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University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension provided crop scouts with an opportunity to enhance their skills during crop scout training sessions in March and May at at the university's Agricultural Research and Development Center near Mead.
Ration starch content is a hot topic among dairy nutritionists these days, as we look for ways to create more economical rations. Dairy cows need to consume adequate starch for proper rumen fermentation. Traditionally, corn provided this source of fermentable energy because it was cheap, available and high in starch. However, concerns about high corn prices and potential cow health problems have many producers looking for grain alternatives.
A byproduct is by definition “a product made during the manufacture of something else.” So when we are referring to byproduct feeds, we are talking about feedstuffs fed to livestock that are secondary products produced after the primary product is made. Typically, these byproduct feeds are of less value than the primary product, and thus the producer of the product is less concerned about their quality.
How do we determine what nutrients we need to feed a dairy cow? Do you know what goes into balancing your herd’s rations? Do you need to know differences in dairy nutrition models?
You most likely will not need to know all the numerous, intricate details of a complicated nutrition model. But it would help your understanding of how nutrition data input into a nutritional model affects your herd’s rations.
A goal for calf raisers, which has been endorsed by the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association, is for calves to double their birth weight by 60 days of age. During this time, young herd replacements should also add 4 to 5 inches of height to their structural growth. To achieve these benchmarks, calf raisers will need to feed a full potential nutrition program, including a 28 percent protein milk replacer, along with a 22 percent protein, highly palatable calf starter.
Let’s start out our conversation about this topic by reminding ourselves that calves thrive on consistency. One element of this consistent care is their milk replacer. How do we arrange our work to produce high-quality consistent milk replacer every feeding, every day?
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions
Each manufacturer has options for both ingredients and processes when making milk replacer. Depending on the choices that are made by the manufacturer, an individual milk replacer will have relatively unique mixing requirements to achieve the best quality reconstituted product.
With the coming of spring and gardening time, I am always awestruck at the beauty of nature and the power of growing things. You put a seed in the ground, give it some water and sunlight, protect it from the elements and watch it grow. Suddenly you have many seeds and food to eat. You can’t explain how it happened, you just know that from a tiny seed grew a fruitful plant.
Cavitation is called the cancer of the hydraulic system. Like cancer in humans, it can be a silent killer of your system by eating away at the hydraulic pump and other parts of the system.
The first automobiles were truly horseless carriages. They moved and bounced like horse-drawn ones but without the horse and faster. What was merely uncomfortable in a carriage at a trot was downright dangerous and life-threatening at the rapid speeds of 20 and 30 miles per hour.
As these early automobiles went over the uneven and rough landscape, many a driver lost control or the cars broke down. Out of necessity, car manufacturers developed and used springs, rubber blocks, pneumatic tubes, hydraulic systems and even computer-controlled shock absorbers to make the ride ever more comfortable.
