FROM dairyeditor’s BLOG • Feb. 18, 2009 Invest in tools to pinpoint inefficiencies

Sharp-penciled dairymen continue to shop for alternatives to manage their operation’s highest input cost – feed ingredients. Most large producers today still assume that their feeders are feeding exactly the ration that their nutritionist has designed. Progressive managers can review reports from feed tracking systems which monitor ingredient usage by weight on TMR mixers. University studies have confirmed that large dairies overfeed many ingredients by 1 to 5 percent, or more.

With milk and cattle receipts falling, and feed costs remaining high, it is more important than ever for managers to invest in tools to pinpoint where they might be able improve feeding efficiencies.

Larry Raupp

OEM Account Manager

Spend on necessities

One common denominator I see is that most producers will only spend money on what they need to. It is not that they will not spend any money, only what is absolutely necessary. Otherwise most of my producers are hoping that the low prices will be short-lived.

Dale Heintz

Land O’Lakes

Make your ration software work harder

Feed is typically a dairy’s single greatest expense.

· Many nutritionists and feed consultants utilize our ration formulation software to balance least-cost rations for production.

· Rations can be balanced to produce the desired pounds of milk, percentage fat or protein level to take advantage of the best pricing opportunities available, thus maximizing their return on investment.

· Dairymen can also balance their rations based on the price they will be paid for their milk to determine the optimum ration to optimize returns under this given scenario.

· Dairymen can incorporate byproducts, such as DDGs, into ration calculations to determine if byproducts could or should be used to optimize feed costs.

· Dairymen can run multiple rations side-by-side to compare feed costs per animal per day for different levels of milk production, percentage fat or protein.

· If the economics for maximum pounds of milk are not present, a dairyman can actually use a program such as this to incorporate lower cost or lower-quality forages into the ration in order to optimize production versus feed costs.

Brittany Scott

Dalex Livestock Solutions

The third round of ration changes

The Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) signup is an issue. If they are not yet signed up, this is the first point I ask producers to consider.

Their questions revolve around when should I sign up? And how are they doing the feed-cost adjustment?

I am a dairy nutritionist by training, and the next set of issues I deal with are questions of reducing feed costs further. For most of my clients, this is the third round of dealing with this since they incurred record feed costs last summer.

• Last summer the issues were working with low starch diets, corn hominy feed, DDG and DDGS diets and handling and feeding of distillers wet-cake.

• Early this fall corn and to a lesser extent, soybean prices dropped precipitously even before harvest was complete. This brought about more corn in dairy diets and the issues of monitoring components and MUN mg/dl in order to see that the changes in diets fed were adjusted to by the cows adequately.

• Now that the milk price is sinking the reality of another round of dairy diet price cutting is in full swing and the questions now revolve around the current upswing of corn and beans prices. The question is when will these commodity prices top-out? Another factor is that forages are in good supply in most of central and northern Indiana and guys are looking at 60 to 65 percent forage to 35 to 40 percent concentrate diets again. The last call I got recently was from a small producer (less than 100 cows) who said: “We can’t afford 20 or more commodities now with tight cash-flow. We have some shelled corn in the elevator corn bank, and I am calling to discuss cutting feed additives, minerals, and fats.” He wanted to know my thoughts on short- and long-term outcomes of some of these cuts.

Timothy R. Johnson, Ph.D., PAS

Animal and Dairy Nutrient Management Consulting

Make longer commitments for buying semen

I see more belt tightening by producers. Some of which may be costly in the long run. Cheaper feeds and cheaper semen come to mind, but most of the time “you get what you pay for.” One good idea is to agree to purchase semen on a long-term basis and commit to a significant number of units of semen. This will get you a better deal with your breeding company.

Gary Rogers

Geno Global PD