More in Dairy-Forage Nutrition

Immature soybeans could be another forage option for Indiana livestock producers struggling to feed their herds,says Keith Johnson, Purdue University Extension forage specialist. Many of the state’s double-crop soybeans will struggle to reach maturity before the first killing freeze, he says. An early wheat harvest and dry spring weather allowed growers to plant them farther north than what is typical, but drought delayed germination....More

The John Deere HarvestLab now not only measures dry matter content, but also provides crude protein, starch and fiber near-infrared analysis of corn silage, says Steve Siegel, John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group product manager....More

A forage tester that can be taken to the field to quickly measure forage dry matter content and nutrient levels is getting high marks for its accuracy, says a University of Wisconsin dairy scientist....More

An increasing number of dairy producers want their nutritionists to balance budgets as well as rations. They want “Jacks of all trades” who offer financial, managerial and herd-health advice as well as feed-bunk and silage management education....More

Feeding high proportions of low-fat dried distillers grain solubles (DDGS) increases dry matter intake with no risk of fat depression, and adding rumen-inert fat increases fat-corrected milk production. University of Nebraska researchers reported that finding after comparing the effects of feeding conventional and low-fat DDGS. They fed a control diet with no DDGS, a second with 30% DDGS, a third with 30% low-fat DDGS and one with 30% low-fat DDGS plus rumen-inert fat. Twenty Holstein cows consumed each diet for 21 days....More

Western growers of alfalfa hay, standard corn silage or brown midrib (BMR) corn silage have until Dec. 13 to submit samples for the 2013 World Ag Expo Forage Challenge. Cash prizes of up to $18,000 will be awarded based on forage-lab analyses and a visual evaluation of entries by dairy nutrition and forage production experts. The contest is presented by Mycogen Seeds and the awards are from Lallemand Animal Nutrition....More

A rapid test that precisely measures rumen starch digestibility of feed ingredients is helping nutritionist Will VanNostran reduce his client herds’ ration costs. He estimates savings from 5¢ to 10¢/cow/day depending on ingredient costs. The test is part of a service called Calibrate Technologies, from Forage Genetics International. Nutritionists enter test results and ration information onto Calibrate’s online calculator, which assigns a rumen degradable starch score....More

Mixing hay and grain for young calves didn’t help them adapt to a total mixed ration later in life, University of Guelph, Ontario, researchers report. Starting at birth and continuing for eight weeks, Holstein bull calves were fed chopped hay and concentrate as a mixture or in separate buckets. They also received milk replacer for the first seven weeks. All calves were fed the mixed diet in weeks nine through 11, then were offered a novel TMR in weeks 12 and 13. The TMR contained haylage, corn silage, high-moisture corn and protein supplement....More

Hydroponic forage production requires a lot less water than irrigated alfalfa, and Bill Brandau sees that as its greatest selling point in the Southwest. “The amount of water used to produce the feed is so much less that to me it makes sense, especially in a drought situation,” says the University of Arizona Extension agent. Growing forages indoors also erases the land requirement and other hay production costs, but hydroponic equipment is expensive and requires close management, says Brandau....More

While scoring manure piles, producers and nutritionists should check their herds’ locomotion and body-condition scores, said Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois emeritus dairy nutritionist. Or evaluate cows as they come from the milking parlor, he added....More

Growing normal and brown midrib (BMR) corn hybrids together produced silage with a chemical composition almost comparable to pure BMR silage. When fed to cows the mixture resulted in greater feed efficiency and lower milk MUN than normal silage....More