With current low milk prices and negative profit margins, dairy farmers and bankers are asking nutritionists to reduce feed costs. On some farms, all feed additives have been removed, which may save 30 to 40 cents a day, but leads to reduced fertility, lower milk yield and components, and poorer health status.

Fatty acids are one of the last major nutrient categories to be truly “balanced” in our dairy cow diets. Several factors have come together recently to make now the era of fatty acid balancing. First, producers are getting paid more per pound of milkfat as a percentage of their milk check.

Quality bypass protein like SoyPlus is a cost-effective solution to providing important metabolizable protein in pre-fresh diets.

In times of low milk prices, there is a need to reduce feed costs, and one way is to feed more homegrown forages. In order to feed a higher inclusion rate of forages, they need to be highly digestible, and this starts with seed selection.

Recent research at Miner Institute has focused on the relationship between undigested and physically effective NDF (abbreviated as uNDF and peNDF).

Some of the major concerns in the dairy industry regarding the implementation of the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) were increased costs due to management changes and unavailability of in-feed antibiotic medication.

The trace mineral requirements of dairy animals is a topic that continues to receive a great deal of attention, and rightfully so. Although trace minerals comprise less than 0.01 percent of the total mass of an organism, they are essential for normal function.

The idea of on-farm nutrient management is definitely not new, nor is increasing nutrient efficiency for economic benefit. For years, we’ve all heard about how whole-farm nutrient balance is a key feature of maintaining sustainable modern production agriculture.

For the past 20 years or more, emphasis has been placed on balancing diets for amino acids (AA) either by feeding rumen-protected amino acids (RPAA), especially methionine (Met) and lysine (Lys), or by combining feed ingredients to balance AA profiles.

Over the last few decades, numerous advances in the dairy industry have allowed lactating dairy cows to produce greater quantities of higher-quality milk than ever before.