Reduce Dairy Costs While Boosting Productivity
We often get asked, “Which feed ingredients have the biggest impact on input costs and performance for dairy?”. One improvement you can make is to use high-quality ingredients, such as ExPress® soymeal, in the ration for dairy cattle.
First, ExPress® soy meal provides both protein (i.e. amino acids) and energy for the cow. In addition, high-shear dry extrusion promotes the generation of rumen by-pass protein and fat that support the cow’s performance. This has been described here and here in previous blogs. When compared to other by-pass ingredients – which often require more than one ingredient to be fed – ExPress® soymeal provides both by-pass protein and by-pass fat in a single ingredient, which can save the producer between $0.21 – $0.37/cow/day in diet costs. To put this in perspective, a farm with 300 head producers can save anywhere from $63-111 every day of operation.
This leads to the second advantage, measurable responses when using high-quality feed ingredients to improve cow performance. More specifically, better efficiency in converting protein into milk, resulting in increased milk production. As a result, fewer inputs (i.e., a simplified diet with 1 ingredient) promote better growth and performance (i.e., milk production) and, in turn, drive revenue.
In addition to ExPress® soymeal, other extruded ingredients, like high-shear dry extruded corn, can be used to lead to success and potentially prevent profitability loss in a dairy operation. When milk prices are low, you can reformulate the ration to include more extruded corn and fewer expensive protein-containing ingredients, and overall diet costs will decrease by $0.10 – $0.20/cow/day – hopefully allowing the producer to preserve a margin on milk sales. A recent analysis performed by the Ohio Dairy Resource Center revealed the income over nutrient cost for cows producing 70-85 lbs. milk/day was $0.11/lbs. As ingredient prices increase, this margin of profitability begins to shrink. Therefore, using the appropriate combinations of consistent, high-quality extruded corn and soy can reduce the overall diet cost while maintaining performance as much as possible, pushing towards profitability.
The efficiency of a dairy operation improves by utilizing high-quality, consistent ingredients – like ExPress® soy meal and high-shear dry extruded corn. Want to learn more? Click here to contact a team member.
