Earlier this year, Novus International kicked off a brand new program for dairy producers called C.O.W.S. – an acronym for Comfort, Oxidative Balance, Well-Being and Sustainability.

At World Dairy Expo, I caught up with Robin Rastini at the Novus exhibit to get an update on how that program is going. “So far we’ve done about 30 additional assessments on top of the initial benchmark, some of those are re-assessments off of the initial benchmarks,” she said. “We’ve seen huge improvements on those that have gotten re-assessed.”

In one case, Robin says a producer switched to Jersey cows because his stalls were too big for the breed he was using and instead of changing the barn, he changed the breed. “In other cases, it was as simple as taking out some brisket boards or changing the neck rail placement or bedding material. It’s definitely had an impact on improving cow comfort and lameness,” she said.

Robin also talked about Novus’ new BioOptimizedSM Trace Minerals Program. “That encompasses our MINTREX® minerals as well as our MAAC® line,” she explained. “These chelated trace minerals really perform better than many of the other classes of minerals.” The new program was just introduced last month so World Dairy Expo was the first opportunity for Novus to unveil it to producers.

Find out more in my interview with Robin from World Dairy Expo: Robin Rastini with Novus