Feed & Nutrition

Feeding green grass to dairy cows is nothing new, but recent innovations have made it easier to add to diets of high-producing cows.

Change is hard – especially for cows, who are creatures of habit even more than we are. Any changes in a cow’s routine can quickly add up to compromise her health and performance.

Editor’s note: This article is the third in a four-part series about how an Oregon dairy farmer is making robots work on a grazing system. Read the first and second stories "How we milk 3 times a day with robots for success" and Robot repairs: The solution or the problem?.

Growing winter forages, a great way to increase available inventory, maximizes the productivity of your land base. Fully one-third of sunlight received in temperate zones comes during the winter season.

In increased frequency, we see headlines in the news about greenhouse gas emissions and animal agriculture. Methane is one of the main greenhouse gases of concern. Cows produce methane from fermentation in the rumen, also called enteric methane. There is a push to reduce methane production from cows to help with climate change.

Producing quality hay is important whether you feed your own hay or sell it to others. When producing hay for on-farm use, we do not often consider its value, but it is still important.