Wednesday, September 21, 2011

A Sound Feeding Program

Finally some relief on the feed front corn below $7 did I just say corn below $7. It is hard to believe it but for now this is what we have. Maybe putting up some High Moisture may be in order. I mentioned wheat midds to several people a couple of months ago. 

Do you have a sound feeding program?

Cows should always be fed on time. When they come out of the parlor fresh feed should be there or pushed back up. They need to eat then lay down (more blood to udder more milk).  

Water, water and more water .  Clean fresh, lots of space no stray voltage water. 

The ration should be checked for dry matter weekly including high moisture shelled corn, corn silage, haylage and all other feeds that have a moisture level above 16%. Make sure you or your nutritionist can make changes quickly or you will not do it. The batch sheets should be changeable in a spreadsheet, printed and posted for feeders immediately after checking. A gram scale and microwave is the way to do it, unless you are like us and have a feed lab 4 miles from you.  

Example 50 lbs haylage at 65% moisture=17.5 DM
Example 50 lbs haylage at 55% moisture=22.5 DM Do you think the cow noticed 5 pounds of DM? The feeders need to tell you when the bucket of feed weighs more or less than it did yesterday. 

Your feeders need to know how many cows are in that group. Did you dry, cull or sell cows? They need to know when more than a few are removed or added. 

Ration changes. Transition rations are important. The rumen takes time to adjust. 

Check ingredient processing. Did the delivered corn come ground or cracked?  If you feed processed corn silage are the kernels cracked today? Is the haylage long or short? 

There are probably 20 other things to consider. We see many of these things being overlooked in the field. Think about you feeding program not your ration. 

The price of cows, http://cdp.wisc.edu/milk%20production%20costs.htm.  Look at this page 3rd paragraph May $1,200, June $1,400, July $1,200, August $1,435 and September $1,200 don’t let the seller of cattle talk about last month’s prices talk about this month’s.


On the lighter side http://www.agweb.com/blog/late-night_laughs/?Year=2011&Month=8