Over the past several months many of the commodities dairy producers feed have experienced price creep. Well, that creep turned into a surge higher last week. If you were not able to forward contract protein commodities early this fall, there are still a few affordable protein options.
“The best way to look at the situation is comparing the ‘value’ of different protein options to determine which products are the best buys,” says Trent Dado a nutritionist with GPS Dairy Group.
To substitute the degradable protein in soybean meal, Dado recommends corn by-products including distiller’s grains, corn-gluten feed and corn gluten because they are still relatively affordable. Canola meal can also provide a cheap crude protein source, but Dado says it’s not has high quality as soybean meal.
“So, in terms of relative value, canola and SBM are about the same,” he says. “Brewers grains, if you are in the correct geographic area, are also a good value.”
If there is high quality haylage on the dairy, this can be fed to decrease the need to supplement a ration with large amounts of degradable protein.
