Who or What Determines
Your Feeding Program?
How is your feeding program
developed? Is it determined by
you, or by your feedman, the silo
man, your veterinarian, your
machinery dealer, your loan of
ficer, or perhaps by your cropping
program, the weather, or by what
other dairymen are doing? All
these people plus weather, feed
and price situations help deter
mine how well your herd will be fed
and how well your cattle will per
form.
This business of feeding cows
deserves a lot of attention. You
should have a well-planned pro
gram. It can be designed by you, if
you know what you are doing, or by
someone else who understands
dairy nutrition and is able to
discuss feeding programs with
you. That is easier said than done,
but it is something worth striving
for.
Be a stickler on details. For ex
ample, make sure the cows are ac
tually consuming the feed they are
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/*
supposed to be eating - correct
pounds, the right kind and quality
of feed, and fed at the right times
and in the right manna:. If the
cows are not consuming what is
recommended, have the program
recalculated.
la other words, give the program
a chance to work, and don’t let
“outside interests” mess it up. A
good feeding program needs a
good boss - one boss - not a lot of
different bosses pulling in a
number of different directions.
Hut boss can be you, or it can be
someone off the farm in whom you
have confidence and can trust
There are many different ways
of feeding cows properly, but the
important thing to remember is
that some concepts can’tbe mixed.
That’s why a feeding practice that
works for one fellow may not work
for another person who is feeding
under slightly different cir
cumstances.
With a well designed feeding pro
gram, a knowledgeable person can
decide if other concepts and feeds
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being used by other farmers or be
ing promoted by the news media or
by salesmen, will “fit” your pro
gram. To have a workable feeding
program, all the pieces have to fit.
A well-planned feeding program
has many benefits: it helps you
feed the herd properly; it also
helps you plan cropping programs,
harvesting schedules, how to store
and handle feeds, and it helps you
to plan your feed purchases.
One Loss is Enough
Just last week, I observed a good
example of good planning in ac
tion. The dairyman was interested
in putting 141 good quality haylage
for his milking herd. He had a seal
ed storage unit As you know, the
weather does not always cooperate
at harvest time; such was the case
with him. He wanted to salvage
some rained-on alfalfa, Jxit he did
not want to put poor quality feed in
the sealed unit on top of bis good
quality haylage.
He already took one beating
from the rain damage. He was not
about to self-inflict a second
beating upon himself by putting in
ferior feed into the site. If he did
this, he would be forced to pot this
power quality feed through his
milking cows. The production be
would have lost by doing this would
have been far more costly than the
rain damage already experienced,
or even a complete loss of that par
ticular cutting!
Instead, be decided to press the
rain-damaged crop into a horizon
tal plastic tube. (Another option
would have been to bale it) Now he
has the opportunity to manage his
feed supply and utilize it to its
fullest potential He can handle
this poorer quality forage
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separately and feed it to heifers
and dry cows. An important word
of caution at this point: be certain
that any forages you are putting
up, particularly those damaged
crops you are trying to salvage,
have sufficient nutritive value to
be fed; even heifers and dry cows -
your future producers - deserve
something better than junk feed!
This is unlike another dairymen
I visited earlier this summer
whose first cutting of alfalfa got
old and stemmy and “went down."
To add insult to injury, it also got
rained on. The day I was there, he
was putting it into a sealed unit.
“The cows would eat it better if it
was chopped and if it went through
a fermentation" he reasoned.
True, but how much milk will they
produce on it and how will it affect
herd profits?
I have yet to see any fermenta
tion process increase the nutrient
content of any feed! Palatability -
yes. Digestibility can be either in
creased, or decreased with ensil
ing, depending on circumstances;
so can palatability. If you really
wanted to improve palatability of
this poor stuff, let it get a little on
the dry side so that it heats up and
carmalizes during the ensiling pro
cess; you’ll drive the nutritive
value down even further, but cows
will still love it!
Control Your Feed Situation
It is important to provide
yourself with opportunities for be
ing able to manage your feed sup
ply - to have access to the right
land of feeds for the right cows at
the right time, so you can utilize all
of your feeds to their fullest poten
tial. This can pay big dividends in
these times of rising costs and
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 25,1951-Dl3
softening milk prices. This usually
requires sufficient storage
facilities for separating feeds by
kind and quality. This is easier to
do in a hay mow, where you can
stack hay accordingly. However,
for silage, you’ll need several silos,
stacks, bags, etc. And, that can
become costly. The cost and in
convenience of this has to be
weighed against the added
benefits, which can become a big
guessing game. Nevertheless, it’s
a concept worth exploring.
A good feeding program can be a
guide to help you plan your feed
purchases. As a dairyman, part of
your profits are determined by
how good a buyer you are. You can
follow the example of a young
dairyman I visited last year, who
had to purchase most of his'feed.
He determined how much and
what kind of hay he needed and
was successful in purchasing a
bam full of hay in advance of the
winter feeding program and in ad
vance his need -at that season of
the year when it was early enough
for him to be able to be choosy, and
when prices were still reasonable.
As a result, he had a sizeable quan
tity of fairly uniform hay, which be
could test and around which be
could formulate a balanced radon.
In other words, he was in control of
his feeding program and the per
formance of his herd, at a time
when many other dairymen were
in desperation and at the mercy of
current markets - and market
situations can be mighty unmer
ciful at times!
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borrow money to make advanced
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