UK dairy farmers can boost output by removing moist feed

UK dairy farmers can increase milk production simply by challenging the current trend of using moist feeds in their cows' diet, according to Steve Brown, ruminant feeds product manager for Wynnstay.

Current economics of dairy farming means farmers are easily won over by the price per tonne of moist feeds, but farmers must remember that water has no calories, said Brown.

In order to assess the real cost, farmers should always convert the price per tonne to a dry matter price, he said.

An GBP80 (US$128)/tonne wet feed with a 35 percent dry matter content, energy content of 14MJ/kg DM, crude protein of 350g/kg DM (35 percent) and oil content of 100g/kg DM (10 percent) seems at first sight to be good value, but on an as fed basis each kg will only deliver 4.9MJ/kg of energy, 12.25 percent crude protein and 3.5 percent oil, according to Brown.

Therefore, the cost per tonne must be divided by the dry matter content in order for each cow to receive the quoted nutrient values. By then, the GBP80 per tonne price tag would have raised to a much less attractive price of GBP228.57 (US$365.8) per tonne of dry matter, Brown added.