is scheduled for September 20-21, 2011 in Owatonna. Several of the conference's speakers provided some information on what attendees can expect to learn during their sessions. Click a link below to jump directly to an individual speaker: • • • • •
The Future of Corn Production in the Upper Midwest
Q. Why is this topic important to dairymen?
COULTER: Corn and soybean are the dominant crops in the Upper Midwest and are the major sources of livestock feed throughout the U.S. However, future changes in the yields, agronomic input costs, and commodity prices of corn and soybean could cause shifts in the acreage of these crops.
Q. What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
COULTER: Attendees of this presentation will learn about trends in corn and soybean yields within the U.S. and across the world, and how this could affect future shifts in crop acreage, along with the availability of different types of livestock feed.
Jeff Coulter
Assistant Professor & Extension Agronomist
University of Minnesota
Email: coult077@umn.edu
Phone: (612) 625-1796
Corn Silage Fiber Digestibility: Key Points, Historical Trends and Future Opportunities
Q. Why is this topic important to dairymen?
JUNG: Corn silage is the largest ingredient in most dairy diets and stover constitutes half the dry matter in silage. Because corn stover is approximately 70% fiber, digestibility of corn silage fiber strongly limits both digestible energy available from silage and total diet feed intake.
Q. What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
JUNG: Lignin limits fiber digestibility, but lignin concentration is a poor digestibility predictor because plant parts and tissues differ in degree of lignification. No trends have been observed in corn silage fiber digestibility in the past, however fiber digestibility is heritable and biotechnology should allow better targeting of reduced lignin in the future.
Dr. Hans-Joachim G. Jung
USDA-ARS
E-mail: Hans.Jung@ars.usda.gov
Phone: (612) 625-8291
Nutritional Strategies to Improve Colostrum Yield in Dairy Cattle
Q. Why is this topic important to dairymen?
LITHERLAND: Moderate energy high fiber (MEHF) diets designed to prevent consumption of energy in excess of nutrient requirements by dairy cows prepartum have gained considerable popularity in the field over the past ten years. Although MEHF diets have reduced the incidence of metabolic disorders intermittent periods of alarmingly low colostrum yield has been identified as a key problem on dairy farms.
Reasons for periodically low colostrum yield are not clear but are likely linked to prepartum nutrition and management such as heat stress and days dry. Colostrum serves to protect the calf against disease until its own immune system becomes functional. It is currently recommended that calves be fed 10 percent to 12 percent of their body weight of colostrum at first feeding (4.5-5.4 kg for a 45-kg calf) to deliver 100 g of IgG. Therefore it is critically important to the health of the calf that an adequate amount of quality colostrum is available.
In order to address the colostrum yield question, sixty multiparous cows at the University of Minnesota were used to compare forage source in a TMR (wheat straw vs. grass hay) and supplemental energy source (starch vs. sugar). In this study, colostrum yield tended to be positively correlated with prepartum sugar intake. Interestingly, liver triglyceride and colostrum yield were positively correlated (P < 0.05) on day 7, 14 and 28 postartum. Colostrum yield and circulating NEFA were positively correlated (P < 0.05) at 7 days prepartum and 1 day postpartum. A summary of colostrum yield from two research studies conducted at the University of Minnesota in which 120 multiparous cows were fed MEHF diets showed that twenty seven percent of cows failed to produce at least 5 Kg of colostrum. Our labs future research will focus on understanding relationships between prepartum nutrition and colostrum as well as peak milk yield.
Q. What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
LITHERLAND: Prepartum dietary sugar supplementation tended to increase colostrum yield and colostrum solids yield. Other factors regulating colostrum yield should be investigated further. Colostrum yield may be a predictor of circulating NEFA and liver triglyceride and could serve as a tool to identify cows that are at risk for excessive liver lipid deposition.
Noah B Litherland
Assistant Professor
University of Minnesota
Phone: (612) 624-6789
If Calves Could Talk, What Would They Say About Their Feeding Program?
Q. Why is this topic important to dairymen?
KERTZ: Calves are the most efficient animals at converting nutrients to growth on a dairy. Yet few operations measure calf growth and performance. Emerging
data find that colostrum feeding and doubling calves' birth weight in the first 2 months of age results in increased milk yield in first and succeeding lactations.
Q. What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
KERTZ: How well we grow calves in the first 2 months can be improved on most dairy operations. Cost cutting at this age has minimal impact on the total cost of raising replacement heifers, but can limit their lifetime milk production. Additional investing in better growing calves can be repaid several fold.
Al Kertz
Ph.D., PAS, Dipl. ACAN
Dairy Field Technical Service and Research
Milk Specialties Global Animal Nutrition
E-mail: akertz@milkspecialties.com
Phone: (314) 821-2911
Innovations in Feed Grain Evaluation for Lactating Dairy Cows
Q. Why is this topic important to dairymen?
HOFFMAN: Traditionally, feed grains such as dry or high moisture corn were viewed as having little variance in regard to nutritional quality for lactating dairy cows. New research combines with historical literature has show that feed grain utilization by lactating dairy cows is influenced by both physical and nutritional characteristics. As a result, information is emerging which suggest dry and high moisture corns in fact have a relatively wide range of nutritional quality for lactating dairy cows.
Q. What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
HOFFMAN: Based on news research and integration of research, dairy producers and nutrition consultants serving dairies should increase the frequency and precision of testing feed grains prior to feeding to lactating dairy cows. Modern feed grain testing and evaluation systems should combine the physical characteristics of the feed grain (mean particle size) and nutritional compositions to estimate feed grain quality.
Patrick C. Hoffman
Professor, Department of Dairy Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
