Dairy farm Hofstra: "Healthy cows are the most important thing to us"

Customer Story,

Health

3 min

Lower animal antibiotic usage and better immune resistance with OmniGen AF

Klaas and Hinke Hofstra, along with their daughter Tynke (who works at home 3 days per week), farm in the Friesian town of Reduzum in the Netherlands. They milk 90 cows, alongside around 50 young stock, on their 125 acres, with around 15 acres of this rented. Ninety percent of the herd are Holstein-Friesian with the remaining cows bred according to the Procross breeding concept, consisting of a rotating three-way cross of Viking Holstein, Montbéliarde and VikingRed which looks to ensure more robust and sustainable cows.
In the summer of 2019, the Hofstra family decided to replace their outdated barn with new accommodation for their cows, giving them more space alongside installing two Lely Astronaut A5 milking robots. "That's when the genetic potential of our cows became obvious," says Klaas. "Milk production shot up from 9,000 to 11,000 kilograms per cow in one year. But, at the same time, the health of the animals plummeted. Especially for those in the bracket of 60 to 100 days in milk." At that time, the number of E. coli mastitis cases in the 90 cow herd increased rapidly to around two per week, with new cases presented daily at the worst times.
This meant that annual antibiotic use in the herd almost doubled (in the Netherlands they measure Defined Daily Dose Animal per farm per year and this now stood at 5, from 2.83 before the new barn). "We had E. coli cases presenting themselves almost continually and it left us thinking: what should we do now? We were doing the right thing with a new barn and new AMS, weren't we? We didn't understand it. You build a new barn and then an environmental bacterium appears. We tried everything. We chose the best dipping agent after milking and thoroughly cleaned the barn three times a day. In addition to the regular treatments against E. coli, we tried different bedding materials, such as straw with lime. This was because cows were dirtier as manure was splashing onto bedding and cows despite the new flooring and manure slots every one and a half metres to aid manure and urine removal. We also tried to vaccinate, but this was also relatively ineffective for us on our farm."

What we want most is healthy cows. There's nothing quite like it. Then you don't want to lose them because of an issue like E. coli

Hofstra

Dairy farmers

Snowball effect

"You can think of animal health as a triangle on top of a mountain," explains Tynke, who also teaches health education for three days at Aeres MBO in Leeuwarden. "This triangle consists of a pathogen, environment and resistance of the cow. In our case, the environment had changed, there was a dip in resistance and the pathogen seized its opportunity. This caused a snowball effect." Tynke realised that it was not enough to tackle the pathogen alone. That's why the family talked to their feed advisor Jan Vellinga of De Heus Voeders, who recommended OmniGen from Phibro.
OmniGen has an immune-modulating effect, which improves the immune resistance of the cows, especially under stress conditions. This has positive consequences for resilience to heat stress, improves fertility and also udder health. The latter, in particular, means a lot to the family, which started with OmniGen in July 2022. "At the end of summer 2022, we already saw that the animal daily dosage (the Dutch measure of antibiotic usage) started to decrease again," says Tynke. "By summer 2023, this was now at 2.19, which is below the national average, down from the herd’s peak of 5 and even below the 2.83 level seen on farm before the new barn. We still occasionally have an E. coli case, but the cases are less severe so animals are less sick and recover more quickly. After just one day of intervention and treatment, they are already showing signs of recovery. This is going much better than last summer, before OmniGen."
In addition to their regular compound via the robot, the cows receive a fixed two kilograms of a protein-rich compound as a second type of feed, and this contains OmniGen. With the fixed feed rate then cows receive the daily feed rate of 55 grams of OmniGen per day. This suits the family and their system although it is also possible to feed OmniGen via the TMR. "We start with the heifers six weeks before calving and the cows receive the product throughout the entire lactation and also their dry period." OmniGen takes 45 to 60 days to have its full effect on the immune system so it is imperative that farmers feed it throughout the entire dry period (and to heifers at least six weeks pre-calving) in order that cows are supported at calving which is one of the most stressful times. Feeding at this time leads to improved transition, a reduction in retained foetal membranes and subsequently metritis cases, so helping to support fertility.
The product also works against heat stress. "We had already experienced a number of hot summers in a row when we started with OmniGen but we have seen a real difference in the cows. They are more settled in the barn on hot days and production is better maintained," says Klaas. "In addition, having healthy cows provides more job satisfaction for us all," adds daughter Tynke.
Phibro has supported the family throughout their journey with OmniGen, visiting and supporting in the initial exploratory discussions and then also following up with data collection and analysis to see the impact of the product. "I clearly remember the first time someone from Phibro visited," says Klaas. "He said to us, 'Of course, it's not a panacea, but I think it can help you.' He was right."

Prefer healthy cows

Of course, OmniGen is not free. According to their feed advisor, the cost is around eighteen cents per cow per day and according to the family, it is more than worth it. "We were sitting on only three E. coli in the herd for months. When you see how much milk you have to throw away every day and then add the treatments with each case, the costs add up very quickly so the maths was quickly obvious for us!" To other dairy farmers who have disease problems in their herd, Klaas advises to 'just try the product and evaluate the impact carefully'. "OmniGen has helped us a lot. And when it comes to animal health, every little bit helps. We are really dedicated to our herd," he says. "What we want most is healthy cows. There's nothing quite like it. Then you don't want to lose them because of an issue like E. coli. The milking robot has helped us realise the potential of our cows and with OmniGen we can offer them the support they need to stay healthy too."