Phosphorus (P) is a vital nutrient for many physiological processes in the body and instrumental in milk production. In fact, nutritionists and producers often say that P is crucial for reproductive performance, although there is no literature to date that corroborates this statement. However, P is well known for its negative environmental implications when not properly handled in manure.

“Steve, you gotta take that expensive blood meal out of my mix. That stuff is costing me a fortune,” growled the grizzled dairy farmer whose hair was in little tufts from trying to pull it out while doing the monthly financial books. I had heard it before. I knew the reasoning behind it. If it costs a bunch, it cannot be good.

More dairy nutritionists are embracing the practice of amino acid balancing. For those that have, the economic rewards have been excellent. This is particularly true for producers paid the Class III component formulas – where milk protein continues to be the most valuable, followed by milk fat and other solids. Payments for milk protein make up more than 50 percent of a producer’s milk check and milk fat accounts for about 35 percent.

Using a vertical auger mixer just wasn’t delivering the total mixed ration Andrew Kuehnert and his family wanted for their Midwestern dairy.

Recent movement in the ethanol industry to extract some of the oil from the co-product distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) has grabbed the attention of the livestock feeding sector. With change comes opportunity and the dairy industry is poised to capitalize.

Amino acids (AA), essential nutrients for dairy cows, cannot be considered optional feed additives. When AA levels in the ration are properly balanced, milk production, the cow’s reproduction and health each benefit.

Each year, the American poultry industry produces roughly nine billion chickens for meat that is sold in markets in the U.S. and around the world. In 2010, the USDA reported that the total live weight of chicken processed in the U.S. was 49.3 billion pounds.

Problem Milk components varied significantly, despite consistent milk production.Rambling Acres in Stetsonville, Wisconsin, consistently averages 95 pounds of milk per cow year-round, with periods of 100-plus pounds.But despite this stellar milk production, components would continuously vary.

Nutrition tweaks and adjustments are a necessary part of good ration management, and the right decisions made at the right time can pay big dividends. However, field assessments have found that for these ration tweaks to be effective, any underlying herd challenges must be identified and resolved first or the ration adjustment can be an expensive exercise in futility. It’s essential to make sure a dairy’s underlying herd management makes the grade before fine-tuning the ration.