Max Sealy (FCG WhiteAvon)
On our autumn calving herd at Whitelands, we have been experimenting with how to maximise dry matter intake and minimise silage waste. Our building is a total of 400 feet long with 6 rows of cubicles feeding all around the outside of 3 sides of the building. This makes a total of 700 feet of cow feed space (one third of the space is allotted for straw yard and a small area used for heifers once we have finished calving in early November).
With a feed fence using a chamfered concrete fillet and a feed rail, cows have good access to feed. This is 60cm per cow which works out as the same calculation as a two row cubicle barn and central feed passage (because we feed all around the outside of the building).
One of the issues experienced in this new building is making sure there is enough feed in front of the cows all the time. Despite pushing up five times per day, including last thing at night, there was always the issue of cows running out of feed in certain areas of the buildings or pushing enough food away during the night for us to be concerned there was not enough food there for cows in the mornings.
Originally, we were feeding a 5% excess feed, scraping this up every day and using it for youngstock. By increasing this to 10% we have been able to raise dry matter intakes by over 1kg per cow and milk yield has followed accordingly. 10% overfeed is quite a lot based on 350 cows in milk being fed 24 tonnes in fresh weight, we are picking up 2.4 tonnes of fresh weight per day. This goes straight into the youngstock mix with straw and added maize. It is used to feed our R1 and R2 heifers (first- and second-year heifers). This makes a nice physical mix. It is fully mineralised and with the addition of straw and forage can be balanced accordingly.
Based on 6kgs of concentrate fed in the outside mix, rape soya and caustic wheat, around 240kgs concentrate is left in the 10% overfeed which is allocated as part of the youngstock ration. This has produced good results, not only for the cows but also for fertility in the youngstock with early indications of PDs showing a conception rate of around 60%.
Simple changes like this can make a big difference and are often the key to driving the last 5-10% of improvement and profitability. This is achieved by increasing use of forage and by minimising waste (no silage is thrown out, other than a small amount for troughs fed straw yarded cows).
It is important to assess any changes like this, in both economic and technical terms, but simple changes that can be made over the winter feeding make a big difference to the profits of autumn calving herds and a similar effect can be seen with all year around calving herds.
To review your cow feeding system and buildings not just your rations, contact Max at maxsealy@fcgagric.com or your local FCG Office.