“Feed isn’t cheap.” We’ve probably all heard that line from one neighbor or another or even spoke it out loud as we sat down to pay our bills. That being said, every producer also knows how important that feed is to the cow and her rumen.
According to Dr. Jenny Jennings, the key to maximizing dairy farm profitability is to maintain the nutrient requirements of the rumen, while carefully managing feed costs.
“Feed costs can represent up to 70 percent of the total cost of producing milk,” said Jennings during her presentation at Alltech’s 28th Annual International Symposium Dairy Session. “However when optimal nutrition is achieved, cows will produce better quality and larger quantities of milk. With a solid feeding program in place, producers can also improve cost savings in production, veterinary fees, medical treatment and breeding.”
Jennings, a ruminant research manager at Alltech, discussed the importance of feeding the rumen and today’s innovative technologies that can directly provide microbes their requirements for growth.
As Jennings explained, the rumen is a fermentation vat that can hold 40 to 60 gallons of material and an estimated 150 billion microorganisms per teaspoon are present in its contents. These microorganisms consist mostly of bacteria, protozoa and fungi, with each organism requiring energy and protein for growth. Microbial growth correlates directly to feed efficiency and biomass leaving the rumen to be utilized by the cow.
“Microbial population in the rumen provides the ability for cellulose to be digested, for stabilization of the rumen, for energy substrates to get absorbed by the rumen wall and for protein post-ruminally,” Jennings said. “However above the proper environment and energy, the rumen bugs need nitrogen or a source of protein the most and timing is everything.”
In two recent Midwest trials Jennings highlighted, university researchers looked at two new sources of protein that are designed to help with microbial growth in the rumen and feed the bugs. Sixteen commercial herds were divided into two groups in a University of Wisconsin trial. One group was fed a standard TMR, while the other was fed a TMR with 114 grams per cow per day of a non-protein nitrogen source (Optigen® from Alltech). Diet formulation space created by Optigen was filled with dry matter from either corn silage, high moisture corn or corn grain.
Results showed a milk yield of 0.5 kilogram per cow per day greater for the herds fed diets containing Optigen. The milk urea nitrogen level was slightly higher (P < 0.01) for herds containing Optigen, but values for both control and treatment fell within a normal range.
In another trial at South Dakota State University, researchers examined another new technology to replace soybean meal in isonitrogenous rations (DEMPTM from Alltech). A yeast-derived feed ingredient, DEMP provides a feed source for microbial protein and supplies high quality protein post-ruminally, while partially escaping ruminal degredation. Sixteen cows were placed into four treatment groups: 0 grams DEMP, 300 grams DEMP, 600 grams DEMP and 900 grams DEMP. Researchers found that the 300 gram level was sufficient in increasing milk yield and butter fat and increased levels of the product were not needed. An increase of 1.2 kilograms in milk yield and 0.13 percentage increase in butterfat was observed in the cows fed 300 grams of DEMP versus the control group. The trial concluded that soybean meal substitution with DEMP can improve milk and total solids production in high-producing dairy cows.
“The uniqueness of these technologies has provided nutritionists and dairy producers with a new arsenal when formulating dairy diets,” Jennings said. “We feed the bugs before we feed the cow has always been a rule of thumb. Now by utilizing technologies such as these, the dairy industry can maximize profitability and maintain production costs.
Editor’s Note: This commentary is sponsored by Alltech, Inc. For more information on animal health and nutrition, go to: www.alltech.com
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