Agolin Ruminant®, an Essential Oil Blend, Increases Energy-Corrected Milk and Feed Efficiency in a High Component Dairy Herd

[…] This trial was conducted on a large dairy with over 1000 cows available for each treatment. With this number of subjects, confidence in the results should be high. The trial compared cows given the same diet for both treatments, except for the inclusion of Agolin at the rate of 1 g/cow/day in the test diet. Unlike many other trials, the feeding period was long: measured over a 105-day period.

The results showed that by the end of the feeding period, milk FCM and ECM yields favored the test treatment by 1.48, 1.64 and 1.90 kg, respectively. Fat and protein yields were both 0.07 kg/cow/day greater with the Agolin treatment by the end of the trial. Thus, Agolin can be of benefit in herds striving to maintain or increase component yields.

An important observation emanating from this trial is the fact the response to Agolin by dairy cows was not diminished as the trial progressed, indicating that the product remained efficacious. The evaluation of persistency, as described here, might be a tool that can be used to determine the long-term benefits of feed additives in dairy cows.