Dairy Farm Van der Wind: "With AniStart it’s just that little bit easier"

Health,

Milk Fever,

AniStart

7 min

Van der Wind: “It just runs much easier. My cows remain more active around calving, and I have fewer transition problems

Marco van der Wind, dairy farmer, milking 110 cows on 2 robots in Woudenberg (Netherlands). In addition to his dairy farm, he’s working 2 days a week as a dairy specialist. He is also in charge of the daily management of De Gelderse Vallei, a dairy feeding center, where the feed is prepared daily for approximately 600 cows and 2100 dairy goats. A busy daily agenda, therefore, he cannot handle problems in the transition period. This was the case in the past, but since Marco started with a unique dry cow concept, it runs easier and better. Cows remain much more active, have far less problems and produce more milk.

Marco van der Wind has been using the unique Phibro transition concept for almost 4 years now. It just runs much easier and after 4 years this hasn’t changed at all.

van der wind

Convenience and confidence

“It just runs much easier. My cows remain more active around calving, and I have fewer transition problems. Until 4 years ago, transition cows were an important point of attention where things too often did not go well. My results were certainly not bad, but I knew it could be easier and better”, says Marco.

The Next Generation DCAD Product: AniStart

Marco was one of the first farmers who started feeding AniStart. The further developed version of the well-known product Animate from Phibro. Thanks to new technology, Phibro has succeeded in making the product more concentrated and more palatable. The product has a user-friendly structure, which means that it can be processed in the TMR ration as well as in minerals and compound feed. The latter has been the strategy of the Van der Wind dairy farm for years. Feed anionic salts in pelleted feed, the last 3 weeks before calving.

Because we added Animate to the compound feed in the past, the space was limited. The more concentrated version AniStart gives us the possibility to process more anionic salts in 1 kg of compound feed. As a result, we ultimately need to feed fewer kilograms compound feed, says Van der Wind.

It's just going well, we see that with the chosen strategy with AniStart, the cows calve smoothly, are active and have a high feed intake. They start lactation without problems. This results in a high peak production with a high average milk production of over 40 kg per day.

“I found a low DCAD ration exciting at first. It is important that you choose the most palatable product, so that you do have the benefits, but not the negative effects on feed intake”

Marco Van der Wind

Dairy farmer

Unique concept

In this unique concept, farmers are guided by a technical specialist who accurately measures and calculates the cation-anion difference in the dry cow ration. This ration is supplemented with AniStart, a tasty and concentrated anionic salt. AniStart is a unique product produced by the company Phibro Animal Health. After implementation, the technical specialist continues to monitor and evaluate regularly to continue to guarantee the optimal result. Van der Wind works with a feeding computer and dry cow bales, produced by his feeding center, in close-up cows to implement the concept well and as practically as possible

Exciting?

I found a low DCAD ration exciting at first. It is important that you choose the most palatable product, so that you do have the benefits, but not the negative effects on feed intake, says Marco. In practice my dry cows have started to eat more rather than less. The increased feed intake around and especially just after calving is even more visible.

More active cows

Clinical milk fever was never a big problem, but subclinical milk fever was much more common than I expected. Cows that still have a calcium deficiency around calving, which means that the calving process as well as health and production are not good enough. Since this approach, my cows are clearly more active. They want to start eating right after calving. In addition, I see little spread in colostrum yield and 80% of the cows calve easily and without help.

Less problems

In addition to a higher efficient feed intake, more active cows around calving also provide many health benefits. The uterus cleans up better and the immunity remains at a better level. Placentas come off easily and both metritis and endometritis have all but disappeared. The udder health has also clearly improved, the somatic cell count has dropped far below 100 and the number of cases of mastitis has been drastically reduced.

Higher production

In addition to working pleasure and health, a high milk production is an important goal for Van der Wind. We are an intensive company, so that is quickly profitable. It is noticeable that since this new transition concept the peak production is higher, and the cows are more persistent in producing a lot of milk with good solids. The main reason for this is the higher and more stable feed intake around calving.

Want to know more about AniStart? Feel free to contact us