Dairy Farming

After the hottest and driest summer in a generation and feed stocks at an all-time low, cows are at risk of being too thin. Body condition scoring is the best way to measure cow condition and gives an indication of energy status.

Signs of heat stress include panting more than 80 breaths per minute, reduced laying times and activity, with cows seeking shade. Dry Matter Intake (DMI) decreases, 68-78 DMI will drop 9.6% (Bouraoui et al) and decline in milk production.

Getting your cows and heifers out of negative energy balance sooner and getting them gaining weight earlier is the key to improved conception rates. A large-scale study of over 1887 Holstein dairy cows by Professor Paul Fricke of Wisconsin University, looked at the effect changes in liveweight on conception rate to first service.

Dietary fats are an essential element in dairy cow nutrition. Traditionally, fats have been fed to increase the dietary energy, due to their high energy concentration; around 2.25 times higher than other nutrients, molecules react with a glycerol molecule.

During late gestation and early lactation, the mammary gland produces large numbers of secretory cells with the ability to secrete milk.
This is done in response to changes in circulating hormones and growth factors. The demise of the secretory capability of the mammary gland during mid to late lactation is unavoidable in the pregnant cow and ends with the process of involution when the cow is dried off. The rate of decline is known as persistency.

Starch levels are often seen as a measure of milk potential and rumen stability in diets, thus used as a benchmark when formulating diets.
In reality, starch levels in diets do not matter, because in isolation they don't tell you a great deal. Starch is only one of four energy sources to the rumen and furthermore, the degradability of starch sources greatly influences rumen dynamics.

The transition period for the dairy cow; three weeks prepartum, into three weeks postpartum is the most important phase in the lactation cycle. Rightly, transition management is receiving much greater attention and more importantly so is the nutrition.

“So, how can farm benchmarking help my farm?” You may ask. Well, it can have great benefits in helping to make your farm business more profitable, resilient, and reach your long-term goals. It offers farms the chance to analyse and compare their performance with either themselves annually, or other farms of a similar size and enterprise mix. With the industries future uncertain and markets volatile thanks to a combination of Brexit and climate change amongst several other factors, benchmarking can help ensure the business is operating as efficiently as possible.

The AminoMatch nutritional approach is based on characterising the amino acid profile of your forage and then reducing dietary crude protein (CP) levels by ensuring an adequate supply of the first limiting amino acids; methionine and lysine.