During calving season, your herd transitions through parturition to become a lactating herd. The physiological changes during calving, not to mention the strain of parturition, require a significant amount of energy and are quite remarkable.

Although managing starch digestibility may feel like uncovering the center in a never-ending set of nesting dolls, there are many tools available to help us start to break this down. Doing so can help ensure that rations meet expected values and help farmers make the most out of purchased and homegrown feeds. It can also shed light on opportunities to improve starch digestion and ensure we aren’t missing out on valuable energy.

We all use the term crude protein to describe nutritional value without much thought about it, as if crude protein were something that has been around forever, like pi or I Love Lucy.

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.