Co. Kerry farmer achieves 870g daily liveweight gain by using Champion Calf Milk Replacer

Auctus spoke to dairy farmer Jim Cremin about his dairy enterprise, the importance of the right nutrition and how he is achieving massive results using Champion Calf Milk Replacer on his farm in Co. Kerry.

Jim Cremin, from Lisselton, Listowel, Co. Kerry, farms in partnership with his father Brendan.

They run a Holstein Friesian dairy cow herd, milking approximately 200 cows. 90% of their herd are spring calving, while the remaining 10% are autumn calving.

Extremely palatable

“When I finished college in 2012, I worked on another enterprise for one year and returned to the family farm. We have been involved in dairying for many years now. The cows are averaging 8,500L/year,” Jim said.

“In terms of calving, we just keep the replacement heifer calves on the farm, selling off the bull calves after two-to-three weeks.

“We have been calving on the farm since December and will continue to do so right up until April. We’ve 80 calves at the moment and approximately 140 left to calve.

Each calf receives up to 4L of colostrum at birth. They then receive their mother’s milk for four days in separate pens and then they are put on Auctus Champion Calf Milk Replacer.

“We generally group the calves in bunches of 10 and feed the calves Champion in batch feeders with teats. We started using Champion Calf Milk Replacer after some local farmers seemed to be getting on well with it,” Jim continued.

Jim has been using Champion Calf Milk Replacer for a number of years now, and this year has decided to use the milk replacer with added Lung Guard to prevent pneumonia in the calves.

“Lung Guard helps in the prevention of respiratory disorders, improves breathing and reduces the use of antibiotics in calves for pneumonia. It inhibits the growth of bacteria in the calves’ respiratory system.”

Jim believes that there are a number of key benefits to Auctus’ Champion Calf Milk Replacer: “It’s very easy to mix and the calves find it extremely palatable. We would typically leave the calves on the milk replacer for 60 days.

“Our local vet carried out a study on the farm to see the liveweight gain of the calves. He found that they put on 0.87kg/day which is a really positive result for calf growth on the farm.”

Feeding the future of your herd

Andrew O’ Connell is Jim’s business development manager on the farm.

“Andrew is a great support to have on the farm,” commented Jim. “He visits the farm regularly and checks in to make sure that their product range is delivering the results that we are looking for. He’s always at the end of the phone if we need anything at all.”

Andrew then outlines the key benefits of using the Auctus calf milk replacer range.

“Jim uses our Champion Calf Milk Replacer which contains high-quality whey milk ingredients resulting in efficient absorption of the high protein levels,” Andrew started by saying.

“It achieves high performance with dairy replacement stock and beef calves in intensive rearing systems.

“It is also an easy-mixing calf milk replacer which is ideal for: once-a-day (OAD) and twice-a-day (TAD) feeding; computerised and ad-lib calf-rearing systems.

“We have a number of different types of calf milk replacer that are whey based and are divided into three products.”

These include:

Opti-mum (26% protein);
Champion (23.5% protein); and
Turbo Thrive (21.5% protein).

“The higher protein percentage (Opti-mum) is designed to promote skeletal growth in high genetic replacement dairy heifer calves.

“Champion is designed for skeletal growth and good muscle development in dairy and beef calves. Turbo Thrive is designed for high thriving in beef calves.

“We also have added Lung Guard available in our Champion and Opti-mum milk replacers,” Andrew said.

Triple Shield Protection

“Our Triple Shield Protection is included across our full range of powders,” he continued.

“This is a combination of: an extremely high inclusion of vitamins and minerals; high-performing enzymes that help with gut health and digestion; and the inclusion of sodium butyrate that helps with stomach protection and thrive in calves.

Triple Shield Protection encourages optimum calf health, reduces scours and digestive upsets.

“It increases the growth of intestinal micro flora. It reduces the incidence of digestive scours and minimises the growth of harmful bacteria including e-coli, clostridia and salmonella,” Andrew stated.

Concentration

“We would recommend feeding a concentration of 12.5% for all our powders and Opti-mum can be fed up to 15% to push skeletal growth in replacement heifers,” he concluded.

To find out more, please contact your local business development manager: