Controlling GEORGE F.W. HAENLEIN Extension Dairy Specialist University of Delaware NEWARK, Del. We’ve be moaned the fact for years: As dairy fanners, we don’t control our own destiny. Very few businesses are told by a federal administrator what price they will receive for their product. Rather, than what we as producers think we should receive as fair compensation for our hard work, the price we get for our milk has little relationship to our produc tion costs. While I agree with the national policy of reasonably low-priced food for consumers, why must dairy farmers pay for it? How can daqy fanners stay in business and keep the farm in the family when the milk price paid to them is equal to or lower than the costs of milk production? The only influence any dairy Graz Avoid wasting of expensive grain. Cows in late lactation with good body condition can often get by with minimal grain. • Bottom Line. The bottom line is that grain feeding for high pro ducing cows on pasture results in higher DMI which translates into higher, profitable milk production and improved body condition. Based on this information and our research at Penn State, the grain feeding guidelines in the follow ing table have been developed. The amount of grain or supple ment to feed depends on the “man- Gram (DM) feeding guidelines for a grass based pasture system during the spring grazing season ab 4% FCM Pi a Assume 1300 lb. bodyweight bThese guidelines are based on high quality grass pasture available in adequate quantities assuming the approximate DMI. Lower quality forage will require more grain. Maximum gram DM fed should be equivalent to about 2% of bodyweight. Some adjustment of grain should be made based on body condition scores and stage of lactauon. Lower amounts are likely needed when the pasture contains legumes. c Gram:milk ratio (DM basis). COMPARE PROWL ON CORN. Compare PROWL® herbicide for weed control in corn to Lasso 1 or Dual 2 . You’ll find PROWL is lower in cost plus it provides the important advantage of control of triazine-resistant weeds. PROWL gives outstanding control of tough grasses and is recognized as the choice to control weeds that have become resistant to triazine compounds. Always follow label directions DO NOT PREPLANT INCORPORATE PROWL IN CORN ft/™ Trademarks, American Cyanamid Company ft 1996 Trademark, Monsanto Company, ft Trademark Ciba-Geigy Corp Dairy Production Costs farmer has over milk price is when he or she sells retail some or all of the milk and/or its products. Too often dairy farmers’ con tracts with a milk marketing co operative don’t include a clause allowing some retailing of their milk in the form of farm-bottled milk, farm yogurt or farm cheese. So renegotiate the contract! A number of farmers have turned to retailing in recent years’- and have had great success. In fact, making farm cheese is a new phenomenon on the U.S. farm scene. The success of these ven tures is evident in the increasing volume of sales. The now 10-year-old American Cheese Society assists in promot ing such efforts with national cheese shows, conferences, work shops and judging contests nation wide. Another major influence over dairy farm income is production ing Gazette (Continued from Page A 25) ager’s eye” when monitoring daily milk production and body condi tion. Recording average daily milk production per cow can be an excellent management tool to monitor the effectiveness of the feeding program and quality of pasture. Work with your nutrition ist in developing this supplemen tal feeding program. We have developed a list of sample rations. Please call or write if your would like a copy. One last though: Remember that many factors contribute to >BO 70 60 50 <4O costs. The biggest item? Almost half of all milk production costs is the feed. To control feed costs, consider all the alternative options. Where can you get the cheaper nutritious feeding ration for dairy cows, dairy goats and dairy sheep with out sacrificing nutrient content, palatability, freshness, freedom from mold and other detrimental compounds? How can you get the same feed at a volume discount? When I changed the University' of Delaware dairy feeding system from the delivery of bagged con centrate feed to bulk, I gained a nice discount And when I built a bigger holding bin so that I could order concentrate feed in 20-ton truckloads instead of in 12-ton loads, I got another fine discount, reducing my feed costs substan tially. Then I went to 12-month feed delivery contracts at a constant your bottom line, and a short term savings in feed costs may translate into long term expense if cow health, reproductive efficiency, body condition, and milk produc tion are not optimized. Questions and Comments should be directed to the Grazing Research and Education Center, 116 Agr. Sci. Industry, Penn State University, University Paric, PA 16802, (814) 865-6541. 16-20 14-18 11-14 7-10 5-7 flii iii PROWL •v i- ■■' ~■■■ ■> v i £{*\ 'V" f'. :■■ «' 1:4 to 1:5 1:4 to 1:5 1:5 1:5 to 1:6 1:6 to 1:7 price and constant formula, using forward price predictions of the grain exchange, which means I save even more money. Any farm er can do the same thing. Finally, I switched to computer ized concentrate feeding of all our cows, heifers and calves, includ ing milk riufting, thissystem gave me ultimate control over feed costs, because I now feed concen trates only as much to each animal as each one deserves not* too much for the fat and low milkers and not too little for the high and skinny milkers. And I don’t have to worry about building bam partitions to subdi vide my herd into high, medium and low milker?. The computer does this for me. I segregate only the dry cows, and three weeks before calving, they get computerized feeding ra tions with the appropriate increas es. What else can farmers do to control costs? Substitute some concentrate with good-quality for ages, haylage from alfalfa or clov er, early-cut hay, good pasture in rotation and cold-season forages in this region. This will require some mobile electric fence, but this is often cheaper than the concentrate ra tion. I’ve never .heard a concentrate feed dealer promote pasture pro grams (of course not!), but some dairy farmers are rediscovering pastures something that went out of style about 20 years ago. Now those farmers are laughing all the way to the bank. Take full advantage of the nu trient savings from quality good forages. To maximize the effec tiveness of forages, test the nutri ent contents of the forages regu larly and often. Then tailor the concentrate ration accordingly and save. Other production costs can be controlled also; pounds of milk per hour milking, and pounds of milk for all cows not just the milkers but the dry cows, too. The more milk per hour milk ing, the less the cost of labor for milking. The more milk per all Carl Shaffer Elected worker, growing com, wheal, re | lts B ra,n storage to a local flour snap beans and carrots. He diver- reduces his chemical fer sifies his operation with custom tilizer needs by applying waste harvesting and trucking. He also sludge. We can help you make the comparison. Stop in. Make plans now to get the weed control in corn you want at a lower cost. AariGenter/^ itortT PrtfatiliMHuw > tervt—»lwvlrtnrwwll NtpwitWi For More Information Call 1-800-942-0500 Hardest Preferred Customer Program Lancaster Forming, Saturday, May 4, IM6-A33 cows, the less the cost for keeping dry cows. This reflects, then, on the farm er’s ability to get cows bred on time and regularly without much repeat breeding. The barometer is the average days-in-milk for the herd. Any days beyond mid-lacta tion at .150 days pcan cows are beyond peak lactanbn. They decrease daily toward the end of lactation and cost more itiohey Tot less milk just as in early lactation. The reason is the inabili ty to get cows bred in time after lastcalving! fhfci’s a fruilftil'Ter tile” area where farmers can con trol costs to improve farm income. Late pregnancy is a cult time for cows, during which they often reduce their feed intake more than is good for them. Cows that are too fat or too skinny have lots of problems after calving. A recent Purdue University study showed that cows with problems after calving usually had lower feed intake during the time before calving. They concluded that “if cows are not aggressive caters prior to calving, they are not going to be aggressive eaters after calving. Consequently they will have poor milk production and more compli cations.” Gariy lactation is a time of high nutrient demand, and milk pro duction tends to increase more than the feed intake. Purdue re searchers strongly recommend maximizing feed intake during the transition period. Finally, a study in Kansas with 402 DHIA herds divided into three production levels) 14,000, 19,000 and 23,000 pounds of milk per cow per year showed that higher production is not necessari ly automatically detrimental to reproductive regularity and effi- ciency. It’s true that the higher-produc ing herds had more services per conception than the lower-produc ing herds; however, in terms of percent cows not bred after 120 days after calving, the high herds showed the smallest percentage. (Continued from Page At) In addition to Farm Bureau, Shaffer is a leader in other ag related organizations. He is the Stale Director for USDA’s Consoli dated Farm Service Agency. He serves as president of the Pen nsylvania Foundation for Ag Awareness which, sponsors annual Ag in the Classroom workshops for elemen tary school teachers. He is a member ot the Department of Environ mental Protection Agri cultural Advisory Board and serves on the board of the Pennsylva nia Vegetable Market ing and Research Prog ram. In addition, he is vice president of the Penn Ag Democrats.
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