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Over the last few decades, ration balancing tools and product development technologies have improved exponentially. We also have a greater understanding of the cow’s biology and dietary needs.
To understand the right order of ingredients that should go into the mixer wagon, we must consider the physical properties of the ingredients that affect mixing, such as size, shape, density, water absorption capacity (hydroscopy), static electricity and adhesiveness.
Ingredient moistureDry ingredients of small particle size will stick to high-moisture ingredients such as silage or molasses. Therefore, it is important to properly mix the dry ingredients before adding the wetter ingredients.
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.
The use of baleage, also known as round bale silage, continues to grow across the upper Midwest on dairy and livestock farms.Ruminant animals do well with fermented forages and baleage offers an alternative to producers with limited conventional storage such as upright silos.
Baleage production seems to have filled a niche for small to moderate-sized operations of all kinds, regardless of species.
If you aren’t yet familiar with balancing dairy rations for amino acids, you will soon be learning quite a bit about this newer nutrition strategy.
That’s because amino acid balancing has the potential to improve milk component and milk production, improve protein utilization and lessen dairy’s environmental impact.
While enjoying the mild Canadian winter, the last thing on a producer’s mind is the threat of mycotoxins on their farms.But an early and unseasonal increase in temperature gives mould growth and its subsequent mycotoxin formations an ideal environment in storage facilities.
There are many different qualities of forage seed available on the market, so it is important to buy good-quality forage seed to make forage-based farming successful from the beginning.Using cheap seed is not a bargain and will end up costing more due to reseeding resulting from low germination rate and high foreign materials in the seed.
An Ontario “forage master,” Evert Veldhuizen, creates his high-quality forage on Veldale Farms along with his brother and nephew.Evert’s mother and father started the farm back in 1966 and had farming in their blood.
Renee Smith, sales and marketing manager at Virtus Nurtition, discusses the Virtus Nutrition app with Progressive Dairyman. Smith details information about the app, including why it was developed, how it works and why it's an important tool.
Dairy farmers have had no shortage of feeding challenges throughout the past couple of years. High input costs, overall feed quality and feed availability issues have hampered profitability and productivity at times.
Experts predict more of the same for 2012, with even more uncertainty regarding protein, energy and fiber prices. Continuing drought in the Southwest also complicates the feed quality picture, while it increases competition among dairy and beef producers for available feed.
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