South Taranaki Dairy Farmers

Mineral Drench Increases Conception Rates and Boosts Production, for South Taranaki Dairy Farmers.

Soil, Pasture and Liver analysis helped South Taranaki farmers Jock and Diane Jellyman overcome poor conception rates whilst boosting production.

Jock and Diane Jellyman, who farm 190 cows on 65ha in South Taranaki, were sick of sending good cows to the works.

“One year we sent 60 out of our 190 cows to the works.  On a farm this size it just wasn’t sustainable!”

Strictly an all pasture set up, the Jellyman’s did not want to get into feeding lots of supplements, other than the small amount of silage and hay they fed when grass was short.

“It wasn’t until we spoke to our Nutritech Area Manager that we discovered some of our problems could be due to a simple mineral or trace element deficiency on our farm. 

Dr. Julian Waters, a Consultant Nutritionist for Nutritech International came to visit the Jellyman’s and talk through their mineral program.  Liver biopsies and soil and water samples showed that the Jellyman’s cows were suffering from an acute deficiency in copper and selenium.

“Waters was very thorough and came up with a simple program that we could implement immediately.” 

Now the Jellyman’s drench their cows with Flo-Cal-Mag™ and Flo-Cal™ (for extra calcium) post calving for 100days and with Flo Zinc™ during the Eczema season. 

The Jellyman’s have just installed a Forlong and Maisey computerized power drench unit to make sure they are all getting the daily recommended dose.  “We soon found that if we stopped drenching we dropped a litre of milk per cow per day.”

The Jellyman’s make the cost of their Nutritech mineral program back in production alone. “If we were to factor in the improvement in animal health plus the improvement in conception rates we could afford to pay more for the product and still make a profit by using it!”