How Accurate Are Your Parlour Feeders?

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Gerard Finnan (Sherborne)

I came across a dairy herd recently where the feeders were over feeding by 30% and hadn’t been recalibrated or checked for 12 months.  We all focus on what is outside our control… it’s easy to point fingers!  e.g., cake price vs cake usage.  If your price per tonne was 30% higher than the market price, how would you respond?

Concentrates are one of the biggest VARIABLE costs on your livestock farm.

What should you do to manage the accuracy of feeding?

  • Every time you change the protein or specification of the ration you should check the feeders.  If feeding the same concentrate all year round then calibrate three times annually.  Not only do you ensure the total amount fed is accurate but you ensure individual feeders are allocating accurately to individual cows also.
  • Monthly calculate what should have been used from the computer allocating concentrate to individual cows x days in month or if flat rate fed, kgs/cow fed x cows fed x days in month. 
  • Monthly estimate what has been fed.  Opening stock in the feed bin estimate plus delivered tonnes in month less closing stock estimate will give you a good guide of what has been used.
  • Compare Actual vs Planned quantities fed. 

10% over fed cake at 1.5t per cow pa is 30 tonnes or £10k wasted money.  It is not all lost money as it will produce extra milk, though uneconomically or it sometimes it substitutes for scarce silage.

Invariably the feeders get checked more often when cows are not milking well as more decisive action is needed.  It is as important to check when the cows are milking well as maybe the silage quality is better than expected and the cake could be reduced further to exploit the potential of the silage!

If you cannot measure, you cannot manage it.  When is the last time you checked what controls the allocation of your most expensive variable cost? 

Contact Gerard at gerardfinnan@fcgagric.com for a review of the Key Performance Indicators that you should be measuring and benchmarking in your business.

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