It has become easy to keep the cows healthy

A herd in Himmerland, Denmark has gone from major challenges, especially with the metabolic system, to super health. This has happened by putting traditional methods on the shelf and using bacterial technology instead.

”No more cows need to be culled”, says Kristine Bloch enthusiastically. The last time I had to log in to Daka (Data collection system), a message came that we were now among the five percent best in the country, she says with a big smile and pride in her voice. Kristine Bloch is operations manager at MHD Farming near Løgstør in the north of Denmark, a dairy farm with 470 cows. If you go back just a year, she and the rest of the team were struggling. Animal health was lagging and especially in the period just before and just after calving. There were metabolic challenges constantly, she explains. This meant that, in addition to countless calls to the vet, she spent her time looking after cows. ”It was so hard and difficult, and we didn’t really get anywhere”, she says from the feed table in the barn.

It sounded easy

A search for an easier solution led her to AHV. A Dutch company, where Jesper Rask Pedersen had just been given the task of introducing the company’s solutions for transition, uterine health, udder health, energy and metabolism, and claw, skin and hygiene in Denmark. ”What attracted me was that it sounded really easy”, says Kristine Bloch. The solutions from AHV are either a powder, paste or bolus, and all are given orally. At the same time, all products are registered as animal feed, and there is therefore no retention period on either milk or meat.

Ease of work and profits

From the start, Kristine Bloch experienced an enormous ease of work when she started using AHV Solutions. ”It’s just so easy, both because it’s simple to give. We have a bolus applicator that can administer three boluses at a time, and at the same time it works”, she explains enthusiastically.

This meant that the cows that used to go down with metabolic challenges, and also sometimes did not survive, were now a thing of the past. ”AHV products have a really big part of the credit for what has happened here since February, when we started with the products. Of course, we have also gained more profit, and have taken a more proactive approach, at the same time that we have now had time and money to work really hard on our management.

So the effect we have seen is definitely a combination of several things, but I have no doubt that the products have meant an enormous amount to our success,” says Kristine Bloch.

Foto: Tenna Bang, Effektivt Landbrug

Retained placenta and severe udder health challenges

Today, the vet is mostly only over for health visits and MHD Farming uses almost exclusively the products from AHV to keep the herd in top health. To a large extent in connection with the start of lactation, but also in relation to other health challenges. ”We are very happy with their Uterine Health Program. A day or two after I have given the cow an AHV Metri Tablet, the afterbirth comes off, and there are no more challenges with that cow”, explains Kristine Bloch.

”And then we also use the AHV Udder Program. We have never really had major challenges with cell count, but we have had a few cows with strong udder challenges. I usually only handle the cow once. And there we actually see that one handling is enough, sometimes I handle them twice, but we no longer have those cows that keep getting recurring challenges again and again”, explains Kristine Bloch. Most recently, the young farm manager has also started using the AHV Calf Rearing Program.

Financially sensible

Kristine Bloch keeps a sharp eye on her finances. ”I order products for a month, and that is a big bill, but it would also have been from the vet. We have experienced that it costs roughly the same whether we use the vet or AHV’s products. On top of that, we don’t have all the repeated treatments we had before and we don’t lose cows. All the milk can go into the tank, the cell count is stable and the yield increases”, smiles Kristine Bloch. For her, coming in to see healthy cows every day has given her enormous job satisfaction and motivation.

”We have time to get some small projects done that we didn’t do before. We are constantly making small improvements and have far more resources to focus on all the animals, and not just the challenged ones. Now we detect the challenges early on and are also quicker to initiate actions”, she explains.

Different colors

Despite many products, and with several different purposes, Kristine Bloch has quickly found the overview. ”It’s quite simple. And it’s so smart that they each have their own color, so you can just tell one of the other employees to give the cow a blue bolus, for example”, she says and points out that in addition to the color of box, each individual bolus is, for example, wrapped in yellow (AHV Extra), red (AHV Quick) or blue (AHV Booster) plastic. For Kristina Bloch, the health improvements have made her excited. ”We are trying something new now, also with AHV’s products and are constantly learning how the products work best for us”, she says and makes no secret of the fact that she tests and experiments with AHV’s solutions.

The cows must have enough energy

AHV Booster is Kristine Bloch’s favourite product. It is an energy product that is available both as a paste or a bolus, depending on whether the cow needs instant energy or have a longer-lasting energy boost. “I can think of giving a cow a bolus just before calving, then perhaps supplementing with the pasta just after calving, so that she gets off to a good start”, explains Kristine Bloch and states that it is important in all respects that the cow has energy enough. “We actually had a group of cows which had received some grain that was not optimal. Every single day I had to force them all to the milking robots, day after day. I agreed with myself to give them all a Booster, and since then I haven’t had to force them to milk a single time”, laughs Kristine Bloch.

That’s how it works

The AHV Solutions help optimizing health in cows and calves. The products’ mode of action is based on the science of “Quorum Sensing”, which is documented molecular biology and is about how bacteria can communicate with each other and work together. “What the bacteria technology can do, and which is unique to Quorum Sensing, is that the technology can break down the biofilm, after which the cow cleans itself out. In other words, we break the connection between the bad bacteria and make sure to support the animal, so that it is the animal’s immune system that drives out the bad bacteria itself”, says Jesper Rask Pedersen from AHV Denmark. So you don’t get to kill the good bacteria, as you often want to do when using traditional methods, explains Jesper Rask Pedersen. AHV has been in Denmark since February this year, and is currently working together with 120 Danish herds. Jesper Rask Pedersen experiences a very good success rate with the farmers, but points out that it is extremely important that the products are used correctly and that care is taken in a timely manner. The earlier you start, the greater the success rate, he says. AHV is currently working hard on solutions for the Danish ecologists, while internationally they also work towards humane solutions.