Father and son, two managers, two progressive dairymen, David and John jointly operate their dairy farm. just minutes away from the grounds of World Dairy Expo, the largest dairy show in the U.S.A.
With 600 milking cows, Dave and Jon are always looking for improvements and innovation. After years of using powdered colostrum replacer, they decided to re-evaluate if they could use their own colostrum. The challenge of using their own maternal colostrum, however, was the the risk of transfering Johne’s disease to their newborn calves. At first Jon started looking for a colostrum pasteurizer, but the only options that were available required the pooling of colostrum. Jon didn’t want to pool his colostrum, he wanted to know which cow each portion came from and what quality it was – Jon wanted to do it the right way. Then he went to the Progressive Dairy Producers of Wisconsin Annual Conference and saw the ColoQuick Colostrum Management System. “I knew that the ColoQuick was the right way for us because it was a complete system, not just a pasteurizer.”
When Jon and Dave brought the system to the farm, their calf-care person, Teresa, was ecstatic. In Jon’s words: “Teresa is a very meticulous person, that’s why we hired her to take care of our calves. The very first day she used the system, she loved it saying that it was so nice and so easy to use.”
Today, thanks to the convenience of the ColoQuick System, the calves at the Farm receive their own maternal colostrum which contains the antibodies and resistance that the herd is exposed to. The fast feeding of the colostrum translates into healthier calves, lower sickness rates and so far no mortality. As Dave puts it: “Since implementing the system, our calves hardly ever get sick and if they do, their response to treatment is much better and faster. We haven’t changed our treatment protocols since using the ColoQuick, but our calves bounce back much faster – I am sure their immune system has improved.” The faster recovery time saves them time and money.
Dave and Jon feel very strongly about the benefits of the system: ” We took a risk purchasing the system just as we came out of a bad year, but the investment has paid off and the system exceeded our expectations.”