Thursday, July 30, 2015

Genesis Colostrum Products. Because Getting Your Calves Off to a Healthy Start Matters

If you haven’t already heard (which we sure hope you have!), Genex began marketing Genesis colostrum products earlier this year. When we first received the product, we asked our lovely friend and blog-writing queen, Darcy Sexson, to help us capture some pictures of Genesis colostrum being fed to a few of her and her husband’s calves. And of course, she pulled through! (Like we had any doubt she wouldn’t.) Not only did she snap some great pictures, she went one step further and provided an awesome story of their success with Genesis colostrum! We knew we liked her for a reason ;) So, without further ado...

“At the beginning of May, my husband, Clint, and I synched and A.I. bred about 1,000 heifers at the feedlot that a customer had purchased and intended to sell as bred heifers. After we gave the lute shot, we realized a group of them hadn't been pregged prior to purchase, and we had two heifers calve with near-term calves. We weren't expecting that, so the heifers calved in a feedlot pen, and I think they were just as surprised to see the calves as we were. :) 

When we found them, we moved the new pairs to a separate pen. While the heifers were mothering the calves, we realized the calves probably would benefit from a little help from us. (The heifers had a bit of milk but not a ton, and one of the calves barely had its teeth broken through the skin ... they were early!) Enter – the Genesis colostrum bags marketed by Genex. 

We found the calves while we were in the midst of breeding the other heifers, and once we found them we gave each of the new calves two bags of Genesis 50 Colostrum Supplement and then again about 6-8 hours later. The colostrum was super easy to mix, and the small esophageal tube was gentle on the premie calves’ mouths and throats.


But the proof is in the pudding ... would the calves actually live? Since the heifers were scheduled to remain in the feedlot for a few months after being artificially inseminated, we knew we couldn't leave the calves there. Friends of ours, Clete and Jennifer Mitchell, were there helping us A.I. that week, and they ended up taking the two premie calves home with them – one in a borrowed dog crate, the other wrapped in a plastic feed sack on Jennifer's lap! (They live about five hours from us.) Three weeks later we were at a jackpot show in Madras, Oregon, where Jennifer's older kids were showing. It turns out they also brought the two bottle calves with them, and Jennifer's youngest daughter, Caylee, even showed one of them in the PeeWee showmanship class! It was as halter broke as you could make a three-week-old premie calf, and it was a great partner for Caylee. :)


Anyway, we're confident those two calves wouldn't have made it without the colostrum supplement, and the ease of the bags made it super convenient for us as well. We're hooked! :)”

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