Superior Growth Provides $ Benefits for Beef Rearers

Warren and Dawn Jensen
Warren and Dawn Jensen,
Northern Manawatu beef farmers

Rearing calves on Fiber Fresh has boosted the bottom line of a Northern Manawatu beef farm and produced bigger and better calves.

Warren and Dawn Jensen switched to Fiber Fresh five years ago to rear their Hereford cross white-faced beef calves and have found it both easier and more cost effective to use. Their calves are also heavier than they used to be, in better condition after weaning, and more resilient to worms and dry summer conditions.

Warren says, “Fiber Fresh has been absolutely brilliant for us. The rearing of the animals is a lot easier with Fiber Fresh and the calves do really well on it. They get a better start, keep on growing after weaning, and we end up with bigger animals. I’m sure it’s because their stomachs are developed a lot sooner. Another big advantage is that the product is delivered to our farm and the trucks have their own fork lifts and can unload themselves. It’s also stored outside, ready to use and it doesn’t go off in the rain or the sunlight. That’s a huge timesaver for us.”

The Jensen’s rear up to 140 calves each year on their Kimbolton property, approximately 60km north of Palmerston North. They take the calves to yearling age and then sell them to either finishers or beef breeders.

Warren says the Fiber Fresh calves attract a lot of comments about their good condition and fetch higher prices because of their bigger size. He says, “The buyers are prepared to pay good prices for our calves because they know they will finish much earlier.”

The higher sale prices are just one of several bottom line benefits that the Jensens attribute to Fiber Fresh. Warren says, “We also need to buy less drench.”

Warren says his calves have fewer worming problems now and he puts it down to the superior rumen development provided by the Fiber Fresh feed.

He says, “We really used to notice that if the calves went onto the grass too soon that they would have a worm problem and they just wouldn’t do as well as the other calves. We’d end up with one mob that needed drenching more often than any other mob and they were always sickly and just didn’t do as well as the others. You’d know it was because their stomachs had not developed properly and you’d kick yourself for not giving them the right start.”

“Worms don’t seem to worry our calves as much since we’ve started following the Fiber Fresh programme. I think it’s because their stomachs are a lot stronger.”

Warren has also noticed that the Fiber Fresh calves forage better and cope well with dry rough grasses.

He says, “Our last two summers were quite dry and the stock did so much better than they did in other seasons. Dry conditions used to knock them around quite a bit. The only thing I can put it down to is the Fiber Fresh they were reared on. The calves seem to handle the dry so much better now and when you go onto supplement feed again in the winter they just get straight into the silage product and just carry on growing.”

The Jensens are planning to use the new Freshstart® programme this year.

Designed to produce bigger and better calves, the Freshstart® programme is comprised of the already widely accepted FiberGain® for the older calves and a new Stage One feed called FiberStart®. FiberStart® has been especially formulated to encourage rumen development in young calves and ensure they grow and develop correctly. It contains natural easily digested HNF Fiber® with 16% captured oats, which provides the all-important “scratch factor” and encourages the correct mix of micro flora bacteria.

You can find out more about the “Freshstart®” programme by contacting your nearest Fiber Fresh Area Consultant on: Tel.0800 545 545, or visiting www.fiber-fresh.com