Novolyte, "a good booster for the calves"
We spoke to NZAgbiz customer Michelle Pease to hear more about how Biosupport and Novolyte have helped with their 870 cow operation in Taranaki. As part of a fifth generation family farm, Michelle and her husband have learnt that making sure that their calves have the right boosters and rehydration supplements to avoid any illness to ensure their animals have the best start possible.
“It’s just a good booster for the calves”
I started using Biosupport in the first place as I got a free sample, and I just tried it, and I thought ‘it's just a good booster for the calves, really, just putting all that good stuff into the cow's gut, really’. Like I said, it’s pretty fresh to me. I’ll use it again this year.
“I just find it easy to mix up and use and stuff”
I just find it easy to mix up and use and stuff. It's good to get into the calves. I always used to use Revive which is so expensive and when we were putting the numbers through, it just worked out a lot easier to use Novolyte.
“We get good value in terms of the benefits we get from them”
We just scoop it out, put it in some water, mix it up, and then put it into the cafeterias. We've got a 60-metre calf rearing shed. We can have 35 calves at a time but I only like to do about 22. Then we just have a couple of feeders in there, and enough teats to feed all the calves. We had to scoop it and mix it up and pour it into their milk.
It's not hard to make. You can make a big bulk quantity as well and just scoop it out and put so much into each feeder as you run along the pens – that's a handy way of doing it.
“It's safe to give to a bobby calf as well, it's all natural”
I actually also give it to my bobby calves, the bobby calves that don't drink. People are like, "Why waste money on bobby calves?" At the end of the day, a bobby calf has still got to get on the truck healthy, and happy. If a calf doesn't want to drink, and does miss a couple of feeds, we'll make sure it has a tube of electrolytes. Because calves can guzzle, and drink too much, and then get the shits, and especially bobby calves.
It's safe to give to a bobby calf as well, it's all natural. People will frown upon me doing that, but I've done it for years, and it works.