Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Get Adobe Flash player
LAkeland Scottish Feeds & Services Lakeland Scottish Feeds & Services Newsletter
Prices get Tough
Issue No. 82 January 2012

Introduction.

I am delighted to announce that Amy Trowbridge joined Lakeland-Scottish Feeds & Services on April 30th. Amy will start as a trainee technical sales specialist and initially concentrate on Calf, Young Stock and Dry Cow feeding.
For the first few months Amy will work alongside me in order to gain her initial experience. Ultimately she will be responsible for sales in North Yorkshire and Cumbria .

                             Amy Trowbridge joins Lakeland Scottish Feeds & Services - Dairy Nutrition F 1 Yeast

This winter has seen an increase in the number of farmers feeding wet TMR mixes. What is the reason for this trap?
The article below suggests that there may be mermaids on the rocks!
F1 Novatan is currently on trial in the UK. It is currently being looked at by over 20 Farmers and that number is increasing by the day. There is still time to get on to this program and reduce early embryonic death, and increase milk yield and protein at the same time as reducing carbon emissions and faecal nitrogen!

If feeding choline was a simple answer to liver conditioning, everyone would do it so why is this technique not practised by all dairy farmers. The answer is simply because it’s not that simple, we explain why.

Maybe large herd management should be considered here. On the one hand these herds are often housed in buildings where group management should be better than most. On the other hand attention to detail may well suffer because the management of labour and feed does not allow for the time or the attention to detail and it can be allocated a low priority. High output Holsteins in particular stand to benefit more by management of liver function, some would say “they need all the help they can get”!

Turnout is pretty well here and it is about now that we lose control of the balance in the diet. Dry cows are particularly badly affected by this so we have included some tips and techniques for farmers who are looking for tactics.
Calves are very susceptible to disease as everyone is well aware. There may be a new approach to the problem of how to reduce the risk in the first few weeks and it’s all down to water!
F1 Diagnostics (InterHerd +) goes live on May 1st. We are quite excited about the use of this new tool in assessing the accuracy of nutrition management of the dairy herd. As usual the Feed commodity and mineral markets have been busy so we will have a look at what is going on. Can we save any money when there is the real threat of a drop in the milk price?

Feeding Stodge!

This winter I have had the occasion to work with a few farmers who have bought a whole load of moist feeds.
There are two key reasons why this approach to feeding cows doesn’t work well.

I don’t think anyone would argue against this so far.

Now we get to the real reasons that farmers finish up feeding stodge.

  1. They make wet silage. (which is sometimes hard to avoid)
  2. Sometimes they cut the wet silage long. (this can be okay if the rest of the diet is dry)
  3. They don’t make enough silage and believe that moist feeds will substitute for forage. This approach is risky to say the least.
  4. They buy moist feeds. (Which are good value for money against dry feeds)
  5. They are unable to get good separation on mixing.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that the feed industry itself doesn’t do enough to ensure that the by-products are sold in a more appropriate form. Some of the By-Products would be so much better if they were dried first. I do not accept the excuse that it would cost too much money to do this. If that argument was true we wouldn’t have half the number of dry feeds that we currently have on our option list!

The human food industry produces lots of waste and it has to be moved rapidly away from the manufacturing sites.
The company’s and brokers who pick up these contracts are under pressure to keep these sites clear. Products like Trafford Gold, Vitagold, Mash Filter and bread waste could be difficult for the ruminant to digest if they are finely ground, mouldy, or balled up.

When you run these products through value for money spread sheets it becomes obvious that they are priced to sell at a rate that will keep the factory sites clear. The brokers who sell them are under pressure to push these products hard until they are on top of the situation. These people are not nutritionists they just need to shift product. They won’t want to know if it doesn’t work.

Bargains can be had in certain situations. Some lucky farmers will know only too well how useful it can be when there is a breakdown at one of these sites.

The issue in the year ahead is what will happen if and when the two big bio-ethanol fermenters at Ensus and Vivergo come on stream. There could be a significant amount of extra moist feed coming on to the market and the industry will be under pressure to shift these volumes at a low cost if there is too much available.

Our advice is to fit them in to the diet according to the type and quantity of your own silage but remember that with the possible and only exception of Pressed Sugar Beet Pulp, they are NOT forages and will not work as such in the rumen.

Try to target around 55% to 65% FORAGE dry matter and avoid the stodgier by-products if you can.

In many of the cases of forage shortage it would be better to buy true forage substitutes than use these products.
Avoid purchasing wet silages and long cut big bale type forage unless you can chop these forages to muzzle width (about 10Cm or less).
The moist feeds that do not ball up could be better used in drier diets as a substitute for concentrates but only after the forage dry matter target has been reached.

Energy and the Liver

The liver is the main organ in the body for the metabolism of energy and waste protein amongst other functions. In recent years we have heard much about how important it is to make sure that the liver is kept healthy and fully operative.

Fatty liver syndrome is the main reason why livers start to become less efficient, excess copper is another and problems with Fluke a close third.

Fatty liver syndrome cannot be diagnosed by simply looking at the animal and saying “She’s fat”! Thin cows may be thin because their liver is clogged up with fat! Autopsy work has shown that condition scoring is not a valid technique for diagnosis.

The vets are increasingly suggesting that apart from the routine management of milk fever prevention and udder and teat recovery and protection; the liver also deserves some attention.

Products like LiFT have been around for some time now. Indeed we introduced F1 DeTox as a concentrated version based on American recommendations.
We have lots of before and after blood profile evidence to show that F1 DeTox is extremely effective at improving liver function by lowering NEEFA’s and BHB’s.

Table 1

The effect of feeding rumen protected choline (RPC) on health of dairy cows:

Treatment
Control Rumen Protected Choline Significance (P)
  % no/nn  
Retained Placenta 11.1 10.1 .72
Post Partum Fever 31.1 31.6 .77
Puerperal Metritis 3.4 3.4 .69
Metritis 11.3 7.9 .33
Displaced Abomasum 4.5 2.3 .77
Mastitis 22.5 14.7 .06
Post Partum Disease * 57.1 38.4 .001
Death 7.1 4.5 .27
Left Study ** 9.8 7.8 .48
Lima et al 2007 published University of Florida 2009

* Includes retained placenta, metritis, clinical ketosis, displacement of abomasum, and mastitis.
** Cows leaving the study prior to 80 days postpartum because of death or culling.

But the liver is more complex than we would imagine.

Even healthy livers need some stimulation to work. A steady stream of glucose seems to lull the liver into a steady routine.
When cows suffer clinical Ketosis they get dosed with monopropylene glycol. This is a huge supply of Glycerine pre-cursor to the liver which suddenly has to wake up and process it PDQ. The cow is then able to use the extra energy to get back on her feet (quite literally in some cases).
This technique proves that the liver responds well to stimulus.

F1 Elevator is a blend of monopropylene glycol, glycerol, and a complex flavour, which can be used instead of monopropylene glycol.

We now know that if we dose 250Ml of F1 Elevator once a day for 21 days before and or 21 days after calving, we can stimulate the liver into more efficient action.

Okay I know that we can’t all do this because of groupings etc., but where we can using a watering can to top dress or a robotic milker’s liquid feed option, this technique has really good benefits all round.

In summary; if we want good liver function for effective energy and protein metabolism, we need to manage the condition and functionality of the liver. This has to be done using two separate approaches.

  1. De-Tox the liver of excess fat by feeding F1 DeTox.
  2. Stimulate the liver by once a day feeding of F1 Elevator.

F1 Novatan

F1 Novatan is a very new way of significantly increasing the efficiency of rumen fermentation. Novatan has been and still is under development in France for the last 15 years. It is used in all of the European countries apart from Britain but this year we have managed to bring the product in exclusively under the F1 Banner.
F1 Novatan has an ability to increase the proportion of grass protein that is un-degradable in the rumen by effectively increasing the portion of rumen microbial protein being produced from that protein.

INRA (The French independent regulatory body) has verified that Novatan will reduce both methane and faecal nitrogen emissions this means that the version released in the UK will reduce milk and blood urea.

We turn our cows out to spring grass and the fresh calver’s nose dive. Young stock scour and lose weight for a couple of weeks at least. The same thing happens to store cattle and then it takes a couple of months just to get them back on track.

The excess nitrogen from most fresh pasture grass increases milk and blood urea this has some pretty bad side effects.

Well Novatan won’t stop the scour but it will improve embryo attachment and viability; increase productivity i.e. yield, milk protein and growth.

So why would we bother with this stuff? The answer is simple really, 0.5Kg of protected protein costs between 25p and 40p per cow per day. Novatan should be able to the same job for around 6p!
The current price is introductory and is only available for the current season.
If you want to try this product we would like to enrol you on to F1 diagnostics via the CIS and NMR records for InterHerd +.

Dry Cow Management at Grass

“Late lactation cows giving less milk than diet predictions are getting fat!” Feeding far off dry cows (from drying off to 21 days before calving) is not that critical. The biggest issue for these cows at grass is to stop them from putting on to much weight and reducing the scour and staggers effects!

This can easily be achieved by offering a good dry cow mineral bucket (See attached F1 Absolute Dry Cow mineral bucket stuffer,) restricting grazing and offering plenty of good clean straw.

In the event that they have to stay on grass, restrict access to the grazing as much as possible, feed good straw and the rest of the Table 3 diet. The use of TMR in the precalver ration for dry cows at grass can be left out if the cows are to calve down to grass. It is okay to feed a small amount of any buffer feed that they may get after calving.
Dry cow feeding is one of those situations where it is just about impossible to quantify the benefits of the investment. The scientific evidence pointing to significant health and performance benefits from investing in good nutrition at this stage is frankly something which we need to trust, unless you want to spend time trying to work out exactly how they did the original trials.

Lakeland-Scottish Feeds & Services and TBA Ltd have carefully studied the large pool of technical research on best practice for dry cow feeding. The conclusion that we have come to is, that the far off period is important, but can be managed fairly easily whereas feed management of the dairy cow three weeks prior to calving (the close up period) is critical to the animal health and performance in the following lactation.
This means that these cows have to be singled out for special treatment. No other system will give better results.
The objective is partly to prepare the cow for her ensuing lactation, partly to ensure that calving is as trouble free as possible, and finally, to avoid all the negative health issues around calving.
Milk Fever and Ketosis are metabolic diseases which occur as a direct result of feeding management.

These two conditions should also be directly linked to problems with other major areas of concern including:

Table 2

At drying off, all breeds of cow should be at a condition score of between 3 and 3.5.
This is the first hurdle. Many farms will have over fat cows and over thin cows. The ideal management system should be able to remove these cows from the main “ideal” group and manage the first 5 weeks of the dry period to get the cow condition within the 3 to 3.5 target.
Even when it is impractical to manage separate groups of cows, modern nutrition solutions are better able to deal with a wider range of cow variability.

The close up or transition period defined as the 21 day before calving is when all the critical stuff needs to happen.
It really is better if we stick to a 21 day group at this stage, because the best result is gained by taking this approach.
What are the golden rules in this idealised approach?

Table 3

In the event that they have to stay on grass, restrict access to the grazing as much as possible, feed good straw and the rest of the Table 3 diet. The use of TMR in the precalver ration for dry cows at grass can be left out if the cows are to calve down to grass. It is okay to feed a small amount of any buffer feed that they may get after calving.

F1-Detox, F1 Elevator, F1 Transomega and F 1 Yeast are marketed in the UK by TBA in the South West and Lakeland-Scottish in The North and in South West Scotland, both offer this solution.
If there is a twist in the tail, it is this: “as with any feeding regime, it is vital to get the basics right before relying on the fine tuning”.

Water For Calves

Do any of you ever go camping? If you do you will know about those little tablets that you are supposed to use to add to your drinking water to stop you from getting a dose of whatever is going to attack your guts.

Well the stuff they use for campers is now available for livestock. It will kill 100% of household germs, so it makes a very good disinfectant. The product is called “Credence” and has been used in most of the big pig and poultry units to get over the disease challenge caused by fouling of water supplies by the stock themselves.
The current idea is to use the water doser unit on the water supply to baby calf pens and milk machines. This would reduce disease challenges presented by borehole water in particular.

The more concentrated product is also being looked at for disinfecting feeding areas, teat dipping and better still foot baths! Lakeland Scottish Feeds & Services will keep you posted on how we get on with the latter which could be a huge step forward in the fight against dermatitis at a competitive price.

New Products

Could it be an early dose of Olympic fever? Nothing seems to stand still for long and there is a bit of a sprint going on at the moment. The feed and supplement manufacturers have been busy.

Alltech have come up with an improved version of Mycosorb using a “new” ingredient. We are not allowed to say what it is yet but we are allowed to guess, so I guess it might have something to do with Alltech’s massive investment in Algae. This would fit in with its use in industrial filters like those used to remove unwanted toxins from beer.
Mycosorb A+ will give full cover against 37 main mycotoxins including a better degree of cover against the ones that it did before.
To my mind it is a big step forward and has to be better that the competitors who rely on clays to absorb the toxins and clog up the rumen. (Woops, did I really say that Reggie?) Mycosorb A+ Farm Pak is available now for a small premium over standard Mycosorb.

We wanted to call it Ph UK but nobody wants to play so we have had to settle for F1 Ant Acid. It’s a new rumen buffer which we will launch in the autumn. Designed to be a competitive and comprehensive buffer we will fill you in with the details nearer the time. In the meantime if anyone fancies trying it we will be using a special trial pricing strategy.
There are other developments in the pipeline which I find quite interesting. It’s almost as if the trade have woken up to the fact that we should be trying to do two things.

  1. Make life easier
  2. Do things better

Good isn’t it

Bull Beef Trial

I have included the original beef trial done with Alltech and the Dunbia abattoir showing how F 1 Yeast can have a major beneficial effect by protecting the rumen wall against acid abrasion in high starch bull beef diets.
The results are pretty dramatic as shown by the two comparative photographs of rumen walls after they had been washed at the abattoir.
This benefit is a very real one for intensive beef but is also true where any class of ruminant is fed intensively. The F1 yeast uses the TS (Thermally Stable) version which is now the best yeast you can get!.

Minerals and Markets

The mineral, trace element and vitamin raw material markets are still showing some signs of some stability currently which is good news and in some cases, customers will see prices dropping – although biotin especially has increased in price again.

In the last issue I wrote “When you read this it is hard to escape from the argument for total replacement of inorganic Copper, Zinc, Manganese and Selenium. Using less of these minerals in a more targeted way is common practice on many American and European farms, there are no obvious problems and in most cases there are apparent health improvements.
If you want to look at this in more detail, why not give me a call and we can start with a free mineral audit. These audits may become a mandatory requirement in years to come”.
I still think that it is worth considering this approach to feeding minerals and it is a good time to look at the issue as mineral prices have dropped slightly from December.

Technical E-Mails

If you want to join the growing number of e-mail recipients of this newsletter it’s easy. All you need to do is e-mail me at the following address and we will add you to our group. Sometimes though, we will still send it out with certain stuffers when we think it could be useful.

Thanks
jerry@lakelandscottish.co.uk

Feed Market Review

Here is a summary of a fairly typical broker report from the soya markets at the moment.

“Another very strong day in Chicago, with the soybean complex leading the way again. The market is going one way at the moment, despite press reports (in the FT) saying rising soybean prices are having a big effect on global food inflation. With stories of lower crops in South America and major exports to China, it's easy to see where this price action originates. In fact, the supply and demand picture for NEXT year is now looking very close, so the chance of a big drop in price is pretty slim. The USDA announced that China bought another 220,000mts of U.S. beans, adding more fuel to the fire. As of April 28th planting of soybeans in the U.S. was about 12% complete - which compares with only 2% last year, and a 5-year mean of 5%. There is now a realistic chance of a double crop but it is always going to depend on there being enough rain.
South American premiums remain firm despite strong action on the Chicago market. We are told that another vessel that has run aground in the Parana river blocking navigation. This will probably affect premiums for now and keep the market firm.
Note, “lower liquidity often leads to higher volatility”. The Brazilian crop is now 95% harvested (and 75% sold.)”

When you read this stuff it is difficult to see where it will end. One Organic farmer said “I don’t know what the fuss is all about we have had to pay a lot more than this for years!”
Most of the rest of us will keep our hands firmly in our pockets for now.