Feed & Nutrition

Corn silage is the go-to homegrown forage for supplying digestible starch and fiber high-producing cows require. Often, however, shortcuts and oversights during the growing, harvest and storage processes can limit its resulting feed value.

Coming off a couple of years of adequate to excessive rainfall throughout many dairy forage growing regions across the country, feed hygiene is an increasingly scrutinized forage quality item.

You might be surprised to know that harmful pathogens often lurk in fermented forages like haylage and corn silage, causing health and productivity issues when consumed by dairy cows.

Forage quality is the Achilles’ heel for any ruminant nutritionist. The better the forage coming out of storage, the better the nutritionist.

Over recent years, a whole category of additive products have exploded in dairy cow (and other food animal species) nutrition. Microorganism-based products such as yeasts, bacteria, fungi, enzyme products, etc., have become standards in dairy nutrition and are commonly found in a significant number of diets.

The fresh cow period is the time of greatest opportunity during a cow’s lactation. Starting cows off strong can result in increased peak milk, an ideal lactation curve and improved income over feed cost.