Proven New Zealand research

Set your calves, herd and pasture up for a smoother spring

Calving season puts everything under pressure at once: newborn calves finding their feet, cows moving through the most demanding weeks of their year, and spring pasture being asked to recover and perform.

AgriSea New Zealand | For dairy farmers

A simple early-spring programme can support your calves, your herd and your pasture through this window. Here is a look at how it works, what the numbers mean for your operation, and the independent New Zealand research behind it.

Start with the calves

The first weeks of a calf's life set the trajectory for everything that follows. A newborn calf arrives with almost no immune reserve and a rumen that is barely developed, and it is being asked to grow fast at the same time as it fends off the stress and disease pressure of a busy calving shed.

AgriSea Animal Nutrition is a seaweed supplement made from New Zealand Ecklonia radiata kelp. It is cold-extracted to preserve the integrity of the key bioactives and is naturally packed with prebiotics, probiotics, vitamins and minerals.

Independent research by Wintec compared calves on identical feed, housing and management, with the only difference being a daily 5ml dose of AgriSea Animal Nutrition from birth through to 12 weeks.

Wintec calf-rearing trial. See the full calf trial data.

The headline number is the 29% lift in weight gain. Because feed, housing and management were identical between the two mobs, that difference is down to the daily seaweed dose and nothing else.

• Firmer stools and cleaner pens, pointing to better gut integrity and a lower scours risk.
• More even mob growth, with lighter calves catching up and fewer tail-enders to manage.

A separate Flay on-farm beef trial saw calves on AgriSea gain 0.79 to 0.97kg per day, a 23% lift in daily weight gain.

Our calf programme

Stage	Dose	Route
Entry drench, on arrival	20ml once	Oral drench
Daily rearing, to 12 weeks	5ml per calf per day	In milk, replacer, water or drench
Scours support	50ml per calf per day for 4 days	Oral drench

Supporting cows through transition and calving

The transition period, from springing through to early lactation, is when oxidative stress, trace mineral demand and energy balance are all stretched at the same time.

What Lincoln University measured

Lincoln University, 143 days at 5ml per cow per day. Read the Lincoln University research.

Over 143 days at 5ml per cow per day, an independent Lincoln University trial recorded stronger antioxidant status, lower cellular oxidative stress and improved VFA production.

What happened in commercial herds

Cognosco/Annexa trial, four Waikato herds, 1,357 cows, nine months. See the commercial herd results.

An independent Cognosco and Annexa Animal Health trial followed four Waikato herds, covering 1,357 cows over nine months. The standout result was conception 3.2 days earlier.

Cow dose rates

• Maintenance: 5 to 10ml per cow per day via water trough or in-line.
• Weekly drench: 60ml per cow per week.

Seven years on farm: The Henshaw Family

Jackson and Sarah Henshaw milk 580 cows at Glenavy in South Canterbury and have run AgriSea across their herd and calves for more than seven years.

Over that time they have seen lower animal health costs per cow, higher pregnancy rates, less nitrogen use, better soil biology, and calves weaning three to four weeks earlier with faster weight gains.

Read the full Henshaw family case study.

Then look after the pasture

Transitioning cows need quality feed in front of them, and early spring is when your pasture is recovering and most responsive to support. AgriSea's Pasture Nutrition is one part of a broader biostimulant approach designed to lift feed quality at exactly this point.

Lincoln University evaluated the full AgriSea biostimulant programme across three pasture systems over six months. Across all three, treated pastures showed increased metabolisable energy and improved dry matter digestibility.

Built for quick uptake when the soil is still cold

Pasture Nutrition is sprayed onto the grass and taken up through the leaf, so it works from the top down rather than waiting on the roots. That matters most in early spring, when soil temperatures are still low.

Lincoln University pasture trial, three systems over six months. Read the pasture research.

This trial used sheep, but the marker is relevant to dairy operations too. A 40% reduction in NEFA indicates the feed is doing more of the work, so the animal draws down less of its own reserves.