Protect Your Patch: Treat farm boundaries like borders, says B+LNZ vet
Treat your farm boundary like a border. This was one of the messages delivered to farmers at a recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand Protect Your Patch workshop in Lincoln.
Milton dairy farmer Chris Wills says he began using probiotics in spring 2023 to address somatic cell count (SCC) grades when cows transitioned from their winter barn to lush spring pasture.
While the SCC issue was resolved, an unexpected benefit emerged - cows began cycling significantly faster.
In the second season on the program, Halter data showed cows were returning to heat just 24 days after calving—far below the national average of 42 days.
“The first season I used Rumicell just to the milking herd, cycling premating was phenomenal,” says Wills.
“There was no need for Metrichecking or CIDRs, and our 3-week submission rate rose to 93% - a 5% increase.”
Wills had tried various products to fix his SCC issues but switched to Probiotic Revolution’s Rumicell after reading about another farmer, John McCarty, who went antibiotic-free using probiotics. Rumicell combines live yeast with carefully selected bacterial strains to support digestion and immunity.
He began with autumn calvers and carryovers in May 2023. With 480 cows, most calving in spring, the cost of switching from a live yeast product was negligible, and the usual spring SCC spike was greatly reduced, avoiding any grades.
Probiotic Revolution’s Chris Collier points to research showing that feeding cows three strains of probiotics 21 days pre calving as well as post-calving helped improved production as well reducing sub-clinical ketosis, which is strongly linked to several early lactation issues such as mastitis, calving difficulties, milk fever and post calving cycling.
Consequently in 2024, when Wills added Super- Start Lead Feed to his springer mob, his cows were cycling on average just 24 days post-calving, compared to 40 days for other farms in the district.
Collier emphasises that rapid post-calving cycling depends on cows avoiding metabolic issues.
“We’re using nine targeted probiotic strains in SuperStart Lead Feed. If cows have ketosis, milk fever, or retained membranes, cycling gets delayed but with these probiotics we must be firing up cows’ production and intake to get them cycling so quickly.”
He shared cases where farmers under work pressure stopped feeding SuperStart to late-calving cows.
While early calvers cycled in under 30 days, the late ones blew out past 30 days and bore the brunt of calving and mastitis problems.
“It’s easy to use in transition diets or water troughs, giving nearly every farmer the chance to improve mating outcomes.”
A major feature of the Ashburton A&P Show, to be held on October 31 and November 1, will be the annual trans-Tasman Sheep Dog Trial test match, with the best heading dogs from both sides of the Tasman going head-to-head in two teams of four.
Fewer bobby calves are heading to the works this season, as more dairy farmers recognise the value of rearing calves for beef.
The key to a dairy system that generates high profit with a low emissions intensity is using low footprint feed, says Fonterra program manager on-farm excellence, Louise Cook.
Rural retailer Farmlands has reported a return to profitability, something the co-operative says shows clear progress in the second year of its five-year strategy.
According to a new report, the Safer Rides initiative, which offered farmers heavily discounted crush protection devices (CPDs) for quad bikes, has made a significant impact in raising awareness and action around farm vehicle safety.
OPINION: In the past weeks, much has been said and written about one of New Zealand's greatest prime ministers, James Brendan Bolger, who died just a few months after his 90th birthday.
OPINION: Microplastics are turning up just about everywhere in the global food supply, including in fish, cups of tea, and…
OPINION: At a time when dairy prices are at record highs, no one was expecting the world's second largest dairy…