Christian Merk and his family own 73 cows, mainly Brown Swiss and Holstein Friesian. The farm is predominantly grassland-based, with some arable land used to grow maize for silage. The herd output is currently exactly 10,000 litres.
In 2016, the new barn was converted from tethered housing to a loose housing barn with a milking robot. The experience with the milking robot has been very good, making the work much easier and suiting the animals much better.
You have been using the PerformaNat CalciumBolus for four years now. How do you use it?
We mainly use the PerformaNat CalciumBolus as standard for cows from the third calving onwards. For already unsteady cows, we give the bolus from the second calving onwards, but mainly from the third calving onwards.
We give two boluses at the first signs of birth, before calving and after calving and another two at the next feeding time. In any case, there are three applications.
If I'm not there at calving, then there'll be the first application with two boluses when I get there.
How does the application work?
It's currently working very well in the calving pen. The advantage of the PerformaNat bolus applicator is that you can always administer two boluses at once. Using a different bolus applicator would mean having to administer the two boluses separately.
Especially if I give the boluses before calving, you can see that there are far less cases of retained placenta, thus also faster oestrus and clearer signs of heat and the fertility is much better afterwards.
How do you use the PerformaNat EnergyBolus?
I mainly use the PerformaNat EnergyBolus with overweight cows, but sometimes also prophylactically if I think a cow needs an energy boost. Simply, when she doesn't really get going at the beginning of lactation as she should, but is still too healthy for treatment, then I use the EnergyBolus.
The positive effect is definitely that they get back to producing milk sooner.
Have you already tried the new PansenFit?
Yes, I have now tried PansenFit for the first time. The first time I gave it to the first cow, the effect was clearly positive. The cow had digestive disorders and diarrhea, so nothing massive, but immediately after the first dose, during the next meal, she ate a lot more and the manure became firm again quite quickly. So I was very positively surprised. This cow received only two doses, which was completely sufficient for her.
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