Ten free bags of milk powder and some good advice on calf rearing have paid dividends for Whakatane couple Noel West and Leeanne Tubbett. The large scale calf rearers (1,200 calves) were drawn to the AgriVantage stand at the 2013 Fieldays, with the prospect of getting some sage rearing advice from renowned expert Dr Bas Schouten.
The opportunity to go into the draw to win 10 bags of AgriVantage’s new premium whey CMR Sprayfo Blue Premium was also appealing.
“Lo and behold, we won it and Warren Tanner at AgriVantage booked a time to come and talk to us about the ins and outs of using whey powder and the specific points of difference of Sprayfo Blue Premium. We had not used it before, and were a little wary about issues that people had in the past with whey powder,” said Noel.
These had included claims calves under 21 days could not be fed on it, being unable to mix it with whole milk, and the ability to move back and forth between whole milk and whey CMR (calf milk replacement).
The couple found the presentation on whey milk CMRs Warren gave them was professional, and held strong appeal, but they decided to stick with their tried and proven method. However that left with the conundrum of what to do with their 10 free bags.
“We could have mixed them in with the usual CMR we use, or with whole milk, but decided we would not learn anything about how the product mixes, how it suspends in solution, nor how the calves would like it.”
The couple decided rather than be left wondering, they could decide for themselves by conducting a trial on Sprayfo Blue Premium to see how it really performed under commercial calf rearing conditions.
They selected 20 calves from the same farm, and placed them in adjacent pens in identical conditions, including shelter, hay, meal and water availability. One pen was fed their usual CMR, and the other received 500g of Sprayfo Blue Premium in 3 litres of water once a day over 40 days. Meal intake was also monitored.
“During this time we noticed the calves fed Sprayfo Blue Premium had greater meal consumption. This came as no surprise, it was what Warren had told us to expect,” says Noel.
At day 40 all the calves were weighed. They found a 5kg-plus superior weight difference on every calf in the pen fed Sprayfo Blue Premium, compared to those fed on their usual CMR replacement.
“It was very compelling, and we calculated how much more CMR we would need to finish rearing our 1200 calves, and ordered 12 tonne of Sprayfo Blue Premium, delivered on farm 3 days later, as promised.”
From then until the end of the season all calves arriving at 4 days old went straight onto Sprayfo Blue Premium with positive results and no issues.
In the course of the trial, Noel and Leanne also picked up some other strengths in the Sprayfo formulation and packaging that made them reconsider their earlier opinions on whey based powder.
“The packaging was excellent to handle, with the plastic liner stitched into the paper bag, while mixing was a breeze.”
To save time in the morning Noel mixes the CMR in cold water at night and leave until the morning, adding hot water to take the chill off.
They also appreciated the Sprayfo staying in suspension, and not requiring significant agitation to re-suspend in the morning when they added the hot water.
From a calf health perspective, Sprayfo was an ideal formulation.
“There was no health issues changing from curding to non curding product, it was seamless and the calves seemed to leap forward after the change of diet.”
In ten years of calf rearing, the couple maintain mixing, feeding and washing up were all significantly improved over any other product they had used, while growth rates were most definitely improved.
“We will be ordering Sprayfo Blue Premium again for this coming season,” says Noel.
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