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Dairy Grist

A PERIODIC NEWSLETTER PRODUCED BY GRAND VALLEY FORTIFIERS VOLUME 22, ISSUE 2 | SUMMER 2020

Dear Friends, After a long cool spring, the temperatures finally started to rise during the month of May. We even experienced some 30°C-plus days in the last week of May in Ontario. Thankfully the drier months of April and May allowed farmers in Ontario to get out on the land and successfully plant a lot of acres much earlier than last year. We pray that summer will bring days of good heat and rains to produce a bumper crop this fall. Since mid-March Canada and most of the world have been managing the challenges of COVID-19. It is at times like these, I am very thankful we are involved in agriculture and food production as we have all been reminded how essential it is to grow healthy, nutritious food for our country. We at Grand Valley Fortifiers are honoured to be part of the food production system in Canada. We have done our utmost to keep our customer service levels high and openly communicate the changes to protocols and company policies while adapting to many staff working from home. We trust our service to you has met your expectations. I know many of our Dairy Specialists are very excited to get back to regular sales calls as they were limited to essential visits by appointment only for the months of April and May. Thank you all for your continued business during this challenging time. We look forward to better days ahead! Sincerely, Jim Ross, Founder & Chairman

STRATEGIES TO AVOID OVER-PRODUCTION & MAKE MILK MORE ECONOMICALLY

by: MARK BOWMAN Ruminant Nutritionist, Grand Valley Fortifiers, Nutrition Direct

hroughout this past year, since the quota cuts and lower prices in 2018, our milk market and prices have slowly improved. Incentive days came back and there was hope that a little more quota would soon be available. Then two months ago COVID-19 struck and it seems like we are back to where we were in 2018. Many producers may need to produce less milk in the short run, while still maintaining the ability to maybe produce more milk in the next few months which results in a real feeding and management challenge. Let’s address that challenge by looking at some strategies to avoid over-production now while maintaining capability to produce more milk later this year and beyond if the market allows.

1. Cull cows earlier rather than later. If you have more than enough cows and heifers due to calve later this year and the cull cow market allows, then cull aggressively and cull early to lower milk shipped now if you are over quota. Just be sure that you don’t cull too many cows and then fall short of fresh cows in the next year.

2. Dry cows off early. If you are over quota and needing to dump milk it makes little sense to keep milking cows in later lactation at a daily feed cost of $6 when they could be fed for $2 per day as dry cows. This must be done carefully and to be successful you must have space to put those cows that will be dry for a longer period without overcrowding. Cows with a longer dry period

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must be fed only a low energy maintenance diet to avoid gaining excess weight and body condition before moving into the normal dry cow or close up dry cow group closer to calving.

3. Make a later lactation low group. If it is not feasible to cull enough cows or to dry cows off early, then feeding a lower energy and protein ration at lower cost for lower milk production to later lactation cows that are pregnant and in good body condition is another option. This may help to lower milk shipped now without compromising the fresh cows and high producers that will be counted on for milk later this summer and fall when they are in mid to later lactation.

4. Feed lower protein ration while maintaining energy. Energy supply is the number one driver of milk, butterfat and protein production, followed by protein supply. Do not compromise on energy supply to fresh and high producing cows because they want to milk and shorting them on energy will result in excessive body weight loss and reduced pregnancy rates. This is the classic case of short-term gain (less milk now) for long-term pain (less milk in the future when you need it). However, lowering the protein in the ration may result in lower milk shipped now with less risk of long-term production loss. If energy supply and body condition are maintained, then cows on lower protein diets will still get pregnant and milk well if more milk is again needed and protein is increased. Replacing purchased proteins with forages is also a great way to lower your cost of milk production even if milk yield does not decrease as much as desired. When cows are using protein very efficiently then indeed sometimes lowering the protein does not result in lower milk production. This can be difficult to predict when formulating rations, but if you want less milk then there is no better time to risk feeding a lower protein ration.