For many dairies, use of premixes is nothing new and they have been used in some fashion since dairying began. In many cases, however, because the practice is so common, we may tend to forget these are tools in our feeding programs that need to be reevaluated from time to time.

On this Progressive Dairy Podcast, Matt Kauffman, Great Lakes regional sales manager at Papillon Agricultural Company, chats with Clayton Stoffel, technical services manager at Papillon, about getting the most from amino acid blends. They examine the importance of quality control, ration diversity and targeting amino acids, plus how all of this impacts IOFC.

Until recently, there was no great way to put a numeric value to the amino acid profile of feed. With the release of the 2021 dairy NASEM, we now have a method to determine the relative value of the amino acid profile of a given feedstuff.

Some dairies across the country are using larger inclusion mixes due to lack of feed storage options. Still in other cases, some feed companies are proposing larger inclusion grain mixes to their customers.

Heat stress occurs when an animal generates and absorbs more heat than it can dissipate through respiration, sweating or active cooling. Rumination generates large amounts of heat, so when a cow is hot, her first response is typically to eat less feed.

Progressive Dairy hosted these technologies along with PDPW on the Nexus Innovation stage – a live-format presentation that is a cross between a TED Talk and a Shark Tank pitch.

The results from this study showed strong production improvements in response to feeding adequate levels of either methionine or EPA/DHA pre- and post-fresh, plus positive synergistic effects in performance and in improving liver function.