Michael Kissane farms in Baslicon, Waterville, Co. Kerry in partnership with his son Fionán. Together they have 120 Suckler cows and 300 ewes on their mixed highland and lowland 457-acre farm. The cows are mostly ¾ bred limousin and they are run with pedigree limousin and charolais bulls. Michael’s cows calve in July-August with great fertility in the herd.
A well known figure in the area, Michael has also been the manager of Iveragh Coop Mart for the past 29 years. We caught up with Michael recently to find out how he was planning to use our respiratory and immunity support product RESPIRON powder this year.
In the past Michael had a big issue with pneumonia on his farm. He took corrective measures such as increasing the ventilation in the shed, vaccination and 2 years ago he started using RESPIRON powder. This approach has seen Michael totally eliminate his pneumonia issues on his farm today.
Coming into a high risk period the calves are fed RESPIRON powder in November, December, and January. Michael finds that the calves adjust to RESPIRON within 2 days and he notices positive results almost immediately. Michael stresses:
“Prevention is much cheaper than cure, I find, as once an animal damages its lungs it can be difficult to get the anminal to thrive again”
Sam Sweetnam of Mervue Laboratories and Inform Nutrition further added, “I would say prevention is very cost effective with July born calves and older spring born weanlings e.g. July born calf cost (approx.165kg) €0.19/day and February born weanling (250-350kg) €0.39/day”.
Weaning and housing are particularly stressful times for calves. Poor practice at these times are associated with increased health problems and poor performance. Housing and weaning are associated with reduced antioxidant capacity which lowers the animal’s ability to deal with stress and reduces the capacity of the immune system to respond. Examples of antioxidants are Vitamin C Vitamin E and Vitamin A.
Feeding RESPIRON is designed to support the animal’s immune system, increase antioxidant capacity, boost appetite at housing and improve performance over the housing period.
RESPIRON also contains natural oils which support the immune system specifically in the lungs. RESPIRON should be fed for at least 5-7 days before and during periods of stress such as weaning, sudden changes in weather, change of environment – especially housing. The benefits of using RESPIRON include easier weaning process, reduced stress and supporting better performance.
