The year is 2015, and the philosophy for feeding a robotic milking herd is to feed limited energy at the bunks so the cows go to the robots for the remainder of their nutrient requirements; more energy available in the robot means more visits and ultimately more milk.

A typical dairy operation manages different animal types (from young heifers to lactating cows), intakes and rations characteristics, resulting in a wide range of feed load sizes.

As spring progresses to summer, the percentage of haylage and small grains in TMR often increases to stretch corn-silage inventories or to dilute corn silage if the quality isn’t as good as we had hoped.

Even when a farm does everything right prior to feedout, silage piles that are subjected to less-than-ideal face management have the potential for massive spoilage.

Successful dairies achieve consistent performance by implementing protocols that reduce variation within their operation. They do everything they can to limit the internal and external pressures cows face, while creating resilient animals that can withstand the pressures beyond their control.

The cost of crop inputs and common feed ingredients used in dairy rations has dominated many discussions this past year. A commonality in growing crops and feeding cows is the need to balance cost and efficiency with production and return on investment.

Feed is expensive. The good news is: Successfully implementing feed management protocols can help to lower your feed cost. Feed management encompasses many aspects on a dairy, some of which can’t be controlled like weather, markets and supply chain.