Feed & Nutrition

As outside pressures continue to limit production and cow numbers, dairies across the country are striving for maximum efficiency across their organizations. When we're limited by these factors, we must attempt to put the most profitable cows in every slot we have available. With component-based pricing, profitable cows are the ones with the highest levels of component efficiency (CE) and not necessarily the ones producing the most pounds of milk.

In the wake of difficult growing conditions that plagued the Midwest in 2019, stretching feed with creative forage solutions was the topic discussed by dairy producer and forage consultant Daniel Olson of Lena, Wisconsin, and dairy producer David Johnson of the Western Upper Peninsula at the recent Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference in Frankenmuth, Michigan.

Are cow farts destroying the planet? Does eating meat matter? Can grazing reverse climate change?

In Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, the weather cycle continues to cause concern and unrest coming off of the extremely wet 2019 season, creating an unstable outlook for alfalfa in 2020.

It is a balancing act when it comes to feeding protein. Dairy cows do not have a requirement for crude protein, but instead, they require amino acids, the building blocks of protein.

People's eating behaviors have changed in the last decades. We spend more time at the supermarket choosing healthy products and reading food labels carefully. One of the characteristics we pay more attention to is fat quantity and quality. This is mainly because we link polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs, especially omega-3) with a healthy diet.