A specially designed system for spraying precisely measured amounts of essential liquid minerals for animal health into diet feeder wagons on farm has been launched by a Kildare based firm.
The technology is the first precision liquid mineral dosing system in the world which gives full real time visibility and control to farmers, reducing labour, eliminating waste while improving animal health having been developed as a pivot from its existing farm drinking water based version.
The revolutionary systems are capable of precisely dispensing the optimum amounts of essential minerals whenever they are needed such as magnesium, copper, selenium, zinc, Iodine and vitamins which are beneficial to the herd in many different ways.
One of the main positives stemming from the system’s use is the increase in herd fertility with an average improvement of 4-7% whilst also easing problems of difficult calvings and milk fevers.
Founded in 2012 as TERRA Liquid Minerals by brothers Tom and Padraig Hennessy, in 2018 they rebranded to TERRA NutriTECH.
The company has developed different mineral mixes for precalvers to prevent calving issues, fertility to increase cows in calf, beef finisher mixes as well as mixes to help prevent pica and bloat.
Beef farmers using the NutriTECH system in the past have seen better weight gains of 3-6% and with other general benefits of their herd such as a decrease in lameness and health issues such as grass tetany leading to reduced veterinary bills.
The company recently commissioned an independent study in a sample of 126 of their customers which was carried out by IFAC who found that 80% saw a reduction in calving issues, 43% of farmers saw decrease in use of concentrate of over 10% whilst the remaining 57% saw a saving of 0-10% giving a saving of €20-30 per cow.
Further encouraging results found that 68% farmers saw improvement in herd fertility with a reduction in vet bills, 87% of clients had a reduction in labour using the systems of c.10 hours per month whilst 76% say their milk fever reduced.
