On any given day, the typical dairyman loses count of the challenges he deals with. From labor, to mechanical issues, to sick or downed cows and paying the feed bill, the list goes on, seemingly forever.

Water adds zero energy to a high-producing cow’s diet, yet it is a critical nutrient for survival and capturing said energy and nutritional value from the dairy cattle diet.

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The search for efficiency is a journey. As margins tighten, many dairy farmers are taking a magnifying glass to their herds to find cost-saving opportunities.

Most livestock nutritionists recognize dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) as a source of fat and protein. As a result, researchers have devoted a significant amount of time and resources to better characterize the fat and amino acid components of DDGS.

Balancing rations for dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) prepartum is a valuable nutrition strategy in pursuit of reducing costly metabolic challenges like hypocalcemia, metritis and ketosis during the transition period.

As producers walk the profitability tightrope, efficiency is the most important tool to make progress in the balancing act of improving income over feed cost. Lou Armentano, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, says creating more efficient cows begins with making the right breeding and selection decisions.

When I was a young animal scientist growing up on the dairy farm, we would routinely use a silage inoculant when ensiling alfalfa haylage – but not very often for corn silage.

When selecting corn hybrids, dairy farmers often consider a variety of factors that play a role in the nutritional quality for dairy rations. Today’s corn silage hybrids offer high yield potential but can vary substantially in nutritional quality depending on genetics and environmental factors.

Being a producer in today’s market means constantly seeking ways to move your herd’s production to the next level. When it comes to nutrition, it’s all about making the ration as productive and efficient as possible.