-4.07-
BAC - North American Research
The Pleasant Mile Dairy Farm
John and Lisa Perrone are third generation dairy farmers in Wisconsin.
They milk 23 Holsteins and 6 jerseys.
10 cows have been tested for over one year now and are doing very well.
Here is John's letter after one year of trialling the use of BAC with his cows.
General and individual observations:
- Cows seem to be calmer. I feel comfortable letting our kids milk 3 of the 4.
- I have not noticed the consumption of feed decline but there seems to be less manure.
- I have not noticed an increase in milk production however I am able to maintain production on less protein (between 14.5 and 15.5 percent)
- Butterfat and protein percent in milk increased
- Our s.c.c. has been under 100 for the first time in my life.
- Early on the manure loosens slightly and any small amounts of grain that used to be in manure are almost completely gone.
- The mammary systems continue to milk out more and more cleanly as they milk down to practically nothing. The texture of mammary on the older cows continues to improve and young animals milk out to nothing.
- The biggest change is that I am now noticing a decline in feed consumption. To most farmers this would sound devastating as we have been taught that less feed means less milk however my milk production did not decline. I feed all the cows one mix so by only having a portion of the cows on I am estimating the decrease but figuring it at the low end they are eating about 1.25 pounds less per day. To put this in perspective this is equivalent to almost two sixteen foot chopper boxes of feed a month. This is truly unbelievable!
Specific observations and cases
An 11 year old cow that had a cyst the size of a small softball is safe with calf. I had been trying to get rid of the cyst for 7 months with both vitamins and medicine. After being on algae for 2 months the cyst was gone and now she has settled with calf after I bred her only once. This is definitely one of the most exciting things that have happened.
A 2 year old that I put on BAC had hurt her leg as a young calf, and used it almost like a stump, is now beginning to move her knee. Her calf is the most active calf that I can remember.
I gave BAC to one cow with clinical mastitis and it cleared her quickly. After that, she remained slightly shy on that quarter down in milk about 35 percent on that quarter. Note that without the algae, you usually don’t get more than 50% for several months after.
One other big change concerns the inflammation in the udder in one cow. I began giving her two capsules per day in six feedings. Within two days the swelling started to decline. She is now milking out silky smooth like the rest of the cows on algae. I have the last fresh cow on two pills a day (one morning one night) and she too is responding well. This is a big relief to me because the anti-inflammatory from the vet always put the immune system in jeopardy.
I have been feeding it to all the cows during their dry period, and since November I have had 13 cows give birth. As I mentioned previously the calves have more energy and are much more aggressive eating than when they were without the algae. Of the 13 cows, 1 had twins and 3 had what I consider to be difficult births. The remarkable news is that all 13 dropped their placenta, and I had only one older cow for milk fever which is a calcium deficiency. This algae is showing very good for the cow's health.
The other good news is how quickly they are breeding back. I pregnancy checked 3 cows this morning and they are all safe with calf that are bred back within 29 days after calving. One cow was fresh only 19 days, and is now safe with calf. This is amazing!
As far as some specific numbers go, here are the evolution for butter fat and protein for the first 5 months:
| Months |
...
| Fat |
...
| Protein |
| October |
...
| 3.96 |
...
| 2.98 |
| November |
...
| 3.90 |
...
| 2.96 |
| December |
...
| 4.12 |
...
|
|
| January |
...
| 4.32 |
...
| 3.19 |
| February |
...
| 4.40 |
...
| 3.20 |
John and Lisa Perrone,
Owner, Pleasant Mile Dairy Farm
Wisconsin, USA
