BEC Feed Solutions has started distributing two Idena France products in Australia.
Vertan and Valkalor are popular, natural, feed ingredients for dairy cows that have been used for years throughout Europe.
Vertan is a natural product made up of plant extracts and essential oils. It slows protein degradation in the rumen allowing more metabolisable protein and results in less ammonia in the rumen and less waste ammonia.
Valkalor is a combination of specific essential oils and plant extracts providing more energy in the ration more efficiently. It stimulates rumen metabolism resulting in better use of digested starch cereals.
John van Sliedregt is a market milk supplier who milks 135 Friesians on his dairy farm north of Toowoomba in Queensland, in a PMR system with 10kg of concentrates.
John said the past few years had presented many challenges in feed sourcing and costs, with a range of feeds used including triticale, sorghum and corn, molasses, proteins, chick peas, mung beans, whole cottonseed, cereal and lucerne hay. Summer pastures are Rhodes grass and Kikuyu-based.
That’s meant lots of changes in diets and quality of ingredients received.
Hoping to stabilise production increases and composition components, in mid-March John started feeding 20g/cow/day of Valkalor and 10g/cow/day of Vertan.
He said there was a slight change in dung at about day four and then by 10 days the fat and protein percentage had both lifted 0.15 per cent (without feeding a bypass protein source like soy or canola meal) and maintained this for the next six weeks despite changes in rations, weather, paddock and hay quality.
Milk production has increased and milk payments have increased, John said.
“The products have a distinctive sweet smell which acts like a feed flavour. Cows love how the feed masks any changes to diets. Calves also like it.”
John said it was worth the investment and he planned to keep using the products.