Given that feed is the largest expense for dairies, it’s a constant target for efficiency gains. Lower feed costs are generally associated with reduced quality as sacrifices are made on the nutrients the feed is delivering. This, in turn, has a negative impact on milk production and can actually reduce income by more than the feed cost savings.
This reality has shifted the industry’s focus to feed efficiency – a measure of the amount of milk produced divided by dry matter intake (DMI).
Feed efficiency (FE) = Milk produced (kilograms or pounds) / Dry matter intake (DMI) (kilograms or pounds)
Producing the same amount of milk with a lower DMI will improve feed efficiency while also increasing income over feed (IOF). IOF is a critical metric that gauges profitability of milk production by comparing the revenue from milk sales with the cost of feed used to produce that milk.
Income over feed (IOF) = Milk revenue - Feed cost
Technologies to measure income over feed
In our era of data-driven herd management, it is possible to identify income over feed on a herd or at a group level. Feed management software tracks the amount of feed delivered to a herd or a group. In tandem, milk meters measure individual cow milk production. For an even greater degree of accuracy in measuring profitability, milk analyzers can provide the value of energy-corrected milk (ECM).
This data is valuable decision-making support as it can help optimize feeding strategies to balance feed cost with milk production. In addition, the data allows for comparison of profitability over time or across multiple dairies for analysis during times of fluctuating milk prices or feed costs.
In addition, scale systems can be used to monitor bodyweight to ensure efficiency gains are not at the expense of cow health or body reserves, and cow monitoring systems can be leveraged to measure rumination, assessing digestive efficiency.
Not all cows are average
The methods currently utilized to measure feed efficiency and income over feed do so at a group or herd level. However, we know that some cows are simply genetically superior at converting feed to milk.
The heritability of feed efficiency is supported by multiple research publications and accepted by the industry. However, the current process of identifying efficient and inefficient cows is a lengthy, costly process and one in which genetics companies have invested heavily.
The push toward individual cow feed efficiency
Identifying feed efficiency at a group level is a valuable decision-making tool, but it is also limiting. Measuring individual feed intake would be more valuable, but it’s something that is generally limited to research farms with individual feeding facilities that can accurately weigh and track the feed intake of each cow and correlate it to milk production.
While the advancements in net feed efficiency have been difficult and costly to date, the push toward achieving this insight at mass scale continues based on the agreed economic potential. But really, what can truly happen when technology catches up with this idea?
- Profitable culling decisions – Identify individual low-producing, high-cost cows and cull them sooner to lower costs. For example, while the three cows highlighted in Table 1 are similar in production (ECM), cow 15225 eats significantly more and has a much lower income over feed as compared to others in the herd. Culling her instead of other similar cows would improve profitability and efficiency.
- Capitalize on heritability of feed efficiency with targeted breeding – Breed the most efficient and profitable cows to create a more efficient herd. Combining individual feed efficiency data with milk production data would allow dairies to make informed decisions on which cows are ideal to not breed, breed to beef, give sexed semen or IVF. This type of informed, targeted breeding could help farms see the benefits of feed-efficiency-based herd management exponentially quicker.
- Assess the impact of feed additives and ration changes – Monitor in real time what changes to the ration are having on production and costs. Having greater insight on how ration changes impact efficiency of certain groups as high producers or young animals would allow dairies to more easily make low-cost, high-value ration choices.
With the potential impact on profitability, it’s clear that the push to identify individual cow feed efficiency will continue. The question remains – what could the industry truly achieve with it?
