FEED & NUTRITION

It always pays to plan ahead for the next crop season. Steven Hines, University of Idaho extension educator for Jerome County, says things a producer needs to think about during winter include maintaining machinery, such as the corn planter.

Research shows marginal land could be converted back to perennial forages, and existing native grasslands could be rejuvenated with the adoption of different grazing management, resulting in significant carbon sequestration.

This month, we’ll talk about the new alphabet of fibre: 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?

Over the past couple of decades, advances in forage genetics, forage agronomics, forage harvesting and ensiling have enabled dairy farms to feed progressively more forages as a percentage of their total lactation ration.

What is the best ration to feed to your dairy cows? An excellent question and one that has confounded dairy producers forever. We tend to focus largely on what is fed to the lactating herd since this is the main revenue source.

If we look at the composition of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), we see that they contain a significant amount of fibre.