There is improved fertility and milk yield when cows are fed Crystalyx pre-calver dry cow minerals before calving and Optimum dry cow minerals after calving, but it is too early to say if results are statistically significant and if they can be replicated. This was one of the clear messages to over 200 invited feed industry personnel attending a Crystalyx International Symposium in Carton House, Co Kildare, today.

At the conference, dairy fertility specialist Dr Peter Ball spoke about the challenges of running the feed mineral trial in Western Scotland. He said: “To get the right trial set up requires a number of groups of animals and, so far, we have very small numbers in the trial. The results we have are promising but it’s too early to say if they will stand up when numbers increase. We are seeing freshly calved cows returning to heat quicker, cows with a shorter interval from calving to first cycle, and higher conception rates.”

The first speaker of the day was Dr Patrick Wall from University College Dublin. Other speakers included Professor Jamie Newbold, director of research and enterprise, Aberystwyth University, Professor Jim Drouillard, professor of beef nutrition and research, Kansas State, and Dr Cliff Lister, technical director, Caltech Crystalyx, UK.

The meeting was arranged by Crystalyx International to update feed industry personnel from England and Ireland about the latest trends in dairy fertility in both the dairy and beef herds. Crystalyx markets a range of bucket mineral licks for cattle and sheep. The company launched a new pig mineral bucket called Piglyx at today’s conference.