Whoever feeds the cows on a farm, particularly a dairy farm, has one of the most important roles in that business. The milker might collect the milk, but the feeder makes it.

Making sure that the feed is mixed correctly on a daily basis is vital for efficient milk production. It is crucial that the feed is the same from one end of the barrier to the other, so that all the cows eat exactly the same mix.

It is often said that there are three diets fed on farm. The one the advisor formulates, the one that gets put out for the cows and the one the cows actually eat. The important thing is to minimise the difference between these three.

I have recently been looking into a situation on a farm where intakes and milk yield are both varying on a near daily basis. Having watched the cows, we decided that we should investigate if the cows were sorting their ration; a situation where they choose to eat certain ingredients first, and root them out.

We ran the ration through a feed sieve, called a Penn State Separator, when the feed was first presented at 8am. We then re-sieved the ration later in the day to see if it had changed. Another sieve of the ration at 2pm did show small changes, but nothing particularly significant.

On the off chance this was a one off, we sieved the ration again a few days later. On this occasion there was no need to re-sieve in the afternoon – the sieve results were completely different to the previous test.

The way the diet was being presented to the cows was varying too much from day to day. This could be down to ingredients being added in a different order, changes to how long the ration is mixed for, or a different person doing the feeding.

We’ll have to investigate more to get to the bottom of it.

adam.collantine@dugdalenutrition.com