We began to use X-Zelit as part of our dry cow management system. It's a simple, effective system which has significantly reduced any problems at calving. Cows are coming into the lactation well and fertility has improved.

I was initially reluctant to use X-Zelit because of the cost. However, this has been far outweighed by the health benefits, increased production and a reduction in treatment and labour costs. It has significantly reduced milk fevers and metabolic issues, negating the need to manage cows with calcium. It’s central to our herd management system and it’s simple to implement.

We had problems with milk fever before using DC X-Zel. Since using it, this has greatly reduced. The cows clean up really well post calving to the point we have reduced post calving checks, all we do is routines and Pd’s. We have found the cows calve down well and don’t lose as much condition, they appear healthier and colostrum quality is also improved.

Before using X-Zelit we had tried everything from complex diets to analysing minerals to alleviate and minimise the risk of milk fever in our Jersey herd. We found them to be far too complex and not really effective. X-Zelit is the one thing that actually works and is simple to use, especially as our cows are at grass. We feed X-Zelit to 3rd calving cows and older as part of a 20% concentrate at 2kg/cow/day with add lib haylage 10 days before calving, its really easy. It has reduced our cases of milk fever and resultant metabolic issues such as retained cleansings.

Over the last year we have been taking a good look at our dry cow processes to improve health and fertility. As part of this we spoke to a number of farmers with herd sizes ranging from 90 through to 2000 cows and they all recommended using X-Zelit pre-calving. So, we tried X-Zelit in a dry cow nut and we were really impressed with it. Since using it, we’ve had very few issues with our calving cows, they are calving really easily and cleanly.I’m not too sure why it works but it just does, it’s a great product!

Previous to feeding X-Zelit we ended up treating the majority of the cows with calcium before, during and after calving. When they calved the cows were slow to get going and would spend up to a week post calving, in the straw pen before being ready to join the main herd. X-Zelit has definitely reduced the worry that surrounded calving with only a handful of milk fever cases since we started using it. The cows recover much quicker and are able to return to the fresh milking group within a short time of calving.

We've been using X-Zelit for the past 18 months and we'll keep feeding it to our dry cows. It just works. Our Jersey heifers have started off producing 26 - 28 litres per day, the calves are also much fitter and growth rates have been great. Once you start feeding it, it’s an area you just don’t have to worry about - giving you the time to solve other problems on the farm!

We have been using X-Zelit since 2012 and find it to be a very simple and effective dry cow management system for our herd of Jerseys. It’s given our staff real confidence in managing the dry period. It has eliminated milk fevers and other associated metabolic issues, as well as improving fertility. We made the mistake of not using X-Zelit but started using it again as the benefits far outweighed the cost of not using it!