farmers guardian 3

"The difference is day and night"

Customer Story,
Calving Preperation,
Dry Cow Ration,
Negative DCAD
3 min

Sharing their experience on the calving preparation period

What are the results after two years of using AniStart?

At GAEC de COETFROT, France, Nicolas JOUET and Kallista BEDNARCZYK tell us about their results after more than two years of overhauling their calving preparation: “It's night and day! In most cases, cows are delivered within 2 hours of calving or when they return from the first milking.

Nicolas et Kallista
Nicolas and Kallista milk 160 dairy cows at GAEC de COETFROT, (Plémet, Côtes d'Armor) with Nicolas' parents and a farm worker.
Nicolas JOUET et Kallista BEDNARCZYK
Dairy farmers

Chopped straw

The upgrade took place in several stages, starting with work on the presentation and consistency of the ration to limit sorting. Regarding straw, that reserved for dry cows comes from selected plots, to limit potassium levels, and is then chopped by a contractor to obtain short fibers, ~ 3-4cm.  “There used to be a lot of sorting, but now we have a nice consistent ration, even if it's very straw-rich at over 4kg. We also sometimes add water to make the ration stick together".

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Witness the OmniGen effect!

Request product information to discover to benefits for your farm.
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Spacious and Comfortable Housing

In preparation for calving, cows are housed in indoors, winter and summer alike, on a clean, comfortable straw-bedded area with good access to water. About a week before calving, the cows are transferred, in twos or threes, to a calving stall next door, where they then stay for a few days in a second stall, for fresh calvers, where the farmers can monitor the start of lactation.

Negative DCAD with AniStart

The pre-calving ration is fed every day, which guarantees freshness and palatability: “If there's nothing but fresh feed, the cows eat a consistent ration. The pre-calving ration is an investment for the following months of lactation! It was also to improve palatability that the breeders replaced the chlorides previously used with the AniStart solution from Phibro. “We started with AniStart because with chlorides, we couldn't lower pH levels or unblock ingestion”. AniStart is composed of two sources of anionic salts, and protected by fat to ensure palatability. It enables urinary pH levels of 5.5-6 to be achieved, and feed intake of 14-15 kg DM or more.
The BACA of the ration is checked twice a year with a chemical analysis of the mixed ration, and its value varies between -120 and -150 mEq/kg DM. The levels of energy, protein, fiber, calcium, phosphorus and 9 other minerals are also checked. Phosphorus values have come under particular scrutiny by nutritionists in recent months. In fact, several studies have shown that limiting phosphorus intake to 45g per dry cow per day results in a better reduction in post-partum disorders. 

Average composition of dry cow ration

 

Monitoring urinary pH

From the outset, the urinary pH was checked regularly, but now the breeders rely on their observations: “With calvings every week, we know right away if things are not right. That's the advantage of a large herd. When we see variations in calvings, we don't wait to act, we repeat urine pH tests and observe. Sometimes it's the straw that's less palatable, sometimes it's the silo changes that need to be anticipated, but in over two years, this hasn't happened very often. If necessary, we'll vary the amount of AniStart by 20g according to the pH and, most importantly, we'll repeat the forage analyses. We'll be using them on our dairy cows anyway.

Practical and Economical Results 

Quickly after the start of this new strategy, the benefits around calving were seen and have been lasting ever since: “Even after a difficult calving, the cows deliver easily, it's impressive. Problems with metritis have become exceptional, as they are low to non-existent. We can see heat at 50 days, whereas before, we sometimes didn't see it until 90 days and often had to synchronize. 
The cows are also more energetic and have a better appetite after calving: “What stands out for us is when we open the gate after calving for the cow to eat the dairy ration, they pounce on it and eat a lot. The dairy ration has also been optimized in recent years. 
Thanks to all the improvements made to rations, comfort, herd management and investment in technical solutions such as AniStart, farmers' efforts are paying off! On the basis of milk controls carried out every month, we can see a production gain of 2.4L per cow over the first 100 days of lactation, with peak production up by 4.8L.

If you would like to have your dry cow ration assessed (energy values, protein, fibre, 11 minerals and trace elements, DCAD) click here!