Increasing milk yields using brewers grain and quality forage

Joe and Kevin Doran are partnership farming 200 acres in Donadea, Naas Co. Kildare. They are milking 130 high yielding purebred Holstein cows, averaging an impressive 9,500kgs per lactation.

Kevin and Joe were concerned that they were not getting the most from their cows. ‘Milk production was not what it should have been and we felt that we were not achieving the full potential from the genetics that we had in the herd’.

To address this Joe and Kevin Doran worked with their nutritional partners, Specialist Nutrition and over that time have increased milk output by 17%, while reducing the cost of feed per head.

Growing milk yields with moist feed and home grown forage

Working with Specialist Nutrition the Doran’s identified that there were two main issues with milk yield underperformance; animal intake and achieving a year-round balanced diet. Increasing protein intake and maintaining that level throughout the year was a particular challenge that they needed to overcome to achieve this balanced diet.

The Holstein herd were on a winter diet of grass silage, wholecrop triticale and dairy nuts, and for the remainder of the year their diet was balanced with a coarse mix. According to Kevin “During the winter period we found it challenging toget enough intake into the cows as they were just eating variable quality silage and wholecrop in the diet feeder. We used a 21% nut as our only source of protein. As a result, it was difficult to balance the protein for all the cows.”

In order to address this challenge to ensure their animals met their full milking potential, working with Specialist Nutrition the Doran’s made two key changes to their herd’s diet.

Firstly

They introduced Brewer’s Grains, a co-product from the brewing industry. As a highly palatable feed, with good crude protein and energy density levels, Brewer’s Grains works perfectly in their winter diet as it increases animal intakes and provides the protein levels required to maximise their pedigree cows performance. For the remainder of the year the Doran’s use Brewer’s Grains in times of poor grass growth to ensure they are achieving a consistently balanced diet. Kevin added: “Brewer’s is a really good source of protein and we’ve seen our cows yield improve, while maintaining our protein and butterfat percentages throughout the year.”

Their new winter diet consists of; high quality grass and wholecrop triticale silage, Brewers Grains and a three-way mix of soya, maize meal and beet pulp in the diet feeder. Inside the parlour they are fed to yield with a 21% nut ranging from 3kg to 5kg.

Secondly

The other significant change that was made in the Doran’s herd’s diet, was the use of MAGNIVA silage additives; which has resulted in their animals receiving top class grass and wholecrop triticale silage.

Silage additives work by speeding up the fermentation process which results in significantly reducing energy and protein losses.

Wholecrop silage in particular is susceptible to energy losses due to secondary fermentation and heating throughout the pit. Typically, farmers loose around 14% of available energy between mowing and feeding out; this could be as low as 4% if managed properly.

Treating their silages with an additive has preserved their feed better; resulting in higher protein and energy retention, along with increased fibre digestion in both their grass and wholecrop silages.

Speaking about this Kevin said: “Specialist Nutrition examine our silage before we cut to determine the dry matter and sugar levels. From there we decide on the type of additive to use and the rate to apply it at. Last year we usedMAGNIVA as the first cut grass silage had 24% dry matter content. The pit tested very well when opened, and that same quality was consistent throughout the pit, which gives us confidence that our animals are getting a consistent diet.”

Succeeding with Specialist Nutrition

Overall, since rebalancing their herds diet over 3 years ago, milk output has increased by 17% and their cows are healthier. In addition, last winter the autumn calved cows yield averaged at 37 litres. With proteins maintaining a steady at 3.4% and butterfat at 3.8% throughout the winter months.

Kevin concludes by saying “for us it’s about getting the most out of our cows and our own forages. By using additives on both our grass and wholecrop silage, we have improved the digestibility of the feed and its nutritional value going into our cows.”