The farm and its success
The family Gaec de la Grande Saule, with 4 partners, is located in the Vosges plain. In addition to its suckling cow herd of about 115 Charolaises, the farm has a dairy cow herd of 130 Prim’Holstein. The farm has 481 hectares, of which 200 hectares are crops and 280 hectares are grass, allowing them to ensile their basic feed themselves.
Calving is spread over the entire year with an average of 10 calvings per month and 2 peak periods in April/May and September/October. On the one hand, this has its advantages – on the other hand, the spread calving peaks complicate the hygiene management, as the calves in the rearing area are of different ages.
“In May 2017 we had a big outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in the calves. That’s when we changed our rearing system.”
(Rémi BREGEOT)
Nowadays, calves are reared in individual igloos outdoors for the first 15-20 days. Then they enter the group phase where the calves are fed MilkÉlevage with the DAL automatic feeder for 60 days. For practical reasons, they are all fed with JOSERA IgluVital until the 15th-20th day of life after drinking the milk from the mother cow for the first 4 days of the calf’s life. This is due to the rearing system and the fact we only have one DAL automatic feeder for all ages.
IgluStart has been in use since 2016. In the spring of 2019, we changed the milk replacer to IgluVital, a milk replacer from the JOSERA PERFORMANCE line.
“It’s a very good product, which we will continue to feed. Especially the solubility aspect is a great advantage. The milk replacer powder is very fine and there is no residue. The calf takes up all the milk replacer! The calves have an optimal start at the beginning of life and therefore we have less worries during the rearing period and it is easier to care for the calves.“
(Rémi BREGEOT)
Are you interested in JOSERA IgluVital?
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You might be interested in the following contents:
JOSERA NutriEffect – against mastitis and for a higher milk yield
„After three to four weeks we could already see that the ingredients were much more constant. The cows were also much more stable in their body condition even with high milk quantities”
JOSERA IgluVital – against diarrhoea in calves
“For a dairy farm the calves are the basis. That’s why it’s important to keep them healthy right from the start. We do a lot through nutrition – that’s why we feed IgluVital.”