Description
Maximise Calf Growth and Gut Health.
Fresh Start Improve is a unique combination of natural ingredients specially formulated to maximise calf growth, immunity and gut health. Fresh Start Improve is a powder which is added to milk (fresh or replacer).
What Does Fresh Start Improve Do?
By binding bacteria in the gut, Fresh-start Improve reduces scour and increases calf growth. By providing a unique source of antioxidants, Fresh-start Improve supports the whole immune system. Fresh Start Improve also supplies functional proteins directly to the gut wall, helping it to develop fully to maximise calf growth.
Finally, Fresh Start Improve contains a unique source of DHA omega-3 essential for calf development.
Fresh Start Improve contains:
IMMGUT:
• Unique blend of oligosaccharides
• Algae – a unique source of DHA omega-3 essential for
calf development
• Improves weight gain and contributes to the health
of the animal
• Increases starter intake and efficiency
• Improves the metabolic profile in calves
• Reduces cryptosporidium in the first 3 weeks
Fresh Start proved farm’s scours was more than a ‘grumbling’ problem Dairy farmer Allan Young was not too concerned by the grumbling, low level salmonella scours problem in his young calves. It wasn’t causing any deaths, he says, just taking the edge off their growth.
But, at the suggestion of his local Downland retailer he treated his calves with Fresh Start® Improve – and he was greatly impressed with the results. “The difference underlined just how significant the problem was,” says Allan. “With Fresh Start® Improve the appetite and growth of calves improved and they were more vigorous. It cleared the scours problem we had suffered.” Allan is the third generation of his family to run Straid Farm at New Cumnock in Ayrshire. He does so in partnership with his wife Elaine and parents David and Kay Young. They have 160 milking cows – Holsteins – and about the same number of young stock on the 220-acre farm, which is all down to grass. David, with the caution that’s a trade mark of hard-working farmers, wanted proof that curing the problem was a result of Fresh Start® Improve and not their fine-tuning to calf management. Says Allan: “We stopped using the product for one batch of calves, for about a month, and the scours came back.” It convinced them all that the success was down to Fresh Start® Improve, and now its use is a routine part of calf management. Mortality rate on the farm is below one per cent. “Deaths have never been a big issue here. At one stage mortality did rise 2 to 3%, but that was largely down to a ventilation issue in the rearing shed, which we quickly sorted,” he adds. About 30 calves a year are bred as dairy herd replacements. Other cows produce continental-cross calves, Limousine or Belgian Blue, via AI to produce quality calves for the beef market. Once farmers have ruled out nutritional causes of scours – such as over feeding or incorrect mixing of milk replacer – the finger of blame will point at infection. This can be viruses such as rotavirus and coronavirus; bacteria, for example E.coli or salmonella, or parasites – such as cryptosporidium and coccidia.
Scours is the most common disease problem in unweaned calves says NADIS, the National Animal Disease Information Service. It is responsible for about half of all calf deaths in Britain. Results of a late 1990s study into calf enteritis, produced by NADIS, put costs per scouring calf at an estimated £26. It suggested the total cost, taking account of depressed weight gain and lost milk yield, totalled about £123 per affected calf (Byron, J S 1997).
The unique package of ingredients that make up Fresh Start® Improve reduces scours, improves growth and supports the immune system. It also contains DHA omega-3, essential for calf development. Fresh Start® Improve is only available through the Downland network of agricultural retailers throughout the UK. Says Allan Young: “The product has proved its value on our farm. I was away for a while during the treatment of a batch of calves. When I got back the difference in the young animals was quite astounding. Its use is good welfare, and good economic sense.”