Fiber

How is this year’s corn silage feeding?

james.smith1959@gmail.com — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Understanding and implementing all the best management practices every season for producing high-quality corn silage that are under your control is critical. Making yourself aware of the impact of the growing environment each season through early sampling and testing is the first step. Benchmarking it annually and addressing those impacts with proven and cutting-edge technology will provide the consistency your herd thrives on and is critical to your bottom line.

Maximizing feed's journey from field to bulk tank

kbuse@lallemand.com — Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Staying ahead of seasonal challenges with a proactive feeding program can significantly minimize silage spoilage risks and maximize herd performance and efficiency. By adopting a clean feed approach – through managing the ensiling and feeding of silage, implementing hygienic on-farm practices and ensuring the right nutrition – producers provide their herd with the best opportunity for a high-quality clean feed source and the ability to efficiently produce high-quality milk.

Making the most of fiber

tamilee.adolph@adm.com — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Maximizing fiber digestion is a multifaceted approach that begins with feeding high-quality forages, having excellent feeding management and taking advantage of various feeding technologies available. Utilizing these various approaches will help cows make the most of the fiber they consume.

California dairy innovates with automated indoor feed mill

audrey@agproud.com — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Known for its forward-thinking approach, River Ranch Farms LLC has embraced numerous innovations, from a biogas hub and solar fields to the recent development of an automated indoor feed mill. At the forefront is Forever Feed Technologies, a company that dairy producer Jack de Jong helped establish to explore the possibilities of sprouted grain feeding systems.

Next-generation analytics for next-generation forages

katie_raver@rockriverlab.com — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Well-managed forage programs are a key aspect of any dairy operation, and tools such as MILK2024 are valuable metrics to help make decisions on both the quality and quantity of feed harvested. As technology implementation increases, it is critical to assess what works for an operation and what doesn’t. Understanding the potential impact of these decisions on milk production can help producers do just that.

Find the next bump in your paycheck

sarah.stocks@novusint.com — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0500

With so many factors to consider, understanding a farm’s income over feed costs can take time, but that understanding also provides a clear map of the changes possible on the farm. By knowing the total costs associated with their operation, dairy farmers can weigh their options to find the next bump in their paycheck and support profitability.

Butterfat 101: There’s more to it than nutrition

rkrammes@standardnutrition.com — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

All we have to do is balance the ration to maximize fat, right? Regarding the number of variables involved in ration formulation, few diets are ever truly balanced. Consider the word “optimized” instead. Let’s look at several key nutrients that must be optimized for maximum butterfat production.

Feeding cows during challenging milk prices

gmaldini@diamondv.com — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Through the beginning of the fall, we continue to see this variation between milk protein and butterfat prices. Make a plan with your nutritionist and consultants to develop strategies that can and should be put in place to increase profits.

Feeding practices to cool hot cows

rrodrigues@provimi-na.com — Fri, 19 May 2023 00:00:00 -0400

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.

Beyond the hybrid: Dietary factors in NDF digestibility

ken.griswold@selko.com — Mon, 08 May 2023 00:00:00 -0400

What many dairy farmers do not know is the many other factors that affect NDF digestibility outside of the hybrids they choose to plant and harvest. There are both dietary and non-dietary factors that can either negatively or positively impact fiber digestion.

Saving the earth with fiber digestibility

michael.miller@trouwnutrition.com — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 19:31:34 -0400

In increased frequency, we see headlines in the news about greenhouse gas emissions and animal agriculture. Methane is one of the main greenhouse gases of concern. Cows produce methane from fermentation in the rumen, also called enteric methane. There is a push to reduce methane production from cows to help with climate change.

Forage fiber digestibility drives milk income

ahall@lallemand.com — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 17:12:49 -0500

Pounds of milkfat and milk protein shipped, also known as milk component yield (MCY), accounts for more than 75% of the milk check. With milk volume supply constraints in play, maximizing MCY has never been more important.

Considerations when implementing high-forage diets

michael.miller@trouwnutrition.com — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 17:02:43 -0500

The goal of any forage program for a dairy is to grow and harvest the highest-quality feed for the cows.

Help dairy cows beat the heat: Diet matters

jwm@cornell.edu — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 18:30:12 -0400

A daunting threat to dairy productivity moving forward is climate change. Science has demonstrated that our climate has changed over the past century. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that our climate will continue to change in the future and the dairy industry will adapt.

Forage quality counts

hutjensm@illinois.edu — Fri, 22 May 2020 13:00:01 -0400

Looking back to the 2019 forage year, it was a disaster for some dairy farms and a challenge for most. It was almost a perfect storm; several factors that could go wrong happened somewhere.

Particle size matters for high-straw dry cow diets

casey.havekes@dairyhealth.co — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 14:00:01 -0500

In the weeks leading up to calving and the early postpartum period, various behavioral, metabolic and physiological challenges are imposed on the dairy cow.

Dietary fiber or ruminant fiber?

woody@woodylane.com — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 14:00:01 -0500

Is fiber important in human nutrition? Ask anyone. Ask the internet. Ask your doctor. But then follow this up with a simple question: What exactly is it? Hmmm.

Fiber digestion, time and distance

woody@woodylane.com — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 14:00:01 -0500

I recently came across a magazine article about fiber that included the acronym ANDFOM. Huh? What did that mean? ANDFOM: “antifoaming agent”? or “and for older men?” Then I realized what happened – some of those letters should have been in lowercase, and the magazine editor’s spell checker “corrected” them all to uppercase.

The NDF alphabet

woody@woodylane.com — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 14:00:01 -0500

This month, we’ll talk about the new alphabet of fiber: a, pe, om and ICP. Don’t worry, you haven’t wandered into an academic spelling bee. But seriously, have you recently submitted a forage sample to a laboratory?

Maintain effective fiber for better feed efficiency

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 13:00:01 -0400

As nutritionists, we once thought adding the correct level of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) to the diet was all that was required to create a healthy rumen and thus allow the protein and energy contained within the diet to be used to produce milk.

The next step in corn silage hybrid evaluation: Fiber and starch yields

michael.miller@trouwnutrition.com — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 16:29:09 -0400

In times of low milk prices, there is a need to reduce feed costs, and one way is to feed more homegrown forages. In order to feed a higher inclusion rate of forages, they need to be highly digestible, and this starts with seed selection.

Exploring the relationship between physically effective and undigested fiber

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 17:01:36 -0400

Recent research at Miner Institute has focused on the relationship between undigested and physically effective NDF (abbreviated as uNDF and peNDF).