A2S-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 11, 1999
DHIA Sen ice Center, Orchard Road, University Park, PA 16802
QUESTION: Why has our per
cent butterfat dropped drastically
even though we increased dry hay
in the diet?
ANSWER: Questions like this
often require a bit of background
information.
This herd consists of all Hol
stein cows that normally test 3.6 to
3.7 percent butterfat.
The feeding system is a PMR
(partially mixed ration) that con
sists of corn silage, haylage, and
dry grain mixed together with hay
fed outside of the mix.
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Two groups of cows, a low and
a high, are each fed a different
diet Tlie main difference is that
the low group is fed only the sil
age grain mix while the high
group is fed additional western
grown alfalfa.
Two thirds of the herd is in the
high group.
The first thing that I look at is
the history of production for the
herd with butterfat test trends be
ing my focus.
The high group to low group
change in butterfat percent is
minimal even though we normally
see fat tests rise and production
decrease as we increase days in
milk. I would guess that this is be
cause there is no long stem forage
that is fed to low cows.
Knowing what we do about the
diets, this is expected. More recent
test day information shows fat
dropping to 3.1 percent for the
herd.
Since we have two different
feeding strategies for the two
groups, we need to examine the fat
test drop in each group.
The high group is still about
two-thirds of the herd with butter
fat test values down to 2.8 percent
The low group actually rose this
month to 3.7 percent butterfat
Now we can focus on changes
surrounding the high group.
When I visited the farm, I saw a
new mixer wagon in the bam. The
feed looked extremely fine in
front of the high group. There ap
peared to be little if any cud chew
ing going on.
Since the purchase of the new
mixer was one week before the
low butterfat test I focused there.
The dealer where the mixer was
purchased said they did not need
the hay kit and nobody else had
used one to dale.
The sequence of loading feed
was silage, haylage, grain, and
then hay from the 4xB bales. It
took a long time for the hay to mix
thoroughly. This extended time
also reprocessed the rest of the
forage and the result was the very
fine ration found in front of the
high cows.
Why did die fat test of the low
group not drop?
With no hay in their diet, the
mixing time was actually less, due
to the efficiency of the new mixer.
Fiber particle length stayed the
same and therefore rumen health
stayed the same.
How do we handle this prob
lem?
I instructed the feeders to put
the hay in the mixer first and mix
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it until the hay was processed cor
rectly. We then planned to back
off five minutes from that time.
Next we put in the rest of the
ingredients in the same order as
before. Now we mixed just long
enough for the feed to appear the
same from one end to the other.
Suddenly, die same compon
ents of the diet put together this
way looked totally different.
CAMP HILL (Cumberland
Co.) State Senator William L.
Slocum, chairman of the Senate
Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Committee, will be the guest
speaker at a fundraising dinner
for FARMER on Thursday, Oct.
14 at the Station One Banquet
Center, Greenville.
Sen. Slocum will discuss the
major agricultural issues facing
the General Assembly. Sen.
Slocum represents
Pennsylvania’s 25th senatorial
district which includes all of
Cameron, Elk, Forest, McKean,
Potter and Warren counties and
parts of Clearfield, Erie,
Jefferson and Venango counties.
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the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau,
a voluntary statewide farm
organization. “FARMER is dedi
cated to helping elect and keep
supporters of agriculture in the
General Assembly,” said Harold
Curtis of Columbus, Warren
County, a member of both the
FARMER Committee and
Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s
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Within days, the cows were in
creasing their cud chewing and by 1
next test, the far results were back
to normal.
Future plans are to get the hay
kit. Fortunately, little permanent
damage seems to have occurred.
This was due to the dairyman act
ing on what his cows told him.
Without DHIA testing how can
this be done and who would lis
ten?
b Speak
State Board of Directors. Last
year FARMER endorsed and
supported, the campaigns of 67
candidates for the state House of
Representatives and 15 state
Senate candidates.
“Sen. Slocum is a prime sup
porter of private property rights
and has stood firm in his opposi
tion to unreasonable environ
mental regulations,” said Curtis.
“His persistence helped push
Northeast Dairy Compact legis
lation through the Senate. He is
a true friend of agriculture.”
The FARMER fundraiser is
open to the public. The cost of
the event, which includes an all
you-can-eat buffet dinner, is $35
per person, or $5O per person
and spouse. The Station One
Banquet Center is located at 28
Sixth Avenue, Greenville. The
fundraising event will begin at
6:45 p.m.
To obtain tickets, send a per
sonal check, payable to
“FARMER” to: Pennsylvania
Farm Bureau, P.O. Box 8736,
Camp Hill, PA 17001-8736.
Deadline for ordering tickets is
Sept. 30th. For additional infor
mation, contact Curtis at (814)
665-3143.
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