Dairyman Greg Nye knew his dairy was handling its feedstuffs too much. He didn’t like what that was costing his dairy in shrink. Given that his farm also feeds pricier non-GMO ingredients as part of its milk shipping agreement, he started looking at alternatives to how he was handling feed ingredients to save money.

Planning ahead is the key to accurate forage inventories and minimizing costly waste. Universities offer checklists and calculators to guide dairy and cattle producers, while extension specialists and feed company representatives provide practical advice on storage, sampling and shrink calculations.

A recent USDA cattle behavior-based grant focused on beef production decentralization, especially among small farmers.

It was dairy producer Danny Martins’ vision to design a fully automated feed center where he didn’t have to rely on multiple feeders and could instead entrust just one person.

There are a few areas on a farm that don’t receive as much attention by publications, consultants and even the dairy producers themselves that can have a dramatic impact on farm profitability. 

Feed is expensive. The good news is: Successfully implementing feed management protocols can help to lower your feed cost. Feed management encompasses many aspects on a dairy, some of which can’t be controlled like weather, markets and supply chain.

Feed costs represent 40% to 60% of the total cost of producing milk on dairy farms in the U.S. and are most dairies’ number one expense. The prices producers pay for purchased forages, commodities and ingredients greatly impact feed costs and the farm’s potential profitability.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to work as an intern for Standard Dairy Consultants in southern Idaho, working with nutrition consultant Tevan Brady.