To feed or not to feed...
This is a question dairy farmers should ask themselves, especially now with co-ops predicting prices as low as 20 cents per litre. In order to ask yourself this question, you need to know a lot about your cows and your farm. As a nutritionist, the first question I would ask is what kind of cows you have. The second would be how good is your grass. Knowing the yield of each cow is the first crucial piece of information; cows rarely have similar potential yields across the whole herd and need to be managed accordingly. For example, a 1200 gallon cow calving around now, and giving about five gallons per day may not be able to extract enough nutrition from grass alone, especially on lower quality swards. The reason is that the cow would need to eat 16kg dry matter of good high energy grass per day. At the moment that equates to 85kg fresh grass, which is simply too great a quantity for a cow to consume in a 24-hour period. Our recommendation for such a cow would be to get 3kg of high energy, high quality dairy ration per day. You then need to know if this is a good investment, ie will it pay you to feed? This amount of ration will provide enough energy for 1½ gallons of milk and will cost approximately 70 cents. In return, the value of the additional milk is €1.30-1.40. If your herd average is in the region of 1500-2000 gallons per cow, her needs are obviously much greater. Assuming the same good grass as above, a cow giving eight gallons would need to consume 7kg of a higher protein high energy ration. The grass alone will probably provide 3 ½ gallons, with the remaining 4-4½ gallons coming from the ration. The cost involved is about €1.80 per head per day and will give you a return of about €4. Cows on poor or stemmy grass will require higher levels of meal feeding to support similar levels of production, which will increase costs and decrease profitability. Your nutritional adviser from Kiernan Milling/Stewarts Animal Feeds can advise you on the best ration for your herd, or develop a custom diet to suit your needs precisely. The importance of good quality grass cannot be underestimated. Ask your nutritional adviser about assessing the quality of the grass on your farm. In order to achieve high quality grass swards, paddocks need to be reseeded at least once every ten years. Soil should be sampled every five years to monitor soil pH, P and K levels which will identify optimum fertiliser application rates and further minimise expenditure. Cow fertility is a major problem in dairy herds at the moment. The technical team in Kiernan Milling/Stewarts Animal Feeds have developed a number of diets designed to improve fertility. Figures from Teagasc have shown that if a farmer can reduce his replacement rate from 30% to 10% by managing energy balance correctly, in a 100 cow herd he can increase profitability by €16,900 per year. Other figures from Teagasc show that feeding cows a modest amount of concentrates after calving increases the number of cows in calf after the second service by 50%. Feeding concentrate to cows after calving reduces the time spent in negative energy balance, ie when a cow is using more energy than she can take in from her feed. During this period the cow will be losing weight and condition. The longer your cows are in negative energy balance, the longer it will take them to go back in calf. So it makes sense to feed your cows correctly. Kiernan Milling/Stewarts Animal Feeds diets are designed to maximise milk solids, in particular milk protein. On a per litre basis, there can be a difference of 3c /L between high and low protein milk. Consistently achieving higher protein levels can mean a sizable additional profit. The role of your nutritional adviser in Kiernan Milling/Stewarts Animal Feeds is to help you achieve these targets and increase farm profitability. In these difficult times, farmers are urged to cut costs. However, this needs to be clarified. Some costs, like feed and fertiliser and AI, are investments rather than expenses, because money spent in these areas is more than recouped from income. Fixed costs on farms can be slightly reduced by increasing output per cow. So, therefore it is important to identify which costs can be cut and which should not be. If you would like to know how to maximise your farm profitability, or if you have any other queries, contact Kiernan Milling/Stewarts Animal Feeds at 043-86166 for your personalised recommendations. • Emmet Duffy (B. Agr. Sc. Hons), is in technical sales with Kiernan Milling/Stewarts Animal Feeds.