"In our two Friesian herds we would only have had 5-8 down cows over the entire calving, and in the Jersey herd which had been up at about 20% down cows, we only got four to five cows."

"We would have had our empty rate decline across the three farms from 12-17% to 7-11%."

"We have also managed to tighten up our calving pattern thanks to the improved submission rate, moving from 11-12 weeks to 9-10 weeks." 

"It is things like that you don’t fully appreciate changing for the better until you look back over a couple of years and really notice the improvement."

"Every month we will have a farm meeting with the Sollus rep and the feed company, just reviewing how things are going, and if we need to tweak anything."

"We appreciate not having to use pasture dusting – no one likes it and it is not that effective. And coming down in the morning knowing you are not going to be greeted with lots of down cows, that is a good way to start the day." 

"And I appreciated the interest the Sollus team took in our operation, that is what has made using Sollus different to other companies, they take time to understand our feed use, and work on that first."

"Pushing for higher performance something was going to give, and we were having to use a vet as the ambulance."

"Yes, we are spending money on Tranzsol and Lactisol, but adding them means we don’t have a full time staff member dusting paddocks, and another full time staff member picking up the down cows all day every day. We can focus on keeping the herd fed, healthy and producing well."

"Our vet bill would have halved in the past few years."

"Our lameness problems would have fallen by over two thirds, and with that a lot of time has been saved too."

"It has made life a lot easier that it was before and if anything we will just be tinkering around the edges from here on in."

"Our focus once through calving was primarily on getting the herd in calf and achieving an improvement in the in-calf rate. We achieved this in the first year using Sollus, with a 9% empty rate down from 18%, a big improvement." 

"We have hardly had a case of milk fever over the time we have used Tranzsol and Lactisol, it’s just not the problem it used to be."

"There are a lot of different companies out there, the Sollus guys understand the issues and come back for regular consultations."

"This autumn calving, I was half-way through before we even had our first case of milk fever, that’s a big change from what we were used to getting."

 "Transitioning with Tranzsol is by far the best and biggest advantage we have gained out of the whole change in the system. As soon as the cows come out of the colostrum mob, they are ready to go, she is getting all her energy out of the diet we feed her, not out of her body."