Here’s the catch. IOFC only tells us the economics of what’s going into the tank, not what’s going into the cow for good health and reproduction, and impacting the farm’s true profitability. It measures how well we are converting feed dollars into milk dollars. IOFC values today’s milk but ignores tomorrow’s pregnancies.

While there is still opportunity to further fine-tune the fat budget in our rations as research is devoted in this area, current tools give greater insight as to what strategies are working and which need further adjustments. Who knows, maybe someday balancing our rations with fat will be as easy as balancing that checkbook.

For the rest of us that don’t have that technology on hand, there are still plenty of ways to monitor early lactation performance to help us better understand the impact of the specific fatty acids we are feeding – specifically, body condition scoring from pre-fresh to fresh, monitoring NEFAs or BHBAs and tracking first butterfat trends in your herd management software to detect any significant changes in fat mobilization.

Let’s walk through the main fatty acids found in dairy diets and talk specifically about the signals they are sending beyond being utilized for energy. While they may seem complex, the stakes are high in understanding their roles as there is a rare function of the cow that is not impacted by fatty acids. 

Let’s play a simple word association game. When I say “milkfat,” what do you say? Palmitic? That’s what I’d expect 80% of you to say if we were having this conversation in person.

Milkfat is a valuable commodity and is a reflection of overall rumen health and production efficiency. Take a proactive approach with your nutritionist to find ways to better optimize factors affecting milkfat yield, including taking a closer look at what lies behind the average bulk tank fat test.