August 14, 2015

Silage quality can have a huge impact on dairy productivity: AB Vista

Grass silage quality can vary just as much across a single clamp face as it does between different cuts and clamps, and the resulting day-to-day differences in nutrient intake could cause daily milk yields to vary by more than 2 litres/cow, according to AB Vista nutritionist Dr. Derek McIlmoyle.

"Data generated last winter using NIR4 Farm, a new portable NIR unit for on-farm feed quality analysis, shows that key parameters like dry matter (DM) can vary by as much as 10% from the top to the bottom of each clamp, and by as much as 8% from side to side," said Dr. McIlmoyle.

"For a cow being fed 40 kg freshweight of grass silage daily, even a 2.5% reduction in silage DM from one day to the next can cut DM intake by 1kg, energy intake by 11MJ and milk yield by 2 litres/day."

The results are also backed up by a 2013 Trouw Nutrition study that found grass silage NDF also varies by about 10% across a single clamp face, while energy density can differ by 1.6MJ ME/kg DM and crude protein by 3%.

"Developing feeding strategies that can account for these variations is critical if cows are to perform consistently. Fortunately, the emergence of new portable NIR technology now makes that much easier to achieve."