Ewe-reka now contains a new additive which facilitates a greater absorption of calcium sources (whey) into the blood and then into the bones.

The role of the additive is to boost bone metabolism. Proper bone development is essential to allow the young lamb/kids skeleton to store necessary minerals for appropriate growth and development.

In turn, this encourages enhanced growth rates in the lambs and kids during the milk feeding period.

A recent French trial carried out on goat kids showed the below results:

Table 1: Effect of MR additive on kid goat ADG performance

*Statistically Significant

On average, the goat kids on the above trial grew 8% more than kids fed control.

Table 2: Comparison of goat kid performance when fed a control MR without additive, with additive or calcium carbonate

Goat kids receiving MR with additive weighed 1 kg more than control group at slaughter.

Figure 1: Effect of additive versus control group over 200-day period

Results in figure 1 illustrate the long-term growth benefits of including additive in goat kids’ diet. The difference in average weight between the two batches at 60 days of age (1.1 kg) is confirmed at 200 days of age (1.2 kg). Therefore, the benefit of superior animal development during the milk diet phase is retained during further growth.

In addition, with a boosted bone metabolism as a result of better calcium absorption this leads to better growth performance in youngstock and consequently has a knock-on effect on future adult performance (See figure 2).

Figure 2: Effect of additive on long term goat milk production