Dairy Farmer magazine visited a farmer using OptiPartum-C in his ration - who wanted to achieve 'the same performance for less money'.
Farmers add OptiPartum-C to their ration, by replacing 50% of the bypass fat. It costs less than a C16 fat and achieves the same performance for less money by working in a completely different way to fats.
Mr Parkes who farms near Melton Mowbray actually saw an increase in his yield - which is dependent on the ration used.
“With the Optipartum I didn’t find any maize or undigested wheat from wholecrop in the dung, so I think they were using what they got better than before,” he explains. “I wouldn’t want to take it out now as the cows milked really well this winter.”
In fact he says in addition to the £8 saving, milk yields have gone up 2litres/day, worth around 50p, so making an extra £50 + £8 for the high yield group per day.
But then things took a new turn and he thought why not try it on the lows as well. So he added a 20kg bag to their daily TMR which hitherto had not included any fats, so he was not taking anything out.
Again to his surprise yields went up 2 litres but of course the cost of the Optipartum bag need to be included. For the 85 cows ‘lows’ group extra milk was worth £42.50 minus the £16.50 for the Optipartum, which makes £26.50per day.
“The result across the whole herd was an added bonus as they are on the same forage and rations since last summer.”
Dairy Farmer Article - OptiPartum-C
Pictures courtesy of Dairy Farmer magazine
