Margo and William Webster and their family, the Mitchell (Drumdreel) Partners, house 250 Holstein Friesian cows all year round. In 2020 they changed their dry cow system to include the calcium binder X-Zelit and they’ve not looked back.

In previous years, the Partners were having issues with their dry cows and in 2019 they recorded 15% of their dry cows as having clinical milk fever. With the average case costing around £250, it was a costly issue.

On the advice of their Ruminant Specialist, Greg Leishman, from Advanced Nutrition the Partners tried X-Zelit as a way to combat the problem as it is proven to significantly reduce both clinical and sub-clinical milk fever.

The cows were first treated with X-Zelit in January 2020. Margo Webster comments, “It was really easy to implement as we already had a far off and near dry cow group. Once a week every animal within 21 days of calving is moved into a close-up dry cow group. X-Zelit is included in a compound feed and fed twice a day on top of their partial mixed ration comprising of ground straw, silage, blend, wholecrop and minerals in an outside feed trough.”

The family saw immediate results and so far, they’ve not had a case of milk fever. However, it’s not just the impact it’s had on reducing clinical milk fever but it’s the sub-clinical reduction and subsequent benefits from that. Margo continues, “We now have strong healthy calves being born with good quality colostrum for them. The cows calve quickly, get up, clean and get on with their job of producing milk.”

In terms of milk production, they have also seen the benefits there too. The 305 day yield has gone from 9,900 litres to 10,800 litres in last 16 months. The farm has consistently averaged over 33.5 litres for the last 12 months of milk recording, twice a day milking.

X-Zelit is also well known to have a positive impact on fertility. The Partners have increased the percentage of cows in calf at 100 days by 16% in last 18 months, correlating with the start of the X-Zelit treatment.

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