Fine tuning rations keeps livestock performance on target

With many farms now looking to adjust rations for the rest of the winter in order to make the most of available feed stocks, KW nutritionist Dr Matt Witt is urging all livestock producers to take the opportunity to double-check performance against expectations, and fine tune diets immediately if necessary.

"Typical problems include lower than expected milk yield or quality, poor growth rates, reduced intakes or a failure to get cows in calf," he states. "Any shortfalls in the ration need to be corrected as soon as possible, so regardless of whether you're on a full TMR system, a silage-plus-concentrates approach or are trying to maximise production from forage, it's vital that winter feeding strategies are re-checked sooner rather than later."

With a number of traditional feeds and straights still in short supply, one of the most flexible and cost-effective options currently available is blends. In addition to filling feed 'gaps' in the ration, blends also allow nutrient shortfalls to be corrected, changing cow requirements to be met and ration consistency to be maintained or improved, all of which are essential if cows are going to milk well for the rest of the winter.

But the cost-effectiveness of blends depends heavily on the cost of buying the raw materials. So make sure your blend supplier is not only getting you the right ingredients, but also getting them for you at the right price. And make sure you see a declaration of blend ingredients and inclusion levels to make sure lower prices aren't coming from the use of cheap 'fillers' or low quality ingredients.

"KW has the advantage in being able to supply conventional, organic and non-GM blends as well as moist blends," continues Dr Witt. "From a simple two-way mix to more complex formulations, the blending operation is backed up by the knowledge needed to make best use of these feeds within the ration. With the option to include specialist ingredients like SoyPass bypass protein and Biosaf yeast, the result is a custom blending service which can meet almost any nutritional need."