Youngstock manager, Howard Stokes, has been using Tracesure boluses since 2015.
At any one time, he’s in charge of rearing about 800 dairy heifers to calve at two years of age into the Wyke Farms 1,500-cow herd near Bruton in Somerset. The herd produces 8,500 litres a cow at 4.2% butterfat and 3.3% protein for the business’s award winning cheese-making operation.
Compared with free-access supplements, he says there’s no guesswork about bigger or smaller individuals alike getting what they need. “The main thing is knowing that each heifer is getting the trace elements they need every day,” he says.
Heifers get the tracesure boluses shortly after weaning, then the yearling version at 12 and 18 months of age. Howard says giving a bolus is easy, particularly because one for copper can be given at the same time as selenium, iodine and cobalt.
Much of this country’s grazed or conserved grass is deficient in essential trace elements. Without supplementation, functions affected by deficiencies include immunity, energy metabolism, digestive enzymes and breeding hormones.
Sub-optimal function in any one of these is likely to have adverse effects on animal productivity and financial performance. Trace element supplementation to help calves and yearlings make maximum use of forage is good business as well as affordable and easy.
The recommendation is to give an ANIMAX Tracesure bolus twice a year for a constant release of essential trace elements, for 6 months. This is made possible by the waxed-groove diffusion technology, developed by and exclusive to ANIMAX.
