Level Acres Dairy of Hartford, WI is owned by Jim Becker and Jim Webber and milks 180 cows. They have been using Transition Stress™ Formula and Buffer-lyx^® for the last five years.

Jim Webber says, “The Transition Stress™ Formula block is something we would not go without. When we started, we saw less ketosis and fewer displaced abomasums right away. It helps us keep the vet bill down. When we are using the blocks we don’t see huge swings in the way cows perform. There is a more steady increase in milk and the cows production is very persistent. They peak higher right away and don’t lose too much weight.”

Jim uses the Transition Cow Index (TCI) on the DHIA records to track fresh cow performance. They consistently run a strong positive TCI with butterfat to protein ratios indicating that ketosis risk and weight loss are very low.

“Buffer-lyx^® does some amazing things in the summer. We started Buffer-lyx^® because butterfat was dropping and we were loosing peaks. Now we hold the peaks and maintain weight better in the summer.” He noticed that as the cows are more heat stressed, the intake of the barrel goes up, but not the vet bill. They like the BioBarrel^® due to the convenience and how it handles in the free stall barn. “You can push the straw barrel around with the skid steer and not worry about it.”

The skid steer is used to push up feed. They use the BioBarrel^® Buffer-lyx^® on the milk cows and don’t have to worry about damaging the steel barrels.