FEED & NUTRITION

2017 will go down in the books for its unique rainfall pattern. As a whole, most farmers in Ontario experienced a wet spring. Come summer, the tap turned off in some areas, and the sink overflowed in others.

Milk fat represents a large part of the economic and nutritional value of milk; therefore, decreases in milk fat concentration have serious consequences for a dairy’s bottom line. With that said, researchers have done a good job outlining the factors that cause low milk fat.

Converting to automated milking requires nutritional adjustments on several fronts, including what cows are fed, how feed is delivered and even where it’s consumed. Three dairy producers shared the systems they find to be successful during the 2017 Lely North America FMS Conference held in Fair Oaks, Indiana.

Balancing rations for dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) prepartum is a valuable nutrition strategy in pursuit of reducing costly metabolic challenges like hypocalcemia, metritis and ketosis during the transition period.

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.

As an industry, we’ve made significant strides in improving feed efficiency. However, when we dig deeper, we have some work to do. Protein is one of the most expensive parts of the ration and there remain vast opportunities to improve protein efficiency.