Progut® Extra supports organic dairy production in Finland

Hankkija’s yeast hydrolysate Progut® Extra is a scientifically proven rumen enhancer and immunomodulator for dairy cows. Progut® Extra enhances milk production and reduces somatic cell counts. It also helps young ruminants develop immunological functions, such as antibody responses to vaccines. In organic milk production the proportion of concentrates used in the feeding is restricted by legislation. So on the product enhancing rumen fermentation and feed efficiency is very welcome.  The present experiment studied the effect of Progut® Extra on the milk production in dairy cows under an organic production system in Finland.

Study setup

The study was conducted in 2023 together with Häme University of Applied Sciences at Mustiala Teaching and Research Farm. It was carried out by Emilia Pirinen as her bachelor thesis work. The trial included 75 cows with average ECM production 10 426 kg/cow/year. The animals were mainly Ayrshire and Holstein breeds. Information about the 35 day trial periods, one before and one after adding Progut® Extra in the diet, were collected afterwards from the automated milking and feeding systems.

Feeding and dosage

The diet was based on grass silage with approximately 39 % proportion concentrate in dry matter. The concentrate included wheat, barley, oats, rapeseed cake, peas and faba beans. The Progut® Extra was part of concentrate dosed in the milking robot and Progut® Extra dosage was 6-8 g/cow/day.

Milk yield and efficiency

The results were calculated from the daily milk and feed data from automated systems. Progut® Extra increased ECM production from 31,0 to 34,9 kg/cow/day. Progut® Extra also improved feed efficiency by 8 % from 1,42 to 1,53 kg milk/kg feed.

The diets were balanced equally to meet nutritional needs of the animals. Anyways as the data was conducted over year after Progut® Extra inclusion in the diet it was impossible to have exactly same diets between the two periods. During the Progut® Extra period grass silage had higher digestibility which increased the energy intake of the animals. According to Finnish Natural Research center this amount of energy is equal to 2,2 kg ECM. After taking this into account it could be assumed that Progut® Extra increased the ECM by 1,7 kg.

Udder health

Progut® Extra also decreased proportion of cows with high SCC. During test period the proportion of animals with SCC higher than 100 000 cells/ml was decreased from 26 % (18 cows) to 18 % (7 cows). This shows Progut® Extra has potential to improve udder condition also in organic dairy herds.

Farm profitability

The results show that Progut® Extra is highly potential product to improve milk production of dairy cows under organic production system. With milk price during the trial periods the increase in farm’s sold milk increased yearly milk income by 11 000 euros.

Read more about Progut® Extra performance