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Weather, fluctuating commodity prices and now supply chain disruptions have and will continue to present challenges for dairy producers and nutritionists when sourcing feed ingredients.
The typical dairy operates in a constant state of need to control production costs. It’s a fact of life. Over the last few months (years now), we have seen increases in almost every on-farm cost. This is subsequently compounded by the supply chain difficulties everyone is dealing with.
When I was young, I saw a magazine advertisement about manure spreaders. The catch phrase was that they stood behind all their equipment but the manure spreader.
A hands-on approach to nutrition helped this dairy realize its full potential when it comes to milk production and animal health. “Since switching to Cargill, it’s like we have a second pair of eyes and hands on the dairy. The regular walk-throughs, manure screenings, shaker box readings, and data analysis from the Cargill team has given our dairy more information than we ever had before,” explains Parker Byington who is the part owner and manager of Heritage Hills Dairy in Southeast Minnesota. On the dairy, Byington uses expertise from the Cargill team and utilizes Cargill feed in his pre-fresh and lactating diets.
This article title combines two important pieces of running a high-performing dairy. First, it embraces the acronym CANI (constant and never-ending improvement), which is its own subject. CANI stems from the Japanese philosophy Kaizen. On the surface, it represents that nothing is ever finished or declared perfect; rather there is always room for improvement.
Three months into the new year, you’ve likely outlined improvement goals for your operation. Depending on the overarching operational goals, the focus could range anywhere from improving pasture utilization to decreasing death loss on high-risk calves.
As either a dairy producer or a nutritionist, your goal is to keep the ration composition constant to maintain the rumen environment for better dairy cow health and performance.
The era of higher corn prices has many nutritionists looking at feeding elevated levels of corn silage as a way to reduce starch input costs.
In Eastern Canada, it is not uncommon to be working with rations in the 70 to 80 percent corn silage range as a percentage of the total forages fed – significantly more than even 10 years ago.
