Whole Herd Dry Matter Intake Should Be Monitored

Published: April 3, 2008

Source : Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension

Do you know how much your cows are eating? If you say yes because the nutritionist has a printout with the number on it, you may not know.

Actual on-farm monitoring is needed to determine if the projected is close to what is being consumed. To do this the total amount of feed offered minus the refusal needs to be measured. Next, the dry matter content of the total mixed ration needs to be determined.

Dry matter can be determined by sending a sample of the feed to a lab or, better yet, by on-farm determination. Koster testers work well and the dry matter of wet feeds can be determined in only a matter of minutes. This tester works by drying the sample and then using the sample weight before and after drying. To assist with the weights, a scale is included with the tester.

Weekly dry matter determination is recommended, but dry matter should also be checked any time feeds change. We project dry matter consumption on our Phosphorus Feeding Incentive Program from the NRC 2001. This dry matter intake prediction (listed below) is based on milk production and body weight and accounts for having a certain proportion first lactation cows in the herd.

Milk, lbs./cow/day	30	40	50	60	70	80	90
Dry matter intake, lbs./day
900 lbs. body weight	31	35	39	43	47	51	55
1400 lbs. body weight	37	40	43	47	50	54	57

Compare your dry matter intakes on a whole herd or group basis to the numbers below. If your numbers are lower ask why. Reasons can include: a higher number of first lactation animals than was predicted here, inadequate amounts of feed delivered, moldy feed, excessively wet or dry feeds, high fiber rations, or imbalanced rations. Monitoring your herds dry matter consumption can also alert you to unexpected changes that occur that need to be addressed.

By Charlie Stallings, Extension Dairy Scientist, Nutrition & Forage Quality
Dairy Pipeline Newsletter - Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension

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Abilio Silva

29 de enero de 2009

Absolutely. I agree with your comments. In fact, the article suggests that the peaking cows (90 lbs) have higher DMI than low producing ones. Are we forgeting the sub clinical ketosis, SARA and other metabolic disorders of fresh cows?

Tamas Csaki Dvm

4 de abril de 2008

This method should work well, but let me put a short comment on it: The method should work well, IF the structure of TMR is absolutely homogenious. While the cows have a chance to separate the diferent fractions (components) of the TMR a part of cows will eat more concentrate, and more fiber (roughages) will remain for the rest of the herd. This process should cause primer rumen acidózis, and reduced dry matter intake, consequently. Finally, the totale TMR consumption of the herd will be lower than the calculated DM intake, because some cows will suffer in primer rumen acidózis as the consequence of too many concentrate, and the others secunder or metabolic acidósis, eatig less energy than required. I think, the control of the DM intake of a totale herd is not so simple than it is shown in this article, that is more complicated, taken into account the changes of the individual daily milk production, the changes of the BCS, the actual health status of the individuals, etc. Regards, Tamas Csaki DVM HUNGARY, ET specialist.