New data from an agricultural probiotic company has shown cows using its feed supplement produced more milk and improved in fertility.
Terragen undertook its own ‘Big Cow Project’, a longitudinal study on 122 cows over 16 months on an operational dairy farm in Harrisville, Queensland.
Cows were split into treatment and control groups, with the treatment group given a baseline 10ml dose of Terragen’s feed supplement MYLO, and two subgroups split into different diets.
Terragen chief operating officer Joss West said the data collection on milk yield and fertility was recently finalised.
“After calving, treatment cows had 10.1 per cent higher average milk yield and 8.1 per cent higher average peak milk production,” Dr West said.
“Also, the number of days for cows on MYLO to first insemination was just under 65 days, or 9.6 days shorter than the control group. The calving interval in the treatment group also tended to be shorter.
“What’s most promising about this data is the p value for both sets of statistics is less than 0.05, proving statistical significance.
“For the first time Terragen can scientifically verify MYLO improves fertility outcomes in cows, something farmers had been telling us for some time.”
The study, designed to further Terragen’s knowledge of MYLO’s benefits for dairy cows and calves and its potential to reduce methane emissions, is the company’s largest research study to date.
Terragen’s milk yield increase of 10.1 per cent is its most numerically significant, compared to a 3.3 per cent increase from a 2019 University of Queensland study using 13 cows, and a 1.3 per cent increase seen from a 2021 study, conducted at Ellinbank SmartFarm in Gippsland, Victoria.
Dr West said Terragen’s new milk yield and fertility data from Harrisville highlights the potential for MYLO to give producers substantial return on investment.
“The potential a cow may get in calf sooner is a major indicator of profitability on the dairy farm,” she said.
“This is largely because of cost savings associated with reduction in non-productive days and reduced operational costs of reproductive intervention.
“It also leads to longevity in the herd and a subsequently higher lifetime productivity.”
Terragen will present these findings at the Joint International Congress of Animal Science to be held in Lyon, France in August.
Other outcomes from the study — including MYLO’s ability to reduce methane emissions and improve calf growth — continue to be analysed, and Terragen expects to produce additional conference abstracts and journal publications from this work.