AHV is a game changer for dairy farmers!

Andrea and Stu Wier farm 210 cows on the border of Timaru on their ‘Real Milk’ farm. Their healthiest cows are selected for fresh raw milk sales in their farm shop and also deliver around South Canterbury. The bulk of their milk is contracted to Fonterra. They have a split calving programme to fulfil their quotas and because of this, they always have cows in various stages of lactation. In addition, they have an older herd that they always struggled with having high milk values.

When James Davies, AHV NZ Territory Manager South Canterbury, walked into their milk pit in September and shared how AHV can support dairy farmers, they welcomed him with open arms. Stu recalls: ‘We milk a small older herd and had a lot of udder health challenges. We always have cows at the start and end of lactation in our herd, impacting our milk values. We also wanted to get rid of traditional animal health methods to have a better selling point to our fresh milk consumers. We really liked the AHV concept of improving animal health using plant-based products with zero milk or meat withhold. This takes the risk out of our shed! We no longer have red cows since we started using AHV solutions!’

Andrea continues: ‘We had to get used a bit to using AHV boluses. Most of our girls get them in the milking pit during milking, some have to go into the head crush.  James not only sells us the product, he also stays close and gives us advice on what cows to prioritize for AHV solutions based on herd test data analysis. We see results within one week after giving the AHV udder protocol. We have udder health back under control and our milk values have not been where they are now for a long time! At the same time we saw feet challenges disappear as the boluses work via the bloodstream in the entire body. We also used the AHV Booster bolus for cows with low energy and they picked up after a few days. And the fertility bolus AHV Opti together with AHV Booster and AHV Aspi boluses perked up a heifer that had post calving challenges.’

James says: ‘Stu and Andrea care for and look after their cows really well. Examples are that they do not push them – to protect their feet, first calving is between 2-3 years and they do not feed their calves milk with residues from traditional methods. This means our AHV solutions work really well.’

Andrea adds: ‘ We get results so our cows are healthier and happier, we save time, have no risk and more milk. We are looking forward to take the next step and use AHV’s proactive herd health plan, that focuses on extending longevity of our herd. More lactations means more milk from each cow and improved profitability’