I have to confess that I wasn’t even a twinkle in my mum and dad’s eyes sixty years ago but I think that it is fair to say there have been considerable advances in dairy nutrition throughout the last sixty years (thankfully) and mostly born out of research and development which you have all then had to interpret in order to practically implement on farm. There are two key areas which have helped define the advances in dairy cow productivity over the last 60 years, contributing to increases in yield and productivity which, to many, were previously unimaginable.
The first is the advances made in genetics. Better indices, more rigorous selection and the introduction of techniques such as semen sorting, embryo transfer and genomics have all helped farmers breed for potentially more productive cows.
The second has been the evolution of more effective dairy nutrition models which have helped us to feed cows with increasing precision to allow them to realise their genetic potential. Early rationing of dairy cows in the UK was carried out using Hay Equivalents (HE) (circa 1965) which was then superseded by a much better (although arguably still questionable!) Starch Equivalents (SE) in the 1970’s. Once everyone seemed to have got their heads around this, the Metabolisable Energy (ME) system was introduced in the 1970s and still largely underpins our current feeding approaches.
Since then, we have seen incremental developments in both energy and protein feeding systems. Together, these have improved the way cows are fed, based on better understanding of animal requirements and the performance of the digestive system. The Feed into Milk (FiM) system (which was a significant development and part of an industry collaborative project) is already over 20 years old and a large number of the trials used sheep as their animal model; metabolic requirements for sheep and dairy cows are very different.
NutriOpt (developed by Trouw Nutrition) provided new thinking for dairy cow rationing in 2018. The model itself comprises three key elements:
A rumen model which considers the balance of carbohydrate and protein fermentation, including rate and extent. New parameters are able to more accurately predict the effect of ingredients on rumen health.
A cow model which predicts the end products of digestion which are then utilised by the cow.
A dynamic rationing model which can more accurately build effective rations as it is based on what happens in the cow. To summarise, the NutriOpt dairy model is based on a better understanding of what is in a feed, how it is degraded in the rumen and the nutritional value the feed provides to the animal. This places a greater focus on rumen stability and general animal health.
Fundamental to the success of any rationing programme is accurate forage analysis. Forage comprises a large proportion of dairy cow diets and given the changeable weather we have been experiencing we are anticipating seeing some variable first cut analysis. So please do request frequent forage analysis to help us better predict how that forage is likely to behave in your cows!
Although you could say that I am little biased, R&D is fundamental to the progress of our industry and it is vital that we continue to utilise the latest knowledge and developments in order to drive efficiency and profitability of our farming enterprises. After all, that is what we are all working so hard to achieve, isn’t it?
For further information, or to discuss feeding options for your farm, please contact your Feed Specialist or call the office on 01363 772212.
