require and is also very easy for me to adjust matrix values and library feeds to enable accurate diet design.
Recently the addition of the capability to add different cost sets and to demonstrate the cost of diets to the farmer in a number of ways has proved to be very beneficial to achieving buy-in from the client in a world where diet performance is under scrutiny more than ever.

I first started using DietCheck when I began my Advanced Diploma in Ruminant Nutrition at Harper Adams and continue to use it as a Ruminant Nutritionist for over eight years. I use it daily to formulate diets for the farmer clients I work with. It’s simple to use and not overly complicated, even though there is a huge amount of flexible data in there.    
I absolutely love the “What if” function which allows you to compare diets, I use that every day and wouldn’t be without it. It’s great being able to adjust ingredients or forages, for example if your dry matter is out, then you can adjust to get the correct levels. The reporting system also highlights issues within the diets. I find that really helpful as it’s a good visual to demonstrate to clients what I’m doing and the impact of different inputs on the diet. The compound and blend formulation features are also really useful. The program gives you the values of base raw materials from the feed mills, which is really easy to use as you can tweak and adjust those values as necessary.
  I would not be without DietCheck, I nearly had a meltdown when my computer failed! 

The Farm Consultancy Group 

I have always used DietCheck and find it easy to use. I use it on a daily basis for forage analysis, rationing and blend formulations, mainly for dairy cattle but also for beef. As a farm consultant I also find it easy to display information to the farmers, tailoring it with the ability to add and remove functions. It really supports our job on farm, as it gives the farmers a reason to trust in our products and consultancy.
It’s also a good commercial tool, for example the optimiser tool allows you to compare costs and adjust the diet accordingly. You can still keep a check on energy and protein levels but still choose the most cost-effective input options.
The support from DietCheck has always been good, with useful training sessions and day-to-day support for any queries.

Duffields 

There are a couple of software programs I couldn’t function without and DietCheck is one of them! Having first been introduced to DietCheck back in 2006, while working for Keenan, when I set up my own consultancy in 2011, one of the first phone calls I made was to DietCheck to ensure I could send out accurate diet formulations to my customers.
I use it every day for customers not just in the Ireland but the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Unlike other international feed programs, DietCheck takes into account your location so you can adjust the environmental levels such as pasture, temperature and light.
DietCheck is easy to navigate and the feed library is simple to adjust. When you deal with some of the same farmers day to day and year to year, it’s great to be able to copy the diets and import forage analysis to the program. When I’m sending advice to customers, it’s really easy to send diet formulations either on email or through Whatsapp – you’re not having to switch between different programs. DietCheck helps to speed things up and to keep accurate records and notes for each of the farms that I work with – it’s an essential part of my business.
I know the program so well I can navigate it without seeing the screen. If I ever need to get something to a client quickly, I can phone home, formulate a diet remotely and get it emailed to the customer!

DietCheck is a very important piece of software for Carrs Billington. We have 55 licenses and it’s an essential tool for our team. It’s used every day both on the farm and in the office to maximise farm feed efficiency. Our Sales Team use DietCheck in different ways and it’s that flexibility that makes it a really useful tool for us. You can formulate a diet within a couple of minutes and if you need to be more detailed then it has that ability.
The “What if” function is a great way to compare diets and enables us to demonstrate the benefits of different inputs to customers. It ensures you are getting the best performance from the diet.
With the current focus on sustainability for the farming industry, DietCheck is particularly useful. You can use it to demonstrate protein use and nitrogen efficiency.
The support that the DietCheck team provides is excellent and they are always quick to respond. I’ve looked at other feed formulation software in the past but will continue to use DietCheck – it just works really well!

Carrs Billington 

I’ve always used DietCheck and I’m really happy with how it works. I use it most often for ration formulations on farm and to balance up seasonal diets with forages and straight available.
I like the help button, it’s nice to have key targets and see what you are aiming for. You have columns on the right-hand side to see what you are formulating but it’s reassuring to be able to drill down to see where your numbers are coming from and what you can potentially achieve.

I have been using DietCheck for over a year both in my role at WE Jameson and Sons as well as a post grad student at Harper Adams University studying Ruminant Nutrition. I find the software very user friendly and I use it every day to calculate diets for dairy, beef and sheep animals. I quite often use the “What If” function to compare different values of diets. The TMR editor is especially useful if you are on a grazing diet as you can put in a buffer feed and formulate the farm pre-mix, keeping the grazing separate if you need to. You can also upload forage data – again really easy to use.
The software isn’t just about calculating diets, it also helps with building knowledge. So, I use the system when studying on my course. It’s also great as a quick referencing tool, there is a huge feed library to access. This allows you to reference a number of points, for example, you could find out about the microbial intakes of a cows, compare feeds and sort them on values. For example, sorting feeds on values if protein in descending order or you can list on least values depending on what you need.