Forage Utilization and Dairy Nutrition Update

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Forage Utilization and Dairy Nutrition Update
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Current Situation

• Drought reduced forage supplies in some areas of
  the state and nation.
• Short supply of hay
• Shorter supply of quality hay
• Increased cost for purchased hay
• Winter annuals for grazing
• Temperature
• Rainfall

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Current Situation

• Corn prices have increases considerably, will
  remain high for the foreseeable future because of
  increased demand for ethanol production.

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Current Situation

• Milk prices have started to increase and should
  be 1.00/cwt higher for 2007, but low milk
  prices have many producers behind financially!

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Forage is the foundation of diets for lactating
dairy cows!
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High quality forage

• As forage quality increases, the proportion of
  forage used in the diet increases
• Reduces amount of purchased feed required to
  balance nutrient deficiencies
• Easier to actually achieve desired milk yield
• Maintains rumen health
• Improved IOFC

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NDF Digestibility

• Increasing NDF digestibility reduces fill and
  increases passage rates which allows higher dry
  matter intake.
• 1 unit increase in NDF digestibility
• 0.37 lbs DMI
• 0.50 lbs milk yield
• 0.55 lbs 4 FCM

Oba and Allen. 1999. JDS 82589-596.
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Interpreting 30 Hour Forage In vitro NDF
Digestibility
Sniffen and Emerich, 1999
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Challenges

• Climate in the SE makes producing high quality
  forage more challenging
• Hot and humid
• More constant day length
• Higher fiber and lignin concentrations
• Lower digestibility
• Warm season forages are less digestible than cool
  season forages

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What makes good corn silage?

• High yield
• High energy content (digestibility)
• High intake potential (low fiber content)
• Proper moisture at harvest for storage
• Minimum nutrient losses from harvest until feeding

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Managing Corn for Silage

• Hybrid selection
• Maturity class
• Disease resistance
• Insect resistance
• Yield potential
• Digestibility
• Manage for yield AND quality
• Population
• Planting date
• Row spacing
• Soil fertility
• Weed control
• Irrigation

• Harvest
• Stage of maturity
• Cutting height
• Chop length
• Special situations
• Ensiling
• Inoculants to ensure fermentation
• Packing rate and extent
• Sealing
• Feeding Management
• Removal rate
• Face management

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Corn silagebalance of stover and grain

• Stover
• digestible fiber
• slowly fermented
• Grain
• Starch
• Rapidly fermented

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Corn Hybrids

• Temperate
• Tropical
• Specialty
• High oil
• High lysine
• Waxy
• Leafy
• Brown midrib

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Corn Specialty Hybrid Silage Yield and Quality
During 1990-1999 in Wisconsin (Normalized data)
22000
High
High
yield
yield

20000
quality
18000
Milk per Acre (lb/A)
16000
14000
High
quality
12000
1900
2100
2300
Milk per Ton (lb/T)
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Factors to consider whenselecting a corn hybrid

• Maturity class
• Silage yield and quality
• Grain yield
• Drought tolerance
• Disease resistance
• Insect resistance

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Timely Harvest
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Brown midrib mutation (BMR)

• Natural mutation of corn
• Lower lignin concentrations
• Higher fiber digestibility
• Lower DM yield
• Higher seed cost

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Chemical composition
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Production Response
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BMR and dietary NDF content
Oba and Allen. 2000. JDS 831333-1341.
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BMR and dietary NDF content
Oba and Allen. 2000. JDS 831333-1341.
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BMR Corn Silage

• Higher DMI
• Greater ruminal NDF digestibility
• Faster ruminal turnover or passage rate
• Starch digestibility tends to be higher lower
  tract digestibility, but total digestibility is
  not changed
• Improved microbial protein synthesis
• Improved nutrient intake and flow provides
  additional nutrients to support higher milk yield

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Tifton 85 Bermudagrass for lactating dairy cows
Coastal released in 1943 Tifton 85 in 1993
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Why Tifton 85 bermudagrass?

• Naturally adapted to soils and environment
• Efficiently utilizes N-P-K from dairy waste
• Very good yield and quality with improved
  cultivars
• Lower production cost than other forages

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Relative Yield and In Vitro Dry Matter
Digestibility (IVDMD)
Burton, 1999
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Delayed harvest increases DM yield
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Nutrient digestibility decreases greatly with
delayed harvest
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Performance of lactating dairy cows fed Tifton 85
or Alfalfa hay
West et al., 1997. JDS. 801656-1665.
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Tifton 85 bermudagrass versus alfalfa hay
West et al. 1997. J. Dairy Sci.
801656-1665. 13.5 blend price of 17.00
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Tifton 85 haylage vs. Alfalfa hay
Spring 2006
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Feeding considerations

• Compared to other forages, bermudagrass has
  higher NDF concentrations.
• The NDF in Tifton 85 bermudagrass is more
  digestible than alfalfa, but passage rate is
  slower.
• High fiber concentrations can limit intake if
  large amounts are included in the diet

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Summary

• Plant improved cultivars like Tifton 85 that have
  higher fiber digestibility.
• Harvest bermudagrass for optimum quality at 3-4
  wk re-growth, not yield.
• Formulate rations to optimize intake and optimize
  digestibility
• 30 of DM from bermudagrass
• NDF 40 of DM
• Adequate fermentable CHO to optimize fermentation

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Grazing Dairies

• Renewed interest in grazing in the SE
• Total grazing vs. supplemental grazing or a
  combination of the two

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Grazing Dairies

• There are successful grazing dairies in the SE,
  but they require above average management
• Challenges
• Developing a suitable forage system
• Managing the forage system
• Supplementation strategy
• Heat stress abatement

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Forage System for Grazing

• Must be able to withstand grazing pressure in
  this environment (soils and climatic)
• Must provide adequate amounts of high quality
  forage
• Supplementation strategy
• Forage
• Grain

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Supplemental Cooling on Pasture

• Essential if we expect cows to graze and maintain
  milk production without loosing excessive body
  weight
• Sprinkler system on pivot
• Cooling ponds
• Remember there is no compensatory milk yield
  once milk production drops it will not rebound
  until that cow freshens again.

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Dealing with higher feed cost

• Corn (feed) prices have increased sharply
• Drought has reduced hay availability and
  increased cost
• How do we adjust feeding programs short and long
  term?

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Potential Corn Replacements

• Hominy feed
• Bakery waste
• Citrus pulp
• Soybean hulls
• Wheat middling
• Molasses
• Fat
• Distillers grains
• Corn gluten feed
• Wet brewers grains

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Considerations when replacing corn

• Forage base and quality
• Protein characteristics of the diet
• Total amount of fat and sources
• Carbohydrate balance
• Structural vs NFC
• Low starch diets

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.. . . . .
Questions