First-time users of Gusto V-Whey powder, Dairy Farmers, Bryan and Diana Te Awa were impressed with how easily it mixed, how the calves took to it and how calves quickly gained condition following a rough start last season.

Diana was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Gusto V-Whey for three main reasons.

Firstly, it is highly soluble. “Mixing is a big thing for me. There’s nothing worse than having a milk powder that clumps. We mix with a high-pressure hose into a container

and the Gusto was an easy mix.”

Secondly, it was highly palatable. “The calves loved Gusto V-Whey. There was no issue in switching them from the whole milk to the powdered replacer.”

Finally, the calves put on condition and were strong and healthy at weaning, despite the rough start.

Last season, Diana reared 400 heifer calves and 300 bull calves on Woolomee Farm in Oxford, a dairy and pastoral farm with a herd of around 1,800 cows. For the past seven years, she’s worked closely through calving with PGG Wrightson Technical Field Representative, Kaleb Bolton and the store team at Rangiora, whom she describes as super helpful.

"Kaleb is a great Rep. I defer to him regularly with the calves because he lets me know about products and what results other farmers are seeing. Between Kaleb and Store Manager, Mark, we get what we need at a good price."

She explains that the calves are reared on whole milk for the best part of six to eight weeks. As milk production kicks in, storing milk for the calves becomes a problem so they are switched to a Calf Milk Replacer (CMR) until the calves reach 100 kg liveweight targets.

“Our objective is to raise calves that are well nourished, so we’re looking for a good honest feed that meets calves’ nutrition requirements in the final weeks prior to weaning.

“However, last season wasn’t normal. We had rotavirus go through the calves and they had a tough time. That put us on the back foot in terms of growth and condition at the six to eight week mark, when we normally switch to CMR.

“There was a major shortage of CMR last season. Fortunately, Kaleb came through for us and put us onto Gusto V-Whey. We ended up using about eight tonnes and saw some good results.”

Kaleb recommended they try Gusto V-Whey because it was readily available at the time and also professes to being an advocate of the product.

"I recommend Gusto V-Whey for rearing calves because whey is highly digestible” says Kaleb, “and I’ve seen good results on many farms. Quite simply, calves like Gusto V-Whey and they thrive on it. Because it is made in Holland, we know it is consistently high quality."

“Growth and development of the calves increased as it should” confirms Diana.

“We’ll definitely use Gusto V-Whey again this season” concludes Diana. “This time, we’ll even order it in advance.”

Article sponsored by Agritrade