The first weeks and months in the life of a calf are crucial for rearing a highly productive dairy cow.
Sprayfo from Trouw Nutrition offers a variety of premium calf-rearing solutions. Based on our extensive LifeStart scientific research, Sprayfo products and services guarantee calves the best possible start and a lifetime of high milk production.
For modern dairy farmers, becoming more sustainable means the need to produce more milk with fewer animals. This challenge can be met by utilizing each dairy cow’s full potential and maximizing its average lifetime daily production. Attention to the quality of nutrition in early life, which strongly influences gene expression, is an important factor that affects maximum growth and future production potential.
The study: A total of 86 individually housed female calves, divided into two groups, were included in a longitudinal study at Trouw Nutrition’s Kempenshof facility. The LifeStart group was fed 8 litres per day of calf milk replacer; the control group was fed 4 litres per day. Both groups were fed at a concentration of 150 g/l.
Results: The LifeStart group had a 150 g higher daily weight gain until weaning than the control group. The difference this made for calves in the LifeStart group included improved fertility, earlier first calving, an increase of 400 kg of fat corrected, and reduced culling rates.
