Is herd health hitting your bottom line - and can this help?

Recent UK industry averages, however, affirm that there’s significant economic opportunity in improving herd health, even if just incrementally.

For example, a combination of UK industry data indicates:

• 5-10 per cent of all calvings require assistance, with veterinary assistance averaging £255 when sought. Adding to the cost, is the impact on calf ‘thrive’ and cow recovery.

• Retained foetal membranes occur in 4 per cent of calvings, with each case costing approximately £500 in milk loss and veterinary treatment. The long-term impact on cow health, fertility and lifetime yield is also considered to be substantial.

• Clinical milk fever sits at an annual incident rate of 4-9 per cent, with each incidence incurring an average of £225 in direct costs. Milk fever weakens the immune system, and is often the gateway to challenges such as mastitis and retained placenta.

• Clinical ketosis impacts of 7-14 per cent (global figure) of the total herd, with each incidence incurring £225 in direct costs. Ketosis is research-proven to have a significant impact on milk yields and the calving index.

• The rate of displaced abomasum is variable, from 0-25 per cent globally, with each incidence incurring £250 in direct costs.

Taking a conservative average of these health challenges alone, a 100-cow milking herd is incurring £10,985 in direct costs per year; a figure that can be expected to inflate considerably when we consider production losses and early culling or fatality.

Rumen health forms the basis of a gut-based immunity and a cow’s all-important body condition; both particularly essential during the transition period.

Keenan MechFiber diet feeders are engineered to produce evenly-mixed rations with an optimal fibre structure that stimulates saliva production, increases rumination, and optimises rumen pH – all vital to rumen health.

The Keenan MechFiber diet feeder features a horizontal mixing action that utilises gravity to gently tumble and mix feed ingredients without any ‘dead spots’. Working in tandem with this, is a precise blade configuration that ‘scissor-chops’ feed fibres into precise lengths to promote ‘scratch factor’ in the rumen.

Once the ration is processed, a secondary feed-out auger takes a full-length cross-segment as it rotates within the main auger, for a consistent feed-out from start to finish. All Keenan diet feeders are fitted with the InTouch system - made up of a control unit, a mobile app, and a feeding support network - to ensure a consistent and high-performance ration every time.

Independent research into 24,450 dry cows across 277 farms fed with a Keenan MechFiber evidenced some compelling herd health results; reducing assisted calvings by 53%, retained membranes by 57%, milk fever by 75%, ketosis by 79% and displaced abomasum by 85%.

The Keenan system is also independently validated by the Carbon Trust to increase feed conversion efficiency, improve herd performance and reduce methane production per litre of milk.