The effects of the Pitstop^PLUS concept was tested under practical conditions in six farms in Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark with a total of about 2,700 dairy cows:

• In a 12-month period starting August / September 2019, every other cow that has calved has had access to eat extra minerals from Pitstop^PLUS feeders during the critical transition period, ie. until 98 days after calving.
• The access to extra supplements for the dry CloseUp cows from three weeks before calving was inconsistent, among other because one herd graze their dry cows during the summertime, and the possibility to give access for pregnant heifers and dry cows was due to the housing not possible in all herds.
• The supplements used in the Danish, Latvian and Lithuanian herds are "Pitstop+ ProMais StartLact", produced by Vilomix. The used supplements in the German farm, "Milkinal® 8339 Pitstop+" is delivered by Milkivit / Trouw Nutrition Germany. In addition, the German herd has for a limited part of the transition period used a product with Rumen Protected Choline (RPC) delivered by Salvana. The used supplements contain a wide range of high-available micro minerals and vitamins and advanced feed additives. The mineral mixtures are designed for having good taste and flowability.

Despite being based on prototypes and many technical problems, tests of Automated Precision Supplementation has shown impressive results on the dairy production economy.

• The results presented in the table can be listed as follows:
  • The test cows have 23% fewer disease treatments involving a veterinarian, which exceeds our expectations. The result is calculated on the basis of 1,367 cows and is supported by the other positive effects on health, including cell counts and culled cows.
  • The somatic cell count is on average 18% lower for the test cows, corresponding to 54,000 fewer cells per ml.
  • The number of inseminations per pregnancy is 0.11 lower for the test cows, corresponding to 6% lower, and there is a corresponding positive effect on the number of non-started cows and on the number of empty days.
  • The test cows have on average eaten only 3.4 kg extra supplements during the critical transition period. This average was not enough to ensure an effect on the milk yield, whereas there is a good effect in the Danish and German herds (see below), where the cows have eaten 81 and 144 grams of minerals in extra per day in the critical transition period, respectively, including a choline product for part of the period.

The feed intake during the critical transition period is on average about 20% lower than the need of the cow, and if you look at the minerals alone, it means that the cows with their feed ration have an undersupply of 50-70 grams mineral feed supplements per cow per day. The effect of the Pitstop^PLUS concept is mainly due to the fact that the body has very small stocks of micro-minerals, which is of great importance for the cow's immune status and thus its health status, fertility and productivity.

The effect of using Automated Precision Supplementation was even higher in the Danish and German herds.

Tests in the Danish and German herds were more or less comparable, as the uptake of mineral feed was at an expected level (due to fewer technical problems), and both herds used both mineral supplements and a choline product for a larger or smaller part of the test period. The average results from these two herds were as shown in the table.

The results suggest a solid financial advantage of the concept.

The analyses are made by Organe Institute within the frames of the Internet of Food and Farm 2020 mega-project.