ES-Lmcastor Fuming, Saturday, June 7,1986
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Some Summer
Concerns
The quality of forage you put into
storage this summer is the quality
you’ll have to live with until next
harvest season - unless you
purchase a lot of your feeds. High
quality forages play a vital part in
helping you attain high levels of
efficient production. It’s just plain
difficult to make milk on poor
quality forage, and the milk you do
make probably costs more to
produce!
With this in mind, focus on
harvesting and storing high quality
forages. Because things never go
perfectly as planned, have a place
for storing off-quality feeds
separately from your high quality
feeds. That’ll give you much
greater opportunity to manage
your feed supply and your feeding
program. Aim to have the
flexibility of accessing whatever
feed you want, whenever you want
so you can feed the right feed to the
right cattle for maximum ef
ficiency.
Aim to have uniform, high
quality feed in your silo. Don’t
salvage a poor harvest by putting
it into the silo with good silage;
once you get into feeding out the
poor section, you’ve lost your
access to the good quality forages
your good producers need. They
suffer, and you suffer.
Ideally, it’s nice to have some
extra silos so you can store forages
by quality. This is not possible in
many cases for severed reasons;
the herd is too small to feed out of
two silos simultaneously or ad
ditional silos are not available and
it’s too costly to erect an additional
silo for this purpose.
Another alternative might be to
rely on trenches, stacks or bags.
And finally, if it’s not good enough
to feed don’t store it, unless you
can sell it as compost. In the case
of hay, store different quality hays
Daily
Pipeline
By
Glenn A. Shirk
• Extension
Dairy
Agent-
in different mows or sections of
mows. Offering cows a variety of
hays and forages is one way of
stimulating greater intake, and
this can help you accomplish that.
If the hay is not dry enough to
bale, and the weather is
threatening, don’t just “stick it in a
bag”; chances are, it’ll spoil. To be
bagged successfully, hay should be
at the moisture level you aim for
for ensiling haylage. If it is too dry
to bag or ensile and too wet to bale,
consider applying a preservative.
Or, use chemical conditioners
(drying agents) to speed up the
drying time of certain forages.
As you are harvesting, sample
some of the forages for analysis.
Toss aside a few bales, from the
different quality batches, and let
them dry down before sampling.
Pull some haylage samples as you
are filling the silo. These haylage
samples will give you an advanced
estimate of the quality of forages
you’ll be getting into. It gives you
an opportunity to start adjusting
feed programs to prepare the herd
for upcoming changes in forages
as the change occurs - not two to
four weeks later, after they’ve
gone off feed.
Later on, once you are into the
“new” forage, additional testing
will help you to fine tune your
ration. Speaking of fine tuning,
always, always know what the
cows are consuming. You can’t do
a good job of feeding without this
knowledge; nor can your feedman
be of greatest service to you!
To do this you need 1.) a
moisture tester for measuring the
moisture content of your ensiled
feeds at least weekly, 2.) a scales
for weighing feeds actually fed -
and refused or wasted, 3.) a tape or
scales for determining body weight
and dry matter intakes of in
dividual animals more accurately.
Fat Tests
We’re coming into the low fat
test season, but there is a lot you
can do to help keep fat tests up.
One is to focus on fiber intake.
If forages are greener and more
succulent, such as pasture or green
chop, the fiber content is lower.
Supply more fiber in the
remainder of the ration.
If forages and the total ration are
wetter, cows need additional fiber
to get the job done. The same is
true when forages are chopped
finely, or when a lot of pelleted
feeds are being fed.
If forages are cut at an im
mature stage for top quality
(higher protein), fiber content will
be lower, and additional fiber
should be fed.
Older, more mature forages, on
the other hand, are higher in fiber,
but their fiber is more indigestible.
Thus, additional sources of
digestible fiber may be needed.
Don’t make the mistake some
farmers make; they think they can
correct fat test problems by
feeding older, longer hay because
of its higher fiber content. It won’t
work. In addition, the reduced
digestibility of the fiber will
probably reduce total dry matter
intake.
Feeding buffers may also help. If
high levels of grain are being fed,
feed frequently to reduce the
amount of grain consumed at any
one time. And feed cows forage
before offering them large
quantities of grain. The forages
Livestock
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will help the cow buffer her rumen
in preparation for the acids
produced from the digestion of the
grains.
When cows get hot, they go off
feed, particularly on forages.
There’s a good reason for this. It
takes work for cows to digest fiber,
and that produces heat.
To maintain desired levels of
forage dry matter intake, keep
cows as cool and comfortable as
possible. Feed most of the forages
in the cooler hours of the day. Keep
the feeding area as cool as possible
and have fresh water nearby.
Open the sides and ridges of
buildings widely. Use shade, fans,
and perhaps misters for
evaporative cooling. Feed
frequently so the forages, par
ticularly ensiled feeds, stay fresh
and tingle their appetites with a
variety of forages.
Charles Irons
JohnH Lapp
Thomas Spees
Orton Kinney
G L Carlson, Inc - Farm #4
Per
John H Lapp
Print
Orton Kinney
Reba
Thomas Spees
Susie
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McKean Co. DHIA
April, 1986
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Minimize the stress on cows, and
don’t pack them tightly in holding
areas for long periods of time.
Have the holding area well ven
tilated.
Some of the fat test problems can
also happen in the milkhouse. If
the compressor can’t keep up with
the filling rate of the tank, and
can’t cool milk down quickly,
churning may result. To help take
some of the strain off of over
worked compressors, install a heat
exchanger on the milk line so the
milk enters the tank at a lower
temperature.
Improper cooling could help
explain some of the discrepancies,
between plant tests and DHIA v
tests. Proper agitation before
sampling by the milk hauler and
by the DHIA supervisor is also
important for accurate results.
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