The upcoming Missouri Dairy Grazing Conference will take place in Springfield, Missouri, October 23-25. Progressive Dairyman asked several presenters at the conference to share insight into their topics.
Attendees will also have the option to tour three Missouri grazing operations. Visit the conference website to learn more.
Wayne Bailey
Associate Professor and Extension Entomologist
University of Missouri
‘Benefits of Dung Beetle Population in Pastures’
Why is this topic important?
BAILEY: There’s been a lot of interest in Missouri and across the U.S. about the benefits of dung beetles. One of the major benefits is the quick removal of manure, which is important since cattle will graze around cow pies.
The beetles bury the manure, so there’s less nitrogen loss to the air. They also dig down into the manure and increase the soil’s permeability. This helps the grass underneath grow quicker.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
BAILEY: I hope attendees will learn about the 25 to 30 different species of dung beetles and how certain species can increase the vigor and production of certain grasses if the population of the beetles is large enough.
They’re not going to see an immediate increase in profit, but it is one more factor to help increase diversity and stability in the pasture.
Jeffrey Bewley
Assistant Professor
University of Kentucky
‘Tips and tricks for seasonal use of compost pack barns’
Why is this topic important?
BEWLEY: Compost-bedded pack barns are an interesting alternative housing system. When managed right, they provide excellent cow comfort. They are a particularly good option for dairy producers who have limited capital.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
BEWLEY: I hope that producers will have a better understanding of the management strategies that lead to successful compost-bedded pack barn performance.
Peter Gaul
Dairy Producer
Benton, Missouri
‘Ammoniating tube-wrapped baleage’
Why is this topic important?
GAUL: This topic is important because profit is important, and feed quality and cost are major determinants of profit.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
GAUL: Ammoniation is well proven for hay, but not haylage and baleage. We now have a system for doing wrapped bales, and it has resulted in improved protein and digestibility.
We will present and discuss our methods, the lab results and the cost-effectiveness of this relatively simple tool. It won’t turn average feed into top feed, but it appears to turn poor or ordinary feed into something slightly better.
Stacey Hamilton
State Dairy Specialist
University of Missouri Extension
‘Residual feed intake vs. production vs. DMI’ & ‘Maximizing grazing days – A model’
Why are these topics important?
HAMILTON: I think both topics are inter-related, as with the residual feed intake we are measuring individual-cow pasture intake indirectly using titanium dioxide as a marker and an alkane as a measure of digestibility.
Knowing what actual pasture intakes are, or at least the range, helps drive the grazing model in predicting how much pasture is needed each day.
The model allows us to use various forages and their predicted growth rates throughout the season, access what combination or combinations of forages work best in a particular grazing system, and maximize or optimize land use and hopefully reduce purchased supplements.
We are in the beginning of the RFI trial but are seeing various ranges of pasture intake with similar milk production.
We would hope eventually a genetic marker may be found in order for producers to select for reduced dry matter intake with no reduction in milk production.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentations?
HAMILTON: I would hope producers come away with a greater understanding of pasture intake and ways to optimize DMI without sacrificing pasture quality or underfeeding their cows. As in question 1, this may mean a combination of forage species that are grown at specific times to optimize their land use.
Joe Horner
Economist
University of Missouri Extension
Moderator of panel discussion ‘Practical risk mitigation strategies’
This panel discussion will feature dairy producers discussing mitigating droughts with small-scale irrigation systems, mitigating weather extremes and mitigating price risk.
Why are these topics important?
HORNER: Drought can turn a grazing dairy business model upside-down. Profitable grazing dairies are built around a low-cost and high-margin business model. When drought hits, grazing dairies can become high-input and low-margin confinement businesses.
What do you hope attendees will take away from this producer panel?
HORNER: This producer panel discussion will share some creative, practical solutions for mitigating weather and price risks. Producers know that the best solutions are not always the obvious ones that look best on paper.
Standard risk mitigation solutions like insurance and irrigation may not be as cheap and robust as simply lowered stocking rates, carrying stored forage inventories.
Ray Massey
Professor and Economist
University of Missouri Extension
‘Pasture, Rangeland, Forage (PRF) Rainfall Index insurance’
Why is this topic important?
MASSEY: Grazing dairies are dependent on pasture and forages for milk production. In the absence of irrigation, the quantity of hay and grass is dependent on rainfall.
To alleviate the risk of insufficient rainfall, the USDA Risk Management Agency has developed an insurance product that compares rainfall in this growing season relative to normal rainfall to determine if forages are lacking and an indemnity is needed.
PRF Rainfall Index insurance is one of the only ways that producers can insure the income that is dependent on growing adequate pasture and forages.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
MASSEY: I hope that the attendees will understand the strengths and weaknesses of PRF insurance (or when it should be used and when not).
I also hope that they will learn how to use it to effectively manage the risk that comes from having uncertain weather events that affect their bottom line.
Scott Poock
Dairy Veterinarian
University of Missouri Extension
‘Reproductive trials at MU Southwest Center’
Why is this topic important?
POOCK: This topic is important because we want to maximize the length of the lactation period. For seasonal-based herds that dry off all cows on a single day, the cows that calve early in the season will have longer lactations.
Likewise, those cows are more likely to get pregnant to calve in the subsequent year. Both of these advantages add to the profitability of a seasonal-based herd.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
POOCK: We (Dr. Stacey Hamilton and Dr. Matt Lucy, as well as myself) would like producers to learn of different strategies to obtain reproductive success on their dairy farms. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and we can share some of the ways we have attempted to meet our goals.
Ted Probert
State Dairy Specialist
University of Missouri Extension
‘New Zealand and U.S. genetics: Our experience to date’
Why is this topic important?
PROBERT: American dairymen have traditionally utilized primarily U.S. genetics to produce replacement females. More recently, many pasture-based producers have considered using or have actually incorporated New Zealand A.I. sires into their breeding programs.
In theory, genetics with generations of development in a pasture-based environment will produce replacements that are better suited to pasture-based systems in the U.S.
This session will look at the results we have seen from the use of New Zealand dairy genetics in the University of Missouri Southwest Center research herd.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
PROBERT: Pasture-based dairy systems place a slightly different set of demands on producing females than do more traditional systems. The optimum dairy cow genotype may be different for pasture-based dairy systems than it is for traditional operations.
This on-farm presentation will afford conference attendees the opportunity to compare U.S-sired and Kiwi-sired cows at the Southwest Center herd on the basis of both appearance and performance. PD
Emily Caldwell
Editor
Progressive Dairyman
