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GAEC Edelweiss: "Last summer, my cows consumed much more regularly with OmniGen"

 
Customer stories ,
Health
4 min

«Last summer, my cows consumed much more regularly with OmniGen »

 

The GAEC Edelweiss is a structure of 3 partners on 190ha which milks an average of 200 dairy cows daily. Heat stress has been a major concern for them for years, due to their geographic location..

“We are in an area where there is a lot of humidity, even in summer,” explains Mr Gabaix. To compensate for heatstroke, their building has been constantly evolving for 20 years: replacement of the cladding with air socks to maximize openings, fans, misters. Although the effect was evident on cell rates in the summer, the situation remains delicate, in particular due to a relatively busy building. "At home, there are 210 cubicle places but under the building there are between 240 and 250 cows present continuously, counting the dry cows and the heifers ready to calve, so it's a situation that is relatively challenging. 'we are very focused because everything has to go as well as possible to avoid going off the road' explains the breeder.


"The idea of an immunity booster at home, just spoke to me"

To try to get through the warm months better, breeders decide to try OmniGen first on dairy cows, then on dry cows. “We practice the short dry period, and in the end [during the dry period] they no longer had OmniGen, the effect fades after 15 days; the time to resume the effect then when they return to the dairy ration, it takes at least 30 days or even 45 days, so it is a bit ridiculous to stop between the two,” explains Mr Gabaix.

 

"After starting OmniGen, I observed an evolution in the general health of the herd"

Since the implementation of OmniGen in October 2019 on the entire herd, Mr farmers name? noted a clear reduction in lung infections, flu, etc... "there are practically none left, we may have had a colder winter climate but there was nothing at all this winter". A decrease in the number of clinical mastitis was also observed. At the start of 2021, “we took stock with the health visit of the veterinarian to be as objective, we noted a drop in the consumption of antibiotics for the treatment of mastitis”.

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“Last summer, milk production didn’t drop”

In terms of heat stress, "previously there was a drop in milk and a drop in dry matter intakess, but in the summer of 2020 Mr Gabaix observed changes, in particular a higher level of ingestion during hot periods.

“Nothing has changed with regard to the use of ventilation or misting, but we can see that the cows consumed more regularly, plus they maintained their dry matter intakes against previous summers". Resulting in our milk production holding up well around 35 litres/cow/day.

Preventing stress is a concern for Mr Gabaix and the use of OmniGen fits perfectly into this approach. "There is more tranquility in the management of the herd, it takes away some worries" concludes the breeder, who for the first time exceeded 2.5M liters of milk sold in 2020 "whereas at the beginning we were producing 1.3M liters in the same building”.