Often when nutritionists think of fatty acid nutrition, our minds turn to fat supplements. However, the area is much broader than dairy cattle diet fat supplements and should be recognized as such.

Alternative forages, such as sorghum or milo silage, have gained momentum with growers and producers. Sorghum, sudan, sorghum-sudan, milo and millet are all tropical grasses (C4 biology; warm-season grass).

Water adds zero energy to a high-producing cow’s diet, yet it is a critical nutrient for survival and capturing said energy and nutritional value from the dairy cattle diet.

Non-nutritive feed components have become a lightning rod topic over the past six to 12 months. A promising growing season in 2016 yielded less than desirable quality and some contaminants in many regions.

Forage harvest and quality can be like a wedding. This may seem comical at first read, but stick with me and understand how. With both harvest and a wedding, we start with great expectations, but in some cases those expectations are not met.

Post-harvest season is the ideal time to formulate the next silage campaign. John Goeser walks you through the elements of planning that campaign for success (and you may need to take exit polls on your current bunker or pile … ).

When discussing forage quality, we often focus on carbohydrates and the energy derived from these forage nutrients. Carbohydrates account for half to three-quarters of a feed’s weight, deliver the majority of the energy and, in turn, drive milk production, health and performance.

Corn silage kernel processors are referred to as “crackers” by many in South America, where less than one-third of dairies feed corn silage that has had the kernels processed. Kernel processing is much more popular in the U.S. because roughly ten years ago, researchers helped us understand what impact processed corn silage grain really had on rumen digestion in cattle.

Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series.Silage’s drive from point A to point B: This probably sounds like a bad agriculture cartoon, as silage clearly does not sit down in a car and drive.