Episode 42: Dairy Nutrition for Small Scale Dairies with Dr. Sarah Allen

On this episode of the Maine Farmcast, Dr. Glenda Pereira, Assistant Extension Professor and State Dairy Specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, has a conversation with Dr. Sarah Allen about dairy nutrition considerations for small scale dairy farmers. Allen holds a doctorate from North Carolina State University, in which she focused on research in mycotoxin mitigation, milk quality, and milk fatty acids. After working as a dairy consultant for Purina Animal Nutrition in Western New York, Dr. Allen transitioned into her current role as Extension Dairy Specialist at the University of New Hampshire.

Episode Resources

Automated Transcript

Glenda Pereira: 00:28

Welcome to The Maine Farmcast. This is your host, Dr. Glenda Pereira. On today’s episode, we have a return guest, Dr. Sarah Allen, who is the dairy specialist at the University of New Hampshire. Sarah, I enticed you to come back and do a second episode on the podcast.

Sarah Allen: 00:46

Thanks for having me, Glenda. I had so much fun the last time, so I’m glad to be here again.

Glenda Pereira: 00:51

Awesome. We value your knowledge, so I appreciate you taking the time to spend with us today. So the topic we’re tackling today is nutrition, which is your expertise, and specifically, maybe more management tips or more recommendations for folks and farmers who potentially don’t have access to a nutritionist or who don’t currently work with a nutritionist. And so some of their recommendations that we’re gonna be providing today might be better suited for small scale farmers.

Sarah Allen: 01:26

Yeah. Absolutely. I think both you and I have gotten a lot of questions, in our jobs about just how to feed your animals. And that’s a really tricky question to answer a lot of times because nutrition can be very specific to each farm. There are a couple of starting points that I think we can go over today.

Glenda Pereira: 01:50

And this is an awesome topic that, you can provide a lot of insight on because in your previous role, you were a dairy nutritionist. So when you were consulting with farmers, what were some of the, more critical things that helped you, kind of develop a plan for them and a nutritional plan for them. So walk us through that.

Sarah Allen: 02:12

Well, I think the first thing and the the starting point for any type of nutrition conversation has to be getting a forage test. We really can’t go forward with anything else until we know what you’re currently feeding the animals. And we have grain tags. We have feed tags for your grain. We have, you know, a nutrient analysis.

Sarah Allen: 02:35

That’s what your forage test is. It’s basically a feed tag for your hay or for your pasture.

Glenda Pereira: 02:41

Yes. So forage is kind of, you know, the first step and the most critical step, and so we we need we need to use the other components in our, diet to supplement what our forage is telling us. Right? So there are some rules of thumb with forage. And so right off the bat, you know, there’s the twenty, thirty, 40 rule of thumb, which is, you know, hay and forage should have at least 20% crude protein, less than 30%, acid detergent fiber, and less than 40% neutral detergent fiber.

Glenda Pereira: 03:18

In addition to that, the range you wanna be in for the relative feed value or RFV for those that look on a forage test should be closer to a hundred or greater. Yes. And so let’s break that down. Sarah, can you give us some more insight on each of those? Or even when we’re looking at a forged test, what what are we looking at?

Sarah Allen: 03:38

Yeah. I’ll start with the with the RFV just because you that one’s a lot of times the easy one number to look at. And the RFP is a calculated value. Right? So it’s not the end all be all, but it’s kind of a good reference point.

Sarah Allen: 03:57

And it uses, digestible dry matter and ADF and NDF. So a lot of those things that, Glenda was talking about in the twenty, thirty, 40 rule of thumb, those numbers are used to calculate this to kind of give you one reference point. And a lot of times we say if it’s over a hundred, it means you have high quality forage, and if it’s under a hundred, it means you have low quality forage. And that’s a good starting point. Being over a hundred or really close to a hundred is a good goal.

Sarah Allen: 04:26

It’s not always going to happen particularly with grass forages just because they tend to be lower quality than, obviously, like corn silage or, you know, legumes and stuff. But we feed a lot of grass forage around here. And so sometimes that can be trickier to get over a hundred. Not impossible, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t feed your feed if it’s got an RFV of 94, for example. It just means that you’re probably going to have to supplement a little bit more grain because its nutrients are going to be it’s got less readily available nutrients for the animal.

Glenda Pereira: 05:09

Right. And when we were talking earlier, in addition on a force chest, you said that, TDN is a number that folks reference. Yeah. But you don’t prefer to use that because it it can be specific to the lab that’s testing. So can you talk to us more about TDN and and your recommendations?

Sarah Allen: 05:30

Yeah. So TDN is TDN is another one of those, calculated values. And to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t even tell you what a good TDN number is anymore, just because I haven’t used it in so long. It’s, it stands for total digestible nutrients, so it’s kind of trying to do the same thing as RFV and, a lot of or I guess, say, other animal industries tend to use it more often, I think, than the dairy industry does. It’s another one of those numbers that, again, it’s calculated, so it’s a good one number to look at that’s using the EDF to figure out whether something would be good quality or low or poor quality.

Sarah Allen: 06:12

The problem is that the formula has changed over the years, and I’ve noticed personally just looking at forage tests here in New Hampshire that the same forage tested at two labs will have similar ADF values reported as they should but then the TDN number can be multiple points different and so if you’re trying to compare, you know, a sample that says it’s 65 TDN or 69 TDN, it’s act and it was actually the same forage, that’s a bit trickier to use. So what I tell people to do is if you’re going to use TDN, Google the TDN formula, pick one and calculate it yourself, and then use it as a guideline maybe to compare two Hays if you’re purchasing it. That’s generally my recommendation, but I don’t use it very often.

Glenda Pereira: 07:05

And then another thing to look for on your forage test that folks may be, already look at is the NEL or the net energy for lactation. Again, we’re talking about lactation predominantly because that’s the most, the the highest demand, for an animal. And so most forages should be in the range of point seven. So point six to point seven, net energy for lactation per pound. And because, basically, what we’re doing is we’re saying, okay.

Glenda Pereira: 07:40

Here’s the forage. Here’s here’s what it is. And then we’re supplementing with grain or other things in the diet if, you you know, folks feed feed it out versus, like, a pellet or something like that. So we really wanna start with the forage and then say, okay. Where are we missing energy and protein to then come back and meet those needs?

Glenda Pereira: 08:01

So, yeah, those are just some general, rule of thumbs for folks. And then if we’re talking about weight gain, that’s a whole different thing. But in a similar manner, if we wanna you know, everything requires energy and protein, growth, weight gain, lactation. So so just make sure that when you’re forage testing, you’re kind of having a comparison, and we’ll add some resources to the podcast notes so that you can go and look if your forages within the range or not. Was there one last thing you wanna talk about when we’re we’re discussing forages?

Sarah Allen: 08:35

I would just say, especially whenever we’re talking about forages, you’re and and maybe it moves us into the the grain talk a little bit as well. But, like you said, animals don’t necessarily need the specific feed ingredient, but the cheapest way for you to feed your animals for them to grow or make milk is to get them good quality forage. So

Glenda Pereira: 08:57

folks on a smaller scale may not have all of the equipment available to them. They may not have all of the feeding management resources available to them. So let’s talk about that. So some of the things that they can be doing, to potentially, you know, manage better. So one of the things that I think smaller farmers struggle with is being able to feed multiple times a day.

Glenda Pereira: 09:20

You know? On a commercial dairy farm, we tend to see multiple feedings per day.

Sarah Allen: 09:25

Mhmm.

Glenda Pereira: 09:26

But that’s maybe not feasible. But then it can get tricky because if we’re, you know, feeding grain, once or twice a day, and maybe using a top dress versus, like, a mixed ration, the cows can be selective and they’ll pick that out. So do you have any recommendations for how we can do this to better optimize the animal? Right? Because at the end of the day, what we’re doing is trying to make it so the animal can have the best diet.

Sarah Allen: 09:58

One of the tricky parts, especially if you’re only able to feed once a day, particularly if they’re, like, fermented forages, is to really be careful. You can get away with that a little bit more in the winter, but really be careful about that in the summer because if that feed starts to spoil, then it can cause other problems in your animals as well. It can make them sick or they won’t eat as much of it, and then you’re just wasting feed. That one can be a little bit trickier, but especially if you have, like, an h bunk or, more of a trough style where there’s heat that’s being developed even on the bottom. That’s where you see a lot more issues than if it’s able to air out a little bit, I guess, is the is the best way to phrase that.

Sarah Allen: 10:43

Another thing is especially if you’re only able to feed grain maybe when you’re milking the animals or, like, in a separate bucket or, like you said, Glenda, top dress where the maybe first thing in the morning, that’s what the animals are getting is they haven’t had fresh forage in a while, and they just go and eat a whole bunch of grain. Even if you’re feeding a relatively low amount of grain, you can still run the risk of acidosis. And we don’t want, acidosis in our cows, which is when the pH in the rumen is going to drop. That can also cause some health issues. That one’s a harder one to tackle, particularly if you don’t have a mixer or a way to really mix that grain together.

Sarah Allen: 11:27

But one strategy that you can try is, feeding just your forage, making sure that they’re getting fresh forage first thing an hour or so before they get that grain. That way they’ve got rumen mat developed. There’s enough of a forage layer before they get kind of that shock of grain. Another option if you have the ability to is to try and make sure that there is bicarb in the grain. If there’s not bicarb in the grain, then you might be able to purchase just free bicarb that you can put similar to, like, free choice salt out.

Sarah Allen: 12:00

You can put free choice bicarb out. Cows are pretty good about going and getting bicarb when they need it. They don’t feel great whenever their stomach’s upset just like you don’t. And so it’s also a really good indicator if you’ve got it free choice out to know if there’s something else going on. If they suddenly start consuming it a lot more, something’s happened.

Sarah Allen: 12:22

Cows, they don’t tell you, but they’ll show you whenever something is different. You kinda have to listen to them a little bit. And so the last component you already mentioned is the supplementation. So, grains, minerals, vitamins, or maybe even fats because, if our forage is limiting in energy, we might have to feed fat. So, let’s talk about all of the possible supplement needs.

Sarah Allen: 12:55

Yeah. Well, I guess the the general rule of thumb, and it’s a pretty old one, it’s pretty kind of old school, but it’s one pound of grain for every three pounds of milk is what we used to say for supplementing your animals. So as your animals produced more milk, their energy requirements and protein requirements and all of that increased as well, and so you increased individual animal grain consumption accordingly. And so you should be adjusting your feeding program based on how your animals perform. So if your animals are making the quantity of milk that you, you know, are hoping that they make and they’re in the appropriate condition, you know, what we expect to happen, in their condition for their stage and lactation during that time, then they’re probably okay.

Sarah Allen: 13:49

But if your animals are dropping condition, especially in the summer really fast, if they’re just really not making the milk that you need to make, then ultimately, they just they need more nutrients. If they’re not milking or they’re losing weight, it’s because they’re not getting enough food. And so the ways that you can do that is you might have to increase their grain supplementation. Just be cautious, particularly with what we just discussed on feed management. If they’re not if they’re losing weight, a lot of times that’s whenever, like you said, Glenda, you might have to supplement with fat as well, which can be trickier to get a hold of, but it’s probably the easiest way to put to maintain body weight on a cow in early lactation is to make sure that she’s getting a little bit of fat in her diet, and that’s gonna help her have her condition to breed back, and all of those things as well.

Sarah Allen: 14:42

But it’s just another tool. Ultimately, you can never outfeed management as well. That’s one of the big keys whenever it comes to nutrition is it’s one piece of the puzzle. Animal management, feed management can go a long way in your nutrition program.

Glenda Pereira: 15:01

Yeah. And you said something important. Body condition score or weight. Mhmm. We’ve been doing a lot of weigh tapes as part of our calf and heifer project.

Glenda Pereira: 15:11

And the weigh tape, if you have an area where you can safely, like, handle your animals, you can use a weigh tape to kind of estimate what their weight is . To give you a general basis. But then, of course, there are some nice tables online that will tag that indicates what the body condition score what the recommended body condition score is depending on the stage of lactation for your animal. And so for early lactation, we’re looking at three, for peak milk, anywhere from 31 in milk. You know, you can see cows drop off because they are increasing the amount of milk they’re producing, and they can’t get in enough feed.

Glenda Pereira: 15:50

So there is a potential negative energy balance, during their, peak milk. But then once they are pregnant and start going and heading into mid lactation, they should then start gaining back back that weight.

Sarah Allen: 16:03

They should not gain or lose any weight during the dry period. That is the goal.

Glenda Pereira: 16:08

Yeah. As a rule of thumb, one body condition score, equals to a hundred pounds. Mhmm. So so that’s a very rough estimate, but that means that if your cows, you know, started at a three and now they’re at a two, that’s a hundred pounds that they lost. And you kind of need to, you know, keep that in mind with, your your, diet needs, especially during early lactation.

Sarah Allen: 16:34

Yeah.

Glenda Pereira: 16:35

And then like Sarah said, you don’t you want them to maintain all the weight during the dry period, but not gain an excessive amount because then that gets you into metabolic issues into early lactation. So the goal within the dry period, is not to exceed, you know, a 3.5 or a 3.75. Yeah. And, you know, I know some folks may, need to feed, grain or even corn silage during the dry period. Just be careful because they might be getting, higher than a 3.75, and then you’re just gonna run into more issues in the early lactation.

Glenda Pereira: 17:12

So Absolutely. I think we did a good job talking about, supplementation. And now as we kind of round things out, the last thing I wanted to talk about is where do we start? So some folks reach out to me and they’re like, okay. I need to kind of get a rough estimate of what I’m gonna be feeding, a forage of, you know, grain, every day.

Glenda Pereira: 17:35

So so where do I start from there?

Sarah Allen: 17:37

So whenever a farm comes with a nutrition question, the first thing that I have them do is get a forage test and get a forage test that’s going to be, a representative sample of what they’re feeding to the best of their ability. And then I usually start with your lactating cows with that one pound of grain for every three pounds of forage. Grain on a farm can look different. Some farms are able to get just a corn and soybean mixture that they have on their farm that gives them, it’s majority corn, a little bit of soybean typically. That mixture might change based on what your forage test looks like.

Sarah Allen: 18:20

Some farms use a just basic dairy grain from a feed mill. It’s all gonna depend a little bit based on what’s in your area, which is why that one pound of grain to every three pounds of milk is the starting point. And then from that point, we really just have to listen to the cows. You have to kind of trial feed that and see what it does. One important thing to note is if you are trying to change your feeding program, your late lactation cows aren’t going to increase in milk.

Sarah Allen: 18:53

If you’re trying to get more milk, out of your cows by improving your feeding program, it’s gonna have to start with your early lactation cows and your fresh cows. As you improve their milk production in early lactation and ultimately their peak milk, so when they make the most amount of milk in that fifty to seventy day period, you’ll get more milk throughout the rest of their lactation. It gets harder to improve milk production past that point, and the impacts of it are not as prominent. So just keeping that in mind, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t change it now. It just means that you may not see the results until they come back into milk.

Glenda Pereira: 19:30

So you, you then do you use, like, a Pearson Square or, you know, is that a rough estimate of, you know, use your best quality hay and then the the one pound of grain per three pounds of milk? Yeah. I usually,

Sarah Allen: 19:48

start off at the bare at the very basics. I start off with your highest quality forage to go to your animals that need it the most, which would be your lactating cows, particularly your fresh cows and your early lactation cows that are making much more milk than the rest. Later lactation cows may get some poorer quality forage, if we need. Dry cows tend to get some of the poor quality forage, and I like for growing heifers to get somewhere in between that poor quality and a higher quality because they are still growing. You have to be careful with heifers.

Sarah Allen: 20:22

If you feed them too much quality feed and they start gaining weight, it can if they get too heavy, it can impede their milk production for the rest of their life. So you have to be cautious. And then if you want to go further than that, you can look up Pearson Square online and see what your cows need, or you could reach out to myself, Glenda, your, you know, extension specialists. I usually pull out some balancer online and and just put a very basic diet together. It’s not gonna be really fancy, but I can generally tell you how much grain you’re gonna need for your forage.

Glenda Pereira: 21:06

Awesome. Well, I think the last thing I wanna mention is that, the the the one thing that we sometimes forget about is that what we create on paper isn’t always what you feed. So, you know, storage of forage, storage of your grains is also important because if the feed value we tested was when the forage was under this nice canopy you wrapped, etcetera, but then we threw it outside because we ran out of space. That’s gonna obviously decrease what the cows have in front of them. And then if they can’t even access it, that’s another challenge in itself.

Glenda Pereira: 21:42

But remember that on paper, sometimes doesn’t always lead to what we feed in front of the cows. Sarah, was there anything else you wanted to mention? But if not, I’ll ask you to just, remind us what were our takeaways for this episode.

Sarah Allen: 21:56

I think we covered most of it. I think emphasizing storage, at the end there is really important, Glenda. Storing your feet appropriately as well. But I guess if I had three takeaways, it would probably be get a forage test. If you ask for help from anyone, that’s probably gonna be their first thing that the that they tell you to do is to get a forage test.

Sarah Allen: 22:16

So go ahead and, you know, get on that eight ball there. Listen to your cows. A lot of the recommendations are textbook recommendations. And as we know, textbook doesn’t always align with your farm, and things that you mentioned, Glenda, like storage conditions and environment or maybe it was just not a good sample. There’s a lot of things that can impact what how the animals perform, and they don’t always perform according to the textbook.

Sarah Allen: 22:45

So be be, open to changing things if it doesn’t, if you don’t get the response that you’re expecting. You can’t outfeed management. I can make you a really expensive diet, but good feed management and good animal management, is critical and will outpace any expensive diet that you can that you can make. So make sure that you’re managing your animals appropriately and that you are managing your feed appropriately, based on the recommendations that we gave earlier.

Glenda Pereira: 23:19

So with that, thank you so much, and we hope to have you back on the main farm

Sarah Allen: 23:23

Thank you, Glenda. I had a lot of fun.

Colt Knight: 23:27

Howdy, folks. Dr. Knight stopping in here to tell you that you can send your suggestions, comments, questions, or suggested episodes to extension.farmcast@maine.edu.

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