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Nutritionist says 100-pound average milk can be maintained

 

A nutritionist told dairy business experts from Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois a dairy herd can average 100 pounds of milk per day.

Dr. Stephen Emanuele told nutritionists, veterinarians, and dairy farmers he worked with farms that can reach the 100-pound goal but can’t maintain it… so he found the reasons why.  Emanuele says, “One is dry matter intake.  You have to optimize dry matter intake in the pre-fresh cow, the fresh cow, and the high cow so we looked at strategies to do that.  We also looked at reproduction.  You have to get cows bred.”  He adds, “You have to have 65% of your cows bred by 120 days in milk.”

Emanuele says diet and certain key supplements help.  “What we focused on was how chromium and methionine can all influence dry matter intake and reproduction.  We also focused on our strategy to boost dry matter intake by feeding a low-starch high-sugar high-soluble fiber diet.”

Emanuele says the farms he worked with are maintaining 100 pounds of milk with more than six-and-a-half pounds of milk components per day.

Dr. Stephen Emanuele does research for Quality Liquid Feed and was a presenter at the Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference in Dubuque, Iowa.