As a kid, I remember gathering around the table after morning chores to eat a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs. What could be better than a hot breakfast after peeling out of bed at 5 a.m. to help my dad get the cows milked?

Give me just one number. That’s what we all want, right? One simple number to focus on and improve our chances of reaching our goal. While this common mantra has merit, it is truly a double-edged sword.

Fatty acids can be flat-out complicated. First off, they have too many names. Linoleic is 18:2 and is also omega-6. Three names for the same fatty acid – is that really necessary?

Great strides have been made recently in improving the fertility of dairy cows, with significant focus on genomics and improvements in sync programs. As the genetic potential of our herds continues to accelerate, how we feed these genetics to meet the needs of high-performing dairy cows becomes that much more critical.

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.

Of all the performance indicators you can monitor on the dairy, fresh cow performance ranks near the top, since the start of the lactation really determines the rest of the lactation.