While the total neutral detergent fiber content (NDF on a DM basis) of a forage crop is a major factor in defining the overall maturity at cutting, it’s by no means the last word in understanding the digestibility of this fiber fraction when eaten by the dairy cow or replacement heifer. The NDF fraction comprises the cell wall components, lignin, hemi-cellulose and cellulose.(See Figure 1.)

Cows have a history of being easy targets for blame. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow was credited with starting the fire that burned down Chicago when she kicked an unfortunately placed lantern on Sunday, October 8, 1871. Now, some 140 years later, cows are being blamed for methane pollution and for the inefficient use of nitrogen in feedstuffs, an inefficiency tied to pollution from needlessly high levels of nitrogen in urine.

Change is not always an easy concept to embrace. But for dairy producers and nutritionists willing to look at their rations in a new light, getting in on the leading edge of change with amino acid balancing offers environmental rewards as well as benefits in herd performance. That’s because dairy diets have long been formulated to oversupply protein in hopes of delivering adequate levels of limiting amino acids. While certainly understandable in theory, this practice has its drawbacks. It is:

What is the best measure of feeding economics? There are a variety of ratios used in the dairy industry to evaluate feeding economics – and they are misleading or inaccurate if used inappropriately. Examples include milk price to feed price (USDA’s milk-to-feed ratio), dry matter intake to milk production (milk-to-feed) and feed cost per hundredweight (cwt).

Maintaining good udder health and low bulk tank somatic cell counts (SCC) is increasingly important to dairy profitability, particularly in light of the recent marketing requirement adopted by most milk processors to limit bulk tank SCC to a maximum of 400,000 cells per ml. Compliance with this new standard generally means that dairies must implement consistent and correct practices in a number of areas. A focus on clean cows, dry environments, proper udder prep and milking machine function, along with prudent monitoring, treatment and culling decisions, is commonly emphasized by herds with perennially low SCC.