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 animal to thrive again”
Inform Nutrition’s technical nutritional advisor, Sam Sweetnam 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.
For more information on RESPIRON Powder, RESPIRON+ Paste, or the Mervue Laboratories range of products to
naturally support calf health please contact your local nutritional technical advisor:
Nutritionists:
• Tom O Dwyer – Munster – 086 855 0759
• Liam Lacey – Leinster – 086 770 2570
• Kevin Conroy – Connacht – 083 159 1892
• Robert Mollan Eringold Enterprises, N. Ireland – 07770 77 5 212
• Chris Mollan Eringold Enterprises, N. Ireland – 07739 06 1 672