To read this article in French, click here.
The art of dairy nutrition has changed significantly over the years. Gone are the days when dairy nutritionists simply balanced rations. Today’s nutritionists are tasked with not just balancing rations but being a trusted adviser on a complex team. A great nutritionist is always alert, looking for and evaluating the most efficient paths for clients to take on the road to profitability and sustainability. A nutritionist’s duties do not start and end at the farm gate. Rather, these duties are continuous and much of the background work goes unseen. These duties include attending meetings, conferences and trainings to stay up to date on current models and feeding strategies and also careful scientific review of existing and new value-adding products. They want to understand how best to leverage these products in the process of efficient milk production as well as develop a deep understanding on how management practices could impact this process before bringing a suggestion on-farm.
One very important management practice that may be the least expensive with the greatest potential return is proper feedbunk management. If a good ration is the foundation of good production, then good feedbunk management is the foundation of getting the most out of that good ration. Feedbunk management can simply be defined as “managing the feedbunk so that cows have access to good-quality and uniformly mixed feed 24 hours a day.” A crucial part of excellent feedbunk management is consistency: consistent delivery time, consistent push-up times and consistent quality. Cows are creatures of habit, and we need to capitalize on this inherent trait by providing a well-balanced, uniformly mixed ration, whereby consistent feedbunk management leads to the greatest opportunity for success.
Generally, cows will spend four to six hours each day eating, with that time being divided into nine to 14 meals. While fresh feed delivery is the primary stimulus for cows to eat, access to fresh feed upon return from the parlor not only increases dry matter intake (DMI), supporting milk production, but also supports milk quality and udder health. Standing time post-milking leads to better teat closure and thus reduces the risk of mastitis caused by environmental exposure when cows lie down too quickly after milking. When fresh feed delivery after every milking isn’t possible due to time constraints, once-a-day feeding or other reasons, a diligent feed push-up schedule becomes critical. All farms should use a feed push-up schedule as a tool to ensure feed is available and within reach of the cows when they want it. Managers should target frequent and consistent feed push-up occurring approximately every one to three hours. This can help remix feed, minimize sorting, reduce bouts of slug feeding and help ensure cows can reach the feed at all times during the day.
What does it mean to have feed in front of the cows 24 hours a day?
Another area that is critical in good feedbunk management, and is also an art, is having an ideal amount of refusals. Ideally, high-producing milk cows should be fed for a minimum of 1% to 2% feed refusal. This means that with an average DMI of 55 pounds, or 91.67 pounds as-fed at 60% dry matter (DM), and 200 cows per pen, there should be approximately 110-220 pounds of dry feed left or 185-365 pounds as-fed. Due to the nature of feeding close-up cows and fresh cows, this can be increased to 3% to 4% so that we ensure there is no time in the day that these groups don’t have access to enough feed. One key component to accurately attain 1% to 2% refusal is accurate DM evaluation of the silage portion of the diet. On-farm evaluation of DM should be part of the daily routine (eg., Koster tester, microwave, air fryer or other hand-held) with a five-day average maintained and used to adjust forage DM in the ration management software.
Refusal percentages need to be agreed upon (both visually and on paper) and tightly managed since at today’s feed prices, a jump from 1% to 5% refusals can add up quickly and be quite costly (Table 1). It is very important to read feedbunks and adjust total pounds fed on a daily basis using a consistent scoring system (Table 2). If a pen is scoring a 0 with six hours to go before the next feed, an adjustment needs to be made. When you first start using the bunk scoring system, you will want to make small (0.5% to 1%) shifts up or down, accordingly. These smaller shifts will allow cows to adjust over multiple days as well as account for environmental or seasonal changes that naturally impact DMI.
What about TMR stability?
Another important consideration in feedbunk management that can impact DMI is stability of the total mixed ration (TMR) in the bunk. A stable TMR is one that maintains ambient temperature and does not spoil and become hot in the feedbunk. If the silage is unstable, it can be the leading cause of heating of the TMR, and it will lead to reduced palatability and reduced DMI. The best way to prevent this from happening is a combination of management practices: Deliver fresh feed at least twice a day, maintain a good push-up schedule and incorporate a research-proven silage inoculant containing Lactobacillus buchneri to reduce the innate spoilage organisms in the silage, which will help prevent heating in the feedbunk.
Does location matter?
Now that our ration is perfectly formulated with stable forages, adjusted for DM and 1% refusals, we need to deliver it in a way that maximizes intakes. This includes proper feed placement (can cows reach the feed?) and providing adequate access for all cows in the pen to eat (i.e., avoid overcrowding the bunk). Cows will generally prefer to eat at crossover lanes and where they enter the pen when coming back from the parlor, so it is important to increase the amount of feed in these areas to account for the increased time spent eating at these locations.
Last but most important step
Communication is key to successful implementation of any change. If you are focusing on maintaining 1% feed refusals, there needs to be excellent communication between the feeder (what do the forages look like, are they wet or dry?), the person who pushes up feed (bunk score of 0 with six hours to go), the herd manager (are pen numbers being shared with the feeder?), the nutritionist and, most importantly, the cows. Good communication will help ensure that cows are fed correctly and consistently and will help maximize the goal of efficient milk production.
