EN 
NL 
On Jan and Mark Rougoor’s dairy farm in Sinderen, 80 cows are milked, plus the youngstock that goes with them. In recent years Mark gained a lot of experience on large dairy farms in the Netherlands and abroad. Over the last few years the farm has invested heavily in good housing, cow flow and forage quality. We want to optimise the farm. We want to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. This should give us more time, money and job satisfaction.
Dotting the i’s
On the farm, the dry cows only get minerals, because for the last 2 weeks they walk among the milking cows and so have access to the concentrate feeder. Although there are few problems with milk fever and retained placenta, fertility on the farm does need attention. Cows show heat well, but getting them in calf is sometimes a problem. Youngstock management can also be improved. There are still too many losses in the first month after birth (15%). Here, colostrum quality turned out not always to be good enough.
“I don’t think the ideal dry cow ration exists, but one ration for all dry cows keeps things simple and gives calm and routine, so feed intake stays high.”
Test carried out with a dry cow bolus
To improve both fertility and colostrum quality, I carried out a test on 10 dry cows. I gave these cows a Topro Dry bolus at drying off. The result is that these cows calved well, have top-quality colostrum (Brix value above 25%) and better fertility. Since using the Topro Dry Bolus, calf losses have dropped to 3% and the cows need 1.9 inseminations to get in calf. “I have seen that a good start to the lactation is the most important thing for getting a lot of milk in the tank. High feed intake matters then. The Topro Dry Bolus helps us optimise our farm further.”
