Dairy Today – The drought and resulting high ration costs have dairy producers and nutritionists scrambling for rations and low-cost ways to feed cows.
Understanding what your dollar should be spent on and where it will get the best return is important for making good feed purchase decisions and maximizing income over ration cost in the next several months.
Here’s a guideline on where your feed dollars should go in order to support basic milk production:
- Forages should comprise about 50% of the ration dry matter and should be the single biggest cost item in the diet, at 40% to 45% of the
total ration cost.
- The next most essential feed and nutrient is starch. Corn is the best source of starch; corn cost should be about 20% of total ration cost.
- Byproduct feeds can substitute for grain, protein or forage in dairy rations. An allocation of less than 20% substituting for other ration cost is a good estimate.
- For good digestion and utilization of forage and grain, some rumen-degradable protein such as soybean meal is needed in the ration. Degradable protein sources should be 5% to 10% of the ration cost. For good milk production, some rumen-undegradable protein (RUP) should also be included in the ration. These are not low-cost protein sources, so figure on spending 15% to 20% of total ration cost for RUP supplements.
- Minerals and vitamins should be 4% to 8% of the ration cost.
- Fat is a high source of energy that can substitute for other energy sources and supplement low-energy feedstuffs in the ration. Fat supplement costs should be 4% to 7% of the total ration cost.
- Feed additives are a very broad category of supplements that often improve milk production, the health of animals and overall feed utilization. Feed additives
often return more than the 2% to 6% of the ration cost they encompass.
The best use of feed dollars is for early-lactation cows. Feeding these cows correctly is also essential for good reproduction. Mid- to late-lactation cows are not efficient and, if overfed, they can increase ration costs substantially with a low milk return.
(T1, D1)
