Environmental factors such as temperature and light influence dairy cow productivity and health. Heat stress during lactation accounts for 10 to 25 percent of milk production loss on average. If you were milking cows this past summer, you can probably agree with that. In the upper Midwest, we faced a 4-pound to as much as a 30-pound drop in milk production. It’s easy to quantify the effect of heat stress on milking cows, but how can we really know its effect on dry cows? Does it even have an effect? During the dry period, the udder cells are recovering from the previous lactation and preparing for the next. This is the time to replace the old milk secretory cells and grow new cells that will support milk production in the next lactation. Heat stress during this important time of cell turnover can dramatically impact transition into the subsequent lactation.

Fermentrics is a nutritional diagnostic report unique in that it contains data generated from a novel, gas-fermentation method popular among European academic researchers. There are only a few university and corporate product development research labs in North America with gas-fermentation systems and they are not capable of processing and handling the sample volume needed in a commercial offering.

Ensiling forages, an age-old process, comes with both unavoidable and avoidable losses of nutrients. With corn at $6 per bushel and soy beans at $12 per bushel, the market value of corn silage based on its nutrient content is in excess of $70 per ton as fed or $200 per ton dry matter for a 35 percent dry matter crop – we clearly need to pay closer attention to the avoidable losses.

A key dairy nutritionist asked us to conduct a TMR audit for two reasons: First, to determine what, if any, factors might be limiting the lactation herd’s feeding system and, second, for insights on further improving the feeding management. The nutritionist had seen the results of previous TMR audits and knew the producer would welcome fine-tuning from a second set of eyes.

Back in 1990, I worked with my first 90-pound dairy herd. It was a very high crude protein diet (22 percent) and contained 42 pounds of grain in only 56 pounds of dry matter intake, making the ration a mere 33 percent forage. Fortunately for the cows, several pounds of soyhulls and cottonseed made up a large proportion of the TMR grain mix, helping to maintain rumen health.

In today’s tough economic, environmentally conscious world, a dairy operation needs to run with the utmost precision and efficiency. From purchasing opportunity ingredients to using on-farm forages, to production efficiencies and standard operating procedures, all components must work together to have a successful, profitable and earth-friendly operation.

The benefits of pasture-based dairying are enticing, drawing traditional dairy producers to consider entering this niche. Although a traditional dairy cannot be transformed into a pastoral dairy overnight, there are certain management practices that will facilitate the transition process. From small family farms to investor operations, the best pastoral dairies achieve success through careful planning. Learn from experienced graziers When working with new and existing grazing dairies, it becomes obvious some are more successful than others. The difference is often found in being open to new ideas and actively seeking new information.