Brian Trimble’s experience with AHV

Co. Down farmer, Brian Trimble, has been applying AHV Solutions to his herd since April 2022. “My name is Brian Trimble, I farm just outside Lisburn, Co.Down, in a wee village called Drumbo.” He’s milking 75 Holstein cows, twice a day, with a herd average of 11,300 litres. “I would say I am a first generation farmer here doing milk anyway, used to be sucklers and entered into the milk in 2012 and we tend to increase the cows to possibly 120 to the 2 robots.”

We decided to give AHV a try

I heard about AHV through David one of the advisors, drive into the yard probably back in April last year and explained the concept and we are into the health of the cows and liked the thought of the tablets. We gave it a try and we were impressed with the results.

From the Extra and Booster to a Herd Health Plan approach

The products that we started with was the Extra and the Booster and we were impressed with the results so we decided to go with the AHV Health Plan. At calving, all cows get Metri, a Milk Start Tablet, a StartLac Paste and an Aspi Tablet. 10 days later we introduce the Extra Tablet along with the Booster. The herd health plan was implemented in August, since then instead of firefighting we find we’re taking the proactive approach. Since then we have seen less health challenges with the cows and with AHV we seem to have more milk going to the tank and less being dumped.

Milk recording data the basis for guidance and support from AHV

David calls once a month and we walk the cows and we go through the milk recordings and pick out any issue cows. I’ve always was into a dryer prevention better than cure on anything so that’s why I sort of thought: ‘’Yes, let’s go with the tablets and try it.’’ And then once you get into the health plan it just becomes part of your routine, the cow, she goes into the crush, she gets her tablets and then hopefully you don’t see her again.

The plans for the future

Going forward we plan to put in two robots trying to increase the energy in the cows, better health to the animal, more longevity, better solids and better fertility within the herd. I would recommend AHV to other farmers and I have done in the past and because our udder health has significantly increased in our herd and I’m delighted with the product.