"I am going to sound like a broken record, but, if it is a good idea to regroup or feed differently, why aren't you already doing it?" asked Donny Rollin when discussing potential changes to feeding and...
Sometimes we are blind to opportunities before us, especially in areas we work around everyday. The effectiveness of a total mixed ration (TMR) revolves around its ability to integrate all the cow's requirements...
In order to perform at their optimum, cows need consistency at the feedbunk. If our mixing routine and equipment aren't in sync, we're unable to deliver what they need. "There are 10 factors in the TMR...
Shrink is hard to define, but committing to best management practices during harvest, ensiling and feedout can reduce its impact. Over the past few years, sustainability has earned its status as a dairy...
Drought, less acreage, and rising global demand are reasons why. Droughts in the West and rising demand around the world are increasing the price of hay and other forages for U.S. milk producers. And...
In difficult economic times, we become better managers. Shrink is one area where we can tighten our belts. Dairy rations are balanced on the cents per cow that an ingredient will add to or cut from a feed...
Dairymen balance their feed budgets on pennies. Ingredients are often pulled from a ration based on the perceived cents per cow it could save the bottom line
"In the best-case scenario, we'll lose only 2 to 3 percent of our harvested forage tons to fermentation shrink," noted John Goeser, Rock River Laboratory, at the Penn State Dairy Nutrition Conference
In Japan, not only are people enjoying a treat from Starbucks, some cows are, too. Starbucks purchases somewhere around 400 million pounds of coffee globally each year, according to Bloomberg Businessweek
Much of the action in dairy feed prices has centered on soybean meal and its record-setting pace of exports the past three months. USDA crunched numbers on soybean crush, domestic use and export commitments,...
Tracking feed inventory is a valuable strategy for any size farm, especially with the growing unpredictability of Mother Nature and a more volatile commodity market
Accurate samples are the cornerstone of diet formulation. Yet, for some nutrients, sampling itself is a major source of the variation seen from one nutrient analysis to the next
Reader Response: Think component efficiency Regarding Brian Perkins' use of the term "dairy efficiency" to represent the ratio between milk production and dry matter intakes (in the January 20 Hoard's...
Most by-product feed markets tend to track corn and soybean meal prices. Producers, therefore, saw little urgency to secure supplies as the price of corn fell during the summer months. But, while corn...
Feed efficiency is certainly a buzzword in the dairy industry today. Is it the goal we all should be striving for? From a nutritionist's standpoint, Brian Perkins from Diamond V Technical Services explained...
We know how to calculate feed shrink. We don't know how to obtain accurate real-time measurements.Every dairy has a vested economic interest in reducing feed shrink. "Feed wastage occurs on-farm in four...