Forage Quality in Today’s Markets

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 15:21:03 GMT

How many times have you seen the words “Bitcoin”, “GameStop”, or “AMC” in the news this year? Likely a lot. These stocks and investments saw crazy price swings and attracted a lot of attention. However, if you were to ask your financial advisor over this time period, I doubt they were encouraging you to spend your life savings in Bitcoin. They likely encouraged you to stay the course, diversify the portfolio, and buy and hold. Price volatility should not cause you to change your overall strategy.

This holds true for how we should approach our forage quality in today’s markets. The large increases and changes in corn, soybean, and other feed prices may have some producers looking to alter their cropping plans. Even with expensive commodities, the basics of forage quality should remain the same. What should change, is the emphasis and energy we put towards achieving high quality forage.

Utilizing quality, home-grown forages is imperative to low-cost lactating rations, especially during time of high commodity prices. This has been demonstrated many times but let us compare two rations with different quality haylage and compare spring 2020 prices to spring 2021 prices (Table 1).

To start, lets compare the ration formulation with the two different haylage qualities. With high quality forages, the percent forage of the ration can reach over 60% of the ration dry matter. As haylage quality drops, to maintain the same level of nutrient available to the cow, we must substitute haylage with more nutrient dense and digestible feedstuff. In this example, we had to decrease haylage and increase the amount of corn gluten feed, canola, and other proteins.

As for cost, because we replaced forage with purchased commodities, the lower quality haylage rations had lower home-grown forage costs and higher purchased feed costs. When we compare ration costs within year, the rations with higher quality haylage are cheaper. However, the difference between low and high quality forage ration costs is much larger in 2021 than 2020. In 2021, the difference between rations was $0.16 per head per day and on $0.01 in 2020. This is because the substitutes that are used to replace lower quality haylage are much more expensive this year. From a cash standpoint, it also favorable to lower purchased feed costs and focus on creating a larger return on your investment in equipment, land, labor and energy by harvesting quality forage.

Do not bet the farm on speculative options to lower feed cost. In 2021, double-down on forage quality. Stick to the foundations, cut on time, chop at the right moisture, chop at the right length, pack hard, and seal tight.

	2021 Prices*		2020 Prices**
	High Quality (170 RFQ)	Low Quality (130 RFQ)	High Quality (170 RFQ)	Low Quality (130 RFQ)
Haylage	11.0	6.0	11.0	6.0
Corn Silage	25.0	25.0	25.0	25.0
Corn Grain	10.0	10.0	10.0	10.0
Corn Gluten Feed	4.0	6.5	4.0	6.5
Canola	4.0	5.0	4.0	5.0
Protein/Min Mix	6.0	7.5	6.0	7.5
Prices
Home-Grown Forage	$2.74	$1.92	$2.49	$1.71
Purchased	$4.38	$5.36	$3.57	$4.36
Total	$7.12	$7.28	$6.06	$6.07

* Haylage 170 RFQ ($95/ton), Haylage 130 RFQ ($70/ton), Corn Silage ($40/ton), Corn Grain ($204/ton), Corn Gluten Feed ($225/ton),

** Haylage 170 RFQ ($90/ton), Haylage 130 RFQ ($65/ton), Corn Silage ($30/ton), Corn Grain ($158/ton), Canola ($273/ton), Corn Gluten Feed ($165/ton), Protein/Mineral Mix ($533/ton)

Canola Meal Research Shows an Increase in Milk Production and Feed Cost Savings

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:53:53 GMT

At the recent Penn State Dairy Nutrition Workshop, Kenneth Kalscheur, a prominent dairy nutrition researcher at the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin, provided findings on the subject of “Canola Meal vs. Soybean Meal in Dairy Cow Diets.” The annual workshop provides training to feed-industry professionals, and this year’s focus concentrated on amino acid and protein nutrition for lactation.

“Canola meal provides a cost-favorable source of essential amino acids,” explained Kalscheur.

He pointed out that the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin, has been involved in researching the feeding of canola meal as a protein source for lactating dairy cows for quite some time. This research is part of the Canola Agri-Science Cluster, with funding provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canola Council of Canada, Alberta Canola, SaskCanola and the Manitoba Canola Growers.

Many trials conducted with mid-lactation cows in the Wisconsin studies showed that substituting canola meal for soybean meal resulted in a 1.25- to 3.0-pound daily milk yield advantage. This is often accompanied by feed cost savings. Results from Kalscheur’s 2016 early-lactation study showed an even greater milk increase in early-lactation cows. The researcher noted that the efficiency of nutrient conversion to milk is improved with the inclusion of canola meal in diets for dairy cows. This often results in lower milk urea nitrogen. Kalscheur emphasized that the superior amino acid balance in canola meal supports its efficient utilization.

Overall Results for the Early-Lactation Feeding Trial Comparing Canola Meal to Soybean Meal

	Soybean Meal	Canola Meal
Dry-Matter Intake, lbs/day	55.0	55.9
Milk Yield, lbs/day	112.64	122.43
Energy-Corrected Milk	117.92	126.72
Feed Efficiency, milk/feed	2.17	2.27
Milk Components
Fat, %	3.9	3.9
Protein, %	2.9	2.8
Fat, lbs/day	4.5	4.8
Protein, lbs/day	3.2	3.4
Milk Urea Nitrogen, mg/dL	11.5	10.9

These findings are important for dairy professionals seeking to improve feeding performance and lower feed costs, particularly in the Northeast and Wisconsin. Kalscheur and the Wisconsin researchers continue their leadership role in the application of canola meal in diets for dairy cows, with additional studies and demonstration trials currently in the planning stage.

Canola-Rapeseed

Forage Quality in Today’s Markets

Canola Meal Research Shows an Increase in Milk Production and Feed Cost Savings