牛场饲料供应计划.docVIP

Planning the Dairy Feed Supply Timothy R. Johnson, Ph.D. Purdue Dairy Specialist With softening prices for milk and high purchased feed costs, dairy producers are striving to fine tune their feeding programs to maximize profitability. Good cows can still make money if they are comfortable, well managed, and costs are controlled. There are two major areas that need special attention in planning for feed supply needs this year: 1) how to feed cows on a short forage supply; and 2) how to cope with the relatively high cost of purchased forage and energy feeds. Short Forage Supplies Weather conditions and temperatures during peak growth and harvest periods in spring and summer often result in delayed harvest, low-quality forage, and in low yields of hay and hay crop silage. Under these conditions, it is a challenge to producers and nutritionists to carefully plan winter feeding programs and to budget feed supplies. To deal with this challenge, dairymen may increase corn silage feeding, purchase hay, and attempt to decrease the amount of hay and silage needed by substituting high fiber by-product feeds for forage. Matching expected feed needs and inventories is essential to finding the right combination of these methods, and to budgeting feed costs. As an example, feeding more corn silage reduces the amount of hay required. It can help minimize the purchase of corn, but requires that more protein supplement be fed as corn silage replaces hay in the feed mix. It also requires that adequate amounts of corn silage are available to extend the ration through the summer. Work at the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center, Madison, Wisconsin has shown that corn silage can support high feed intake and maintain good production through the full lactation. In the Wisconsin study, rations with 0%, 33%, or 66% corn silage were fed with the rest of the forage dry matter coming from good quality alfalfa silage. The grain portion of the rations was made up of high moisture ear corn, soybea