AHV NZ’s very first customer is achieving great results

AHV NZ’s very first customer was Bayes Farm in Hora Hora, Cambridge, where husband Bruce and our Operations Manager Lyn own a 200 hectare, 500 Holstein Friesian cow dairy farming operation. All cows are spring calving.

Bruce and Lyn were keen to be AHV New Zealand’s first customers and met up with the AHV Team on farm in February and again in March.

Bruce shared how udder health is managed on farm. No herd testing is done currently. To monitor udder health, cows are stripped prior to milking once udder health values reach a certain level.

The AHV Concept

Bruce recalls: “The AHV concept was explained and how their feed supplements for udder health are given orally and reach the udder via the bloodstream. The products can support our cows by removing biofilm in the udder that surrounds the bacteria and makes them unreachable for the cow’s immune system. After biofilm breakdown, the cows own immune system can recognize the bacteria and kicks in to clean the udder. This means udder health values may go up before they go down. We started with administering AHV Extra, Quick and Aspi boluses (and no regular methods) for 6 cows with deviating milk values and udder health challenges.

We milked these cows separately in test buckets for 4 days and tested their milk on a daily basis (to manage udder health values). In the first days, we could see that the udders of some cows were cleaning up, this was the biofilm coming out of the udder. After 4 days, the milk test showed the milk was of good quality, and we put the cows back into the herd. Because the AHV products are plant based and natural, the quality of the milk is not impacted, cows can remain in production and no separation of animals is needed.”

Great positive results

Christian Müller, AHV North Island Technical Service Lead says: ‘This was an unexpectedly fast positive result. It can take a few weeks and sometimes months for a cow to clean her udder. We were delighted to hear immediate benefits were noticeable from using AHV products.’

Bayes Farms has since applied the AHV products to 4 more cows where 3 showed the same fast response. Bruce says: “We have placed re-orders and are excited about the AHV solutions.”

Focusing on the long haul

Janneke van Wagtendonk, AHV Managing Director for NZ says: ‘We are in it for the long haul. We like to partner with farmers and have another seat at their table next to vets, feed and other consultants. We bring new tools and solutions to New Zealand dairy farmers based on the relatively new science of Quorum Sensing. New Zealand is the 21^st country where AHV International have opened business. There are increasing challenges for the dairy supply chain and pressure is building for farmers to reduce use of regular methods.

Our solutions provide an additional tool for farmers to manage their herd health. Our aim is to support farmers to achieve an increase in the number of lactations per cow (into lactation 6 and higher, as this is where real ROI is made); increase production per lactation; lengthen lactations if and when desired; improve milk quality and move to the premium criteria of milk processors. We also have solutions for transition, early lactations, fertility, feet and claws and calves. AHV are currently active in the Waikato, Taranaki, Hauraki Plains and Canterbury and Southland from mid May 2022.