It’s been a difficult season to say the least! The drought of 2018 has had a drastic effect on forage stocks which have been reserved for winter feeding with Dry Matter (DM) yields of grass on farm estimated to be down up to 50% compared to 2017.
Whatever the use and however much maize is going to be fed in the ration, optimising dry matter, starch yield and fibre digestibility is the key. The latter of the two being more significant, yet harder to measure.
With the hot and dry weather reducing grass availability, producers are being advised to monitor and budget forage stocks now to avoid a shortfall come winter.
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.
Historically, dairy rations have generally formulated crude protein (CP) to the standard value needed to supply adequate feed nitrogen (N) in the cow’s diet, to help maintain the cow’s health, welfare and milk productivity.
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.
There has been a big push in recent years to cut grass for silage at shorter intervals (typically 28 days), to maximise energy and protein yield. The principal definitely leads to better silage quality, reducing bought in feed costs per litre of milk produced. This system has been made much easier with the availability of high capacity harvesting equipment to cover vast areas in a short space of time, making the most of available weather windows. That said, this system does not always lead to consistent silage at feed out and if not well managed, actually creates more problems than it solves.
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.
Maintaining a consistent diet for milking cows should be the main objective day-to-day, yet, for several reasons this is often not achieved.
Many farmers and dairy specialists concentrate on increasing the cows dry matter (DM) intake. Whilst maximising DM intake is important, it requires much more than simply dumping a ration of essential nutrient in front of the cows. Providing a consistent diet in terms of nutrients and structure promotes stable intakes and maintains good rumen health.
