Dry cow feeding

Any jersey herds out there using xzelit calcium binder in the dry period?
Not Jersey but fed it a few years ago .worked really well in a dry cow concentrate then we hit palatability issues with it but they assured me I was the only farm to have a problem. Only to find out later they recomended 3kg of it instead of 2.5 kg as they had to dilute the Xzelit more as it is so unpalatable.Went to Denmark to see herds over there feeding it and saw a tremendous herd of Jerseys
 

DairyGrazing

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North West
Not Jersey but fed it a few years ago .worked really well in a dry cow concentrate then we hit palatability issues with it but they assured me I was the only farm to have a problem. Only to find out later they recomended 3kg of it instead of 2.5 kg as they had to dilute the Xzelit more as it is so unpalatable.Went to Denmark to see herds over there feeding it and saw a tremendous herd of Jerseys

I can confirm they are liars we had the exact same issue. Something happened and the cows simply stopped eating the nuts.

It will stop your milk fevers overnight but we still had whites and RFM problems. Moved to premier nutrition defence nuts no more whites or RFMs but too expensive.

New nutritionist in now and he has us on a mineral pack for a fraction of the cost.
 

jimmer

Member
Location
East Devon
Used xzelit years ago, only way to guarantee intakes is to put in low dm tmr, but that's not ideal in a dry cow diet
With jerseys it's got to be mag flakes and little or no grass
We mineral bolused last year on both spring and autumn herds and had good results
 

AlfM

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Norfolk
Yes but the white flakes version not the nuts. 0.4 kg/cow/day. Basically zero milk fever now as opposed to lots of calcium given.
 

jerseycowsman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cornwall
Any jersey herds out there using xzelit calcium binder in the dry period?
We use reassure (amino acid called choline), has to go in a blend, not a nut as cooking the nut ruins the choline.
worked well last year, what little milk fever had was mild, and cut the ketosis to virtually zero. Quite costly for the blend, but I think worth it for the effect it had
 

Jerseycowman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Yes but the white flakes version not the nuts. 0.4 kg/cow/day. Basically zero milk fever now as opposed to lots of calcium given.
Yea we are using that, half a kilo a day through the diet feeder, had you much bother with palatability? Has knocked 2-3kg freshweight intakes off our cows, and post calving they are very slow to eat the milking tmr. Have blood tested a few cows and their calcium levels were spot on although phosphorus levels were quite low. Also had a few with high ketones between 7 and 20 days calved.
 

Jerseycowman

Member
Livestock Farmer
We use reassure (amino acid called choline), has to go in a blend, not a nut as cooking the nut ruins the choline.
worked well last year, what little milk fever had was mild, and cut the ketosis to virtually zero. Quite costly for the blend, but I think worth it for the effect it had
Where do you get that? We had been on a partial dcab but were getting a lot of sub clinical milk fevers so switched to the xzelit. Cleared up the calcium problem but started getting cows calving with low phosphorus levels and not very keen on milking cow tmr and a few with high ketone levels 10-20 days post calving.
 

jerseycowsman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cornwall
Where do you get that? We had been on a partial dcab but were getting a lot of sub clinical milk fevers so switched to the xzelit. Cleared up the calcium problem but started getting cows calving with low phosphorus levels and not very keen on milking cow tmr and a few with high ketone levels 10-20 days post calving.
Three counties feeds
 

AlfM

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Norfolk
Yea we are using that, half a kilo a day through the diet feeder, had you much bother with palatability? Has knocked 2-3kg freshweight intakes off our cows, and post calving they are very slow to eat the milking tmr. Have blood tested a few cows and their calcium levels were spot on although phosphorus levels were quite low. Also had a few with high ketones between 7 and 20 days calved.
Yes it's not the most appetising product. Mainly why we cut it down just a little from the recommended amount. They do seem to eat it without sorting it out but I would agree with the other comments about that issue on this thread.
 

Stinker

Member
For those using mag flakes in water, what level are they using? I have tried stabbing the bag and putting it in the trough but they are then getting maybe 0.5kg a day. When I put in 100g a head most is disoved in a few hours and I'm worried some cows will not get any.
 

Fergieman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
100g away in the water trough. Along with a silage/wholecrop/straw mix topped up with dry cow rolls. Spent years fighting milk fever and this last 6 months had 1 case. Change of nutritionalist worked on that front.
 
100g away in the water trough. Along with a silage/wholecrop/straw mix topped up with dry cow rolls. Spent years fighting milk fever and this last 6 months had 1 case. Change of nutritionalist worked on that front.
We seem to constantly fighting with M Fever, even get the odd one part way through lactation.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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