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TRENDING TOPIC ARTICLE: FEED & NUTRITION
In this video, published in the July 20, 2012 Progressive Dairyman Extra e-newsletter, Dr. Mike Hutjens of the University of Illinois discussed drought-stress corn concerns and strategies for the drought of 2012. At the time, nearly one-third of the U.S. corn crop was experiencing drought-stress.
Decisions made at chopping affect silage quality in the bunker, nutrition in the feed alley and milk in the tank. Waiting to involve your nutritionist until you are ready to feed the silage may result in extensive ration adjustments or it may be too late to fix certain issues.
Liquid feeds can be a valuable resource for dairy farms to include in their TMRs.
Common liquid feeds included in the TMR include water, molasses-based supplements and byproducts such as whey products.
Feed programs that nurture rumen microbial populations help increase the dairy’s income over feed cost (IOFC).
Rumen microbial populations play a pivotal role in converting feedstuffs to high-quality microbial protein and volatile fatty acids (VFA), which serve as energy sources.
Every growing year is different. That’s what makes farming interesting, and some years, very challenging.
I’d like to delve into some of the major environmental factors that determine the quality of our corn silage when we go to harvest.
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.
Within the last year, two new websites have established online domains to connect dairy producers directly to feed suppliers.
Both were inspired by their sponsors’ own experiences in trying to broker or purchase feed. They both aim to grow the number of dairy producers and vendors using their sites.
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