Retained placentas and trouble with cows staying on feed led Rod Cyr and his son, Russell, to try Close-Up Dry Cow™ for their dry cows. They milk approximately 50 Holsteins with a rolling herd average close to 24,000 pounds at Windy Hollow Farms in southwest Alberta.

The Cyrs feed a total silage program containing bagged barley and alfalfa/grass mix. They found the cows were eating large amounts of loose mineral - above the grain ration recommendation. Since introducing Close-Up Dry Cow™ and Dairy-lyx^®, the cows are not eating free-choice mineral, which the Cyrs believe was tying up their reproductive systems. "Oh sure, we still get the odd retained placenta, but overall the cows are better and healthier since we started feeding CRYSTALYX^® products."

They've also noticed that the herd's conception rate is increasing and they're using less semen per cow. "We're beginning to use higher priced bulls, to take advantage of better genetics."

Another plus is that the cows seem to be having more visible heat cycles, which means they spend less time heat detecting.

Their success with the dairy products, led the Cyrs to try CRYSTALYX^® on their beef feeders. "We started with the dairy cows because that's where the problems were. Once we solved those problems, we just continued on with the CRYSTALYX^® program for the beef cattle."