Objective - to strengthen the integrity in the organic milk production by evaluating strategies which can assure an adequate supply with vitamins and minerals from organic feedstuffs
- to describe and test different strategies to reduce the use of veterinary medicine in organic dairy herds.
Preliminary results
Integrated supply of vitamins and minerals on herd level
A computer program has been developed. The program evaluates the possibilities to adjust the feed production on the individual herd towards improved self sufficiency with minerals and vitamins. The program is expected to be a useful tool to evaluate the proportion of Danish organic herds which can realize an integrated supply. The model is still awaiting inputs from the other project activities to improve the underlying reference values for mineral and vitamin supply.
Herbs and mineral supplementation
The experiments with herbs in different herds have shown that the establishment of the herbs is comparable across the herds. The concentration of minerals in the different species showed large differences which greatly exceeds the difference between the herds. Based on these results we expect that the project will give new knowledge about how the different tested herbs can be used in the herds.
Alternatives to antimicrobials
The initial studies in Danish and US dairy herds with low or no use of antimicrobials indicate that the herd owners experience keeping a low use of antimicrobials as fairly uncomplicated. Most Danish herds with a low use of antibiotics accomplish this with out using other types of treatments. Instead the herd owners focus on health improvement and critical selection of cows for treatment.
