Putting your learning to work on dairy farm
By Doris Crowley
RISING SUN, Md. - It’s hard to
measure the value of an education,
so many of the returns are in
tangible. That’s one reason Bob
Miller felt so pleased when he
learned his family’s dairy
operation had saved an estimated
$2,000 during the first three months
of this year as a result of recent
dairy feed ration changes. Miller
helped make those changes, based
on what he learned while working
on a special least cost dairy ration
project during his senior year at
the University of Delaware.
Bob graduated in June from the
College of Agricultural Sciences
with a bachelor’s degree in animal
science and agronomy. He now
works full tune in his family’s 350-
acre dairy operation, Pleasant
View Farms, near Rising Sun, Md.
He, his brother John and cousin
A 1 run the two-farm complex for
their fathers, both retired from
active dairying. (Bob’s father,
Jack Miller, is in charge of public
affairs for the Maryland Farm
Bureau; his uncle Grove is a past
MFB president.)
While attending the university,
Bob drove home weekends and
holidays to lend a hand with the
work the Millers presently milk
55 Holstems, down from 60 before
the start of the milk set-aside
program. And wherever possible
he related his studies to the needs
of Pleasant View Farms. When,
during a conversation two years
ago with college dean Dr. Donald
F. Crossan, he expressed a desire
to do something that would help
improve the family dairy
operation, Crossan suggested he
look into least-cost feeding
programs.
Uses computer
The University of Delaware has
three computer-based dairy
management programs which are
available to farmers through
extension dairy specialist George
F.W. Haenlein, one of Miller’s
teachers. When Bob approached
him about learning how to use one
of these programs, Haenlein was
delighted.
So in the spring of his junior year
Bob Miller undertook a special
problem with Haenlein, using
computer to compare the costs of
various feed alternatives in order
to develop a balanced least-cost
ration for the Pleasant View herd.
“Bob was one of my attempts to
Bob Miller examines barley silage, a feed ingredient his
family is experimenting with this summer in order to boost
total feed output per acre for their dairy herd.
take extension to the classroom,”
Haenlein says. “I’ve shown
several of our older dairy farmers
how to use this program, with good
results. And I wanted to bring its
to some young farmers,
too.”
After teaching him some basic
techniques, Haenlein told Miller he
was on his own. The assignment
to use a computer to explore the
various feeding options available
to satisfy cow needs as well as his
own economic goals as a producer.
He was advised to look at three
different parts of the ration:
3 Parts of Ration
First, alternative sources of
dry roughage. “What do you do
when you run out of alfalfa hay?”
Haenlein asked. (This actually
happened to the Millers last
winter.) “What can you buy or
grow instead of your present
roughage? What will it cost as a
substitute? What will it do to
production?”
Next, alternative succulent
feeds silage, haylage, green
chop, wet brewers’ gram. How will
changes in this feed component
affect production and income over
feed cost?
What’s the best gram sup
plement? Can barley be sub
stituted for corn’ How about whole
roast soybeans?
“I told Bob to look at each of
these ingredient changes
separately, so he could see how
each would affect production, and
then decide which would put
money in his pocket,” Haenlein
recalls. “Then, instead of telling
him what to do, I let him discover
the facts for himself. This way I
figured he was more likely to
accept what he found out.”
Reviews DHIA records
After playing around with
various hypothetical feed options,
last September Bob Miller began
running samples of his herd’s
Delaware DHIA (Dairy Herd
Improvement Association)
records through a computer to see
how different feed ingredients
might have affected actual feed
costs. He also looked at the way
ration ingredients might have
influenced milk production and
composition.
He used the computer all last
fall, calculating hypothetical
rations and comparing them with
the costs and effects of actual
rations. Then he wrote up his
s f
r «*** *. .s . j
The Millers dug new trench silo this spring to increase feed storage capacity on the
farms.
findings. It was a valuable lear
ning experience.
“I knew there was a way to cut
feed costs,” he said during a recent
interview. “But none of us had any
idea how deficient our ration was
before we started looking at it this
way.”
“Computer least-cost feed
programs are great,” he con
tinued, “but you have to know what
a cow will eat. And though the
program balances the ration for
calcium and phosphorus, you have
to add the other minerals and
vitamins.” This meant doing a lot
of research on the cow’s nutritional
needs valuable background for
any dairy farmer.
Nutritionist helps
When Bob’s family decided to
reevaluate their current feeding
program last winter in an effort to
improve output per cow and at the
same time reduce costs, they got in
touch with Maryland extension
dairy nutritionist E. Kim Cassel.
Bob was also able to offer some
concrete, practical suggestions,
based on what he’d learned.
“I used rations from the
program,” he said. “Then I’d go to
the books and find out the cow’s
requirements and check them with
Cassel, since she might know of
cheaper ingredients. We gave her
information on our production
goals. We’re still working with her
and she’s doing a real nice job
helping us develop rations.”
When he began running the
computer feed program, Miller
found it a bit confusing. “At first
I’d just throw in different feeds to
see what they’d do. Then I got a
feel for it. Towards the end, I
valued that time experimenting. I
learned an awful lot."
si
The program lets a dairy farmer
do several things. “You establish
production goals for your herd
(based on the number of cows, feed
selection and prices). The
program provides a basic ration
but it isn’t strictly least-cost it’s
designed for maximizing income,
and you must adjust the ration for
the cows’ specific needs. It also
indicates how much less than
current ingredients a certain feed
must cost for profitable use.”
Found improvements
By comparing the Miller herd’s
actual ration and production level
with those provided by the com
puter, Bob learned what was likely
to work on their farm and where
improvements might be made.
“For example,” he says,
“alfalfa is an excellent feed
ingredient, and we’re growing
more of that now. We didn’t realize
how much more economical it is to
feed than what we were using. But
when we started working on our
ration last winter, we didn’t have
' *
. * !**•**
any on hand. In January we were
running so low we had to start
buying feed. Based on what I’d
learned and Cassel recommended,
we bought alfalfa.”
At first his family was reluctant
to make some of the changes he
suggested, but since they weren’t
satisfied with their present feeding
program they were willing to listen
to his ideas.
Forage Tested
The Millers try to grow as much
of their own feed as possible,
though they ran short last year
because of the drought. “We used
to buy all our protein,” Bob says.
‘ ‘Now we grow alfalfa and use that,
plus some soybean meal which we
buy. Our extension agent, Ted
Haas (Cecil County), has been a
great help in managing the crops.
You’ve got to have quality crops
to have quality cows and high
production,” says Bob. “We sent
our forage away for testing. It can
look and smell good but not be very
nourishing. We’re trying to learn
how to compensate, so that when
we do hit some bad hay or silage
we can avoid a drop in produc
tion.”
The Miller herd presently
averages 15,000 pounds of milk per
cow per year, with 600 pounds of
butterfat. Their goal is to increase
that to 17,000 pounds over the next
two years, without losing butterfat
or raising feed costs.
Achieving this will involve
improved mastitis control as well
as improved nutrition. “We’re
working on that problem, too,”
Bob says. “We’ve been using A.I.
for a long time and have real solid
cows. We think we can reach our
goal with overall good
management in our feeding and
health programs.”
Barley silage
This summer the Millers are
experimenting with another idea
Bob brought home from college
barley silage. “I was trying to
figure out what we could do to
increase our supply of homegrown
feed, and read about using barley
this way.” So he went to another of
his professors, agronomist Merle
Teel. “He helped me look up
research information on barley
silage, and we found a farmer in.
our area who uses it. We talked
with a lot of people about it and our
nutritionist recommended it.”
By cutting the barley before it
matures while grain is still in
the dough stage or, preferably,
earlier it’s possible to get a high
protein barley silage and then
double crop corn afterwards. This
is a good way to boost total feed
yield per acre.
. The key to selling the barley
silage idea was the fact that the
need was there. The Millers are
anxious not to run out of feed like
they did last year. They cut 25
acres of barley on May 18, treated
it with a preservative and put it
into their silo, no-tilling com right
after it. They’re feeding the silage
now, mixed with grain, and the
cows seem to like it very much.
“Barley silage isn’t much talked
about today,” Bob says, “but it
used to be a fairly common feed. ’ ’
New Trench Silo
The Millers also dug a new
trench silo this spring and the first
thing to go in was their first cutting
of alfalfa.
To keep abreast of feed ideas,
Bob recently joined the new
Delaware-Maryland Forage
Council. “Eventually,” he con
fides, “we’d like to be the most
efficient dairy farm in the state.”
Listening to him talk, one can
sense his. excitement at being part
of a close-knit family enterprise,
and the challenge he feels to help
improve it. “I’ve milked cows for a
while,” he says with a smile. “I
wouldn’t want to do anything but
farm.”
Nqw that he knows what a
computer can do for him, Haenlem
hopes Bob Miller will use it in the
future to make other management
decisions. “He did well on this
project and it paid off for him. That
makes me feel good. Because he
comes from a farm, Bob’s project
had immediate practical interest,
which may help explain why he got
so involved and did such a
thorough job.
“Poultry production has been
programmed on computers for a
long time,” the dairy specialist
continues, “but the digestive
process and nutritional needs of
cattle and other ruminants are
much more complex than those of
chickens, and we’re just
developing programs that deal
with these multiple needs.”
Haenlein would like to see other
students do the same thing, as this
is an excellent way to learn how to
improve dairy management. It's
also an opportunity for dairy
farmers to increase their com
puter literacy. He is convinced that
electronics is the key to future
economic survival for producers
like the Millers, because com
puters can help them make more
objective management decisions
“Dairy farmers must learn to
base their management decisions
on facts, not emotion,” the
specialist says. “We’re developing
tools now which enable them to do
this. These computer programs
aren’t just a technological
spillover, a fad. They’re an
economic necessity.”