Feed costs and milk prices were top of mind for all dairy producers in 2009, causing many to wonder what changes they could make to increase profitability. I recently had the opportunity to attend the 2009 Penn State Dairy Cattle Nutrition Workshop where Dr. Bill Weiss from The Ohio State University spoke on the topic of “Feeding Cows in Today’s Economy.” A few of the key messages on feed cost control that Dr. Weiss outlined in this presentation were:
• Economic Value of Feeds
• Ration Formulation Specifications
• On-farm Feeding Management Opportunities
Economic challenges have forced producers and nutritionists to re-think the nutritional strategies employed on today’s dairy operations. Dr. Weiss discusses rumen-undegradable protein (RUP) targets for specific lactation groups and what safety factors should be employed in RUP balancing. For example, he says “for a group of cows post peak dry matter intake, the RUP safety factor could be reduced to about 1.15 x pen average milk yield.”
Dr. Weiss and The Ohio State University provide several useful tools for evaluating and analyzing dairy management practices. The Feed Management toolbox provides a wealth of information as well as several calculators. One tool to take note of is the SESAME feed evaluation tool from Dr. Normand St-Pierre. This tool provides an analysis of feed values based on current price levels. The SESAME tool is a good way of using nutritional information to help dairy management determine the good valued feeds from those that are over valued.
If you’d like to learn more, click here to read Dr. Weiss’s paper.
Greg Jones is the NutriDense Silage Product Manager for BASF Plant Science. You can contact him at gregory.jones@basf.com.
