Alpharma sponsored a media breakfast at World Dairy Expo featuring the latest research into precision feeding of dairy replacement heifers, presented by Pat Hoffman with the Department of Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“There’s been a lot of research work around the country on trying to capture some management practices that improve feed efficiency and reduce costs for dairy replacement heifers and precision feeding is one of those practices that seems to be really working out to have some very distinct benefits,” Pat told me in an interview after his presentation. His research suggests that dry matter intake can be reduced by 2-3 pounds per day without any carryover effects on milk production down the road. They also saw increased feed efficiency in the research and decreased excretions.
“What we’re trying to accomplish with precision feeding is just the subtle limitation of dry matter, trying to save a few cents in feed costs, trying to reduce manure excretion without changing the well being or productive performance of the animal at all,” Pat says. “Precision feeding means that you’re going to feed precisely the nutrients that they need.” That means that the feed is concentrated in terms of protein and is utilized more efficiently.
Listen to my interview with Pat from World Dairy Expo here. Pat Hoffman on Precision Feeding
I also talked with Lance Fox of Alpharma about why they sponsored this particular presentation at expo. “Alpharma has historically been active in the dairy heifer industry,” Lance said. “Pat’s been doing some recent research and we wanted the audience to get that updated research.”
Lance says Pat worked with Alpharma on the idea of updating research he did a few years ago on precision feeding. “In this new study he wanted to look at applying an ionophore to the diet and see if we could tweak that diet back a little more and have an economic advantage for the producer,” said Lance. Alpharma’s ionophore on the market is called Bovatec which is widely used in cattle to control coccidiosis and optimize feed efficiency/gain. “If we take a pound of corn at 6-8 cents per pound, the ionophore at about 300 mg per head per day is three cents per head per day, so you’ve got a nice return on investment when you can replace a pound of corn in the diet,” he said, and that held true in the latest research.
Listen to my interview with Lance from World Dairy Expo here. Lance Fox with Alpharma
Watch a video with both interviews back to back here:
2010 World Dairy Expo Photo Album
Thanks to our World Dairy Expo sponsors:
3 Comments on “Precision Feeding Dairy Replacement Heifers”
hi,
we operate a custom heifer raising operaton in wisconsin. probably 250-300 heifers/dry cows cornsilage is in a pile (well more like a mountain) we have no bunker. the hayledge is in concrete silos. tmr mix with distillers grain added bout 1lb per head on year olds and younger. i am looking for a quality source of idea exchange. I also hav many questions about feed handling procedurs. ex. why are we unable to mix tmr put that in a pile mash it down and then our feed is ready to serve so to speak mixing everyday is the pits! Also can the feed in other world nations contain the chemicals from the ground it grows in is america the last relativly fertile and contaminant free area sutable for making quality Food Products that do not contain lead, or mercury.
sorry so long wind-id
25 yrs old and have hard time finding answers from the old-timers 🙂
thank you,
Mark H Olsen
hi,
we operate a custom heifer raising operaton in wisconsin. probably 250-300 heifers/dry cows cornsilage is in a pile (well more like a mountain) we have no bunker. the hayledge is in concrete silos. tmr mix with distillers grain added bout 1lb per head on year olds and younger. i am looking for a quality source of idea exchange. I also hav many questions about feed handling procedurs. ex. why are we unable to mix tmr put that in a pile mash it down and then our feed is ready to serve so to speak mixing everyday is the pits! Also can the feed in other world nations contain the chemicals from the ground it grows in is america the last relativly fertile and contaminant free area sutable for making quality Food Products that do not contain lead, or mercury.
sorry so long wind-id
25 yrs old and have hard time finding answers from the old-timers 🙂
thank you,
Mark H Olsen
hi,
we operate a custom heifer raising operaton in wisconsin. probably 250-300 heifers/dry cows cornsilage is in a pile (well more like a mountain) we have no bunker. the hayledge is in concrete silos. tmr mix with distillers grain added bout 1lb per head on year olds and younger. i am looking for a quality source of idea exchange. I also hav many questions about feed handling procedurs. ex. why are we unable to mix tmr put that in a pile mash it down and then our feed is ready to serve so to speak mixing everyday is the pits! Also can the feed in other world nations contain the chemicals from the ground it grows in is america the last relativly fertile and contaminant free area sutable for making quality Food Products that do not contain lead, or mercury.
sorry so long wind-id
25 yrs old and have hard time finding answers from the old-timers 🙂
thank you,
Mark H Olsen