“It’s better to invest in animal health than to put out fires.”

The Van der Avoird partnership’s dairy farm grew rapidly in three years. In 2019, the farm had about a hundred dairy cows. Today, 220 go through the milking parlor at the farm in Delfstrahuizen, The Netherlands. In addition to dairy cattle, the company has a small-scale contracting business and a childcare center. Plenty of work, then, and things have to run smoothly. Good animal health is essential for this.

Text and image: Gerben Hofman (editor of dairy journal Melkveebedrijf)

“When you get growing so fast, you have to shift gears quickly,” says Marcel van der Avoird. He started the dairy farm in 2019. These days, he leaves the daily management to his son Eric as much as possible. Daughter Sanne is still in school, but also helps out daily. She takes care of everything concerning animal administration and calf rearing. This is in good hands with her, Marcel thinks. “During rearing, the basis is laid for a good dairy cow. In a few months the first animals that Sanne has reared will start milking. I am very curious to see how they will do. I have every confidence in them.”

From young cattle raising to dairy cattle

Van der Avoird started raising young cattle for other dairy farmers years ago. At its peak, he had about a thousand young cattle. Three years ago, he switched to dairy cattle. On January 1, 2019, he had one hundred cows in milk. After taking over land and herds from two other farms, the dairy farm now has a total of 255 dairy cows, 220 of which are lactating. These produce an annual average of 9,200 kilograms (about 20282 pounds) of milk with 4.29 percent fat and 3.57 percent protein. To accommodate the growing dairy herd, the existing barn was extended quite a bit and merged with the adjacent young livestock barn. A barn is now rented at another location for the company’s own young stock. The company employs one permanent employee. He is used both for the dairy farm and for contract work.

Getting somatic cell count under control

With a growing business with various activities, things have to run smoothly in the barn. Good animal health is therefore essential and that is what Van der Avoird is concerned with. He wants to avoid challenges as much as possible and, if they do arise, deal with them immediately. Last year, the farm was faced with a sudden increase in the somatic cell count.

“We took immediate measures then. We had the milking machine measured and replaced the nipple liners. We added a mycotoxin binder to the feed. We started paying more attention to cubicle hygiene and used a disinfectant in the cubicles. We treated problem cows with regular products. We said goodbye to cows where that did not work sufficiently. In that respect, we are a bit no-nonsense. Animals with major challenges were culled.” The measures paid off.

The somatic cell count dropped below the critical value again. Still, the dairy farmer continued to look for ways to get and keep animal health at a higher level. At that time, the Farm Advisor of Animal Health Vision (AHV) came along. Van der Avoird already had experience with AHV, but was not yet convinced of the added value of the company’s guidance and products. The AHV Farm Advisor was able to explain this to the dairy farmer very well. Together they looked through the farm’s MPR results and decided to tackle the younger, promising cows with an AHV Extra Bolus in combination with the AHV Aspi. With the result, Van der Avoird is very satisfied.

“We are now very satisfied with the somatic cell count. With the heifers it stays under 150 and with the older cows under 250. We haven’t had to use regular products for udder health for a long time.”

Addressing fertility challenges

Udder health is not the only area where AHV’s products add value on the Friesian farm. Around calving, Van der Avoird deploys AHV Metri Bolus and AHV Milk Start Paste. “That way the afterbirth comes off better and the cows clean up faster. You can see that the cows gain strength faster after calving. The cow can therefore put more energy into milk production. In the first sixty days it saves four liters (over one gallon) of milk.”

AHV products and guidance also provide relief for calves. Van der Avoird noticed that at fourteen days of age the calves were often suffering from respiratory challenges, which led him to pay more attention to health measures. “We now buy new pens regularly. These are on wheels, so we can easily remove them from the row and spray them clean. If a pen stands in line between pens with calves still in them, it’s much harder to do that. In addition, we can now give the pens more time to dry because we have more of them.”

Better health of calves

In addition to improved housing, AHV’s products also contribute to better calf health. “I give the calves up to 14 days AHV Calf Start and AHV Respi through the milk,” Sanne says. That’s how I found a good balance. I noticed that calves often had a dip after just under a week. With the powder, this dip is much smaller than before.” The dairy farmer sees the result of the efforts reflected in the figures.

“Before, our calf mortality was at ten to eleven percent. Now we are at two percent. In addition, the better health in rearing will pay off in better dairy cows,” he expects. The next step Van der Avoird wants to take is to optimize claw health. That needs to be in the best shape on the farm, especially since the cows don’t go outside. “Lately we saw some more claw challenges. We anticipated this immediately with a weekly foot bath and by trimming severe cases immediately. We will stay on top of that. I am also curious as to whether a bolus can help here. Given the experience, I have every confidence in that.”

Connection with AHV Advisor

The dairy farmer is happy to count on AHV’s support. “It’s important to have a relationship with the AHV Advisor, and we have that. I also like the fact that he is always there for me. For example, one evening we were facing an udder health challenge while we were running out of powder. I called our AHV Advisor and the next morning there was a bucket of booster powder, so we could continue.” Van der Avoird’s son Eric was not initially convinced of the added value of AHV, until a cow with impaired udder health rebounded quickly with the use of AHV Quick Bolus, AHV Extra Bolus and AHV Aspi. “Then he was convinced. He came to tell me that specifically,” says the local AHV Advisor.