FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS

    

Sub-regional Office
for Central and Eastern Europe (SEUR)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extension Services for Quality Milk Production
Proceedings of an International Workshop in conjunction with the East-West-Forum
of the Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry
and the "Window of German Animal Breeding" at the International Green Week
24-25 January, 1999

Consultation in Feeding and Ration Calculation


M. Hoffmann - Saxonian Milk Recording Organization

Consulting serves the goal to secure and increase the income of the consulted farm.
Feeding extension for dairy farms must achieve this goal by recommending adequate procedures of food deliverance and ration calculation. It counts to optimize milk output per cow, to rise milk quality level, to uphold the health of the cows, to increase length of exploitation as well as to lower the feed cost.
Therefore the feeding counsellor needs knowledge of the farm conditions and the specialities of the farm. Extension to single farms is the primary goal. This does not exclude group consultation or other colloquia.
A necessary condition for an effective and serious consultation is the independence of the counsellor from sales of products. This does not imply that commercial counsellors from commercial firms, who are experts, will not be involved, but the independent feeding counsellor should not be in commercial relation with firms.
The service of the feeding counsellor has to be liable to costs. This is the only way to secure a comparison of the consulting quality. The mode of payment is only secondary here.
Feeding counselling must be placed on a voluntary basis for the agricultural farms.
It is implemented as continuous or operative feed extension service. The operative counselling deals with the depression of milk quantity or irregular milk contents as well as nutritional feeding errors and metabolic disturbances, whereas continuous feeding counselling encloses feeding planning, feed examinations, ration calculations and advice on the feeding system. At the LKV Saxony the operative feeding counselling takes 50 % of the working time of the counsellors.

Main points of feeding counselling in 1998
LKV Saxony
  1. Rising milk yields levels, influence the contents of the milk, lowering the quantity of somatic cells
  2. Feeding measures to adjust milk production to the available milk quota.
  3. Feeding measures to prevent or remove Ketosis, various forms of feeding related disabilities, stomach dislocation and fertility dysfunctions.
  4. Improve feed intake.
  5. Advice on feeding methods.
  6. Assessment of the roughage structure of the feeding ration and respective considerations of the feed mixing wagon and the silage transport technology.
  7. Application of special feed components with regard to feed cost minimization and assessment of value for money of basal and concentrate feed stuff.
  8. Evaluation of offers from the feed industry regarding concentrate mixes and mineral feeds as well as special feed additives; advice for feed purchases (quantity, type).
  9. Optimization of farm-owned feed mixtures as well as advice on the application of farm-grown cereals.
  10. Calculation of feed demand and acreage for farm-grown feed as well as preparation of concepts for fodder production and utilization of pastures.
  11. Questions in connection with the improvement of silage (time of harvest, silage technology, silage additives).
  12. Advice on storage and conservation of forages and on feed hygiene.
The task composition for feeding consultation is dependent on the educational level of farmers and on farm size. Large farms have specialists engaged in animal production and animal nutrition who demand from their feeding consultant highly specialized information. On small farms more generalized information and experiences are available and the demand for feeding consultation is oriented towards information related to the production process.
In any case the quality of the consultant is determined by solid basic knowledge and the availability of most recent scientific information on all areas covered by the extension service. A counsellor requires comprehensive knowledge on animal physiology, on animal nutrition and their application in animal feeding. In connection with the increasing globalization and liberalization of the feed markets the consultant requires ever increasing knowledge about feed stuffs. Feeding consultant of the LKV Saxony have to undergo farming courses organized by the working group "quality extension". In addition, every consultant is expected to accumulate new knowledge and relevant information required for his work.
At this point it should be mentioned, that some "consultants" are still distributing inadequate advice causing damage to farmers and undermining the trust in the extension system.
The task spectrum of the feeding consultant is connected to many other subjects about which he should be informed:
  • farm economics
  • interaction between breeding of high performing animals and the respective demand of feeding systems
  • husbandry and housing systems
  • developments in fodder production techniques and fodder economics, including choices of fodder crops, selection of varieties, fodder storage and conservation
  • environmentally important aspects.
Experiences show that consultation in poultry feeding has developed into a special branch while extension services for cattle, sheep and goats can be combined with feeding extension for pigs.
The experiences of the feed extension service of the LKV Saxony have shown that special feed consultation can be extremely successful when combined as part of a team for quality extension (milk quality). The combination of milk recording, milk quality testing, fodder analyses and feeding consultation has shown to be appropriate and efficient (Table 1).

Chart 1: Communication systems for feed extension of the LKV Saxony

Information feedback to farms from feed labs and calculation of ration/feeding advice is handled through modern communication systems such as FAX, Modem or e-mail. The joint responsibility for milk and feed labs of the LKV Saxony as well as the inclusion of nutrition specialists for assessments of feed analysis and interpretation have shown to be very successful. Milk quality analysis and feed analysis are using the same logistics and milk quality testers are increasingly included in collecting fodder samples and in solving feeding problems. All information from milk quality testing and milk recording are combined on a monthly basis in a feed control report and can be accessed electronically. This allows the feeding consultant to obtain most recent information about performance levels and important physiological indicators of animals and to apply them immediately after a milk recording event. This information is available for individual animals and can be used for other evaluation purposes (e.g. group performance according to lactation periods or other classifications).
Table 1 contains some of the information obtained from reports on feeding management used for improving feeding management.

Table 1: Feeding control on the basis of results from milk recording (extract)

Changes in milk content Diagnostic indication
Fat > 4.9 %
Protein < 2.9 %		 Insufficient energy
Sublinical ketosis
Fat < 4.0 %
Protein > 3.2 %		 Insufficient structure in the whole ration
Urea > 300 mg/l
Protein reduced		 Insufficient structure in the feeding ration and/or oversupply of crude protein and/or insufficient bypass protein
In the third lactation period
Fat > 4.5 %
Protein > 3.8% or protein + 0.5 % compared to second lactation period		 Oversurplus of energy
Protein < 3.2 %
Fat ± 0
Level of urea		 Deficiency in soluble carbohydrates

For further investigation feeding experts can draw additional milk samples in order to:
Determine ketonebodies (Acetate, ß-hydroxy butyric acid) in the milk; in order to verify under-supply with energy, determine supply with zinc, iodine, vitamin A and ß-carotene; determine the nitrate content of milk, and the Soxleth-Henkel-count.

The dairy farms receive the following information:

  • Least cost feeding ration for specific performance groups and different categories of cattle, using results from laboratory tests of farm grown fodder,
  • demands on the composition of concentrate feed and mineral mixtures,
  • quantities and price limits for the purchase of concentrates,
  • extension advice according to particular needs of a farm.
Feeding rations are calculated with a LKV-owned software, which allows consideration of a large number of parameters for obtaining the optimum feeding ration. This software system is combined with a data bank on information about content and prices for concentrate feedstuffs.
Values used for the basic model in calculating feeding rations are:

1. Basic information: Body mass of cows, body conditions score, fat and protein content of milk
2. Total feed in kg/animal and day
3. Content of feedstuffs (based on fodder analysis or data bank for concentrate feed)

  • dry matter,
  • crude protein, useable crude protein, rate of degradation of crude protein in rumen,
  • convertible energy (for the calculation of useable crude protein),
  • net energy for lactation (NEL),
  • starch, rate of degradation of starch, sugar,
  • NDF, ADF, ADL: celluloses, hemicelluloses, lignin,
  • pectin,
  • crude fibre, physiologically active crude fibre,
  • crude fat,
  • P, Ca, Na, Mg,
4. Price/cost of feedstuffs per 100 kg, per 10 MJ NEL, per kg crude protein 5. Milk producing capacity on the basis of NEL, crude protein, useable crude protein, P, Ca, Na, Mg 6. Quantities per animal and day/per 100 kg body mass/per kg dry matter dry matter intake (with consideration of substitution effect)
crude protein, useable crude protein
NEL, starch, sugar, NDF, cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin
P, Ca, Na, Mg 7. Feed cost per animal and day, per 100 kg milk
Summary

This paper has reported on a system of feeding extension independent from commercial companies, which has had considerable success in the milk recording association of Saxony. The most important concept is the combination between milk recording and milk quality testing, fodder investigation and advice on feeding rations. A proportional cost recovery of the extension services and the voluntary participation are also important concepts of our service. Most important determinants for a successful extension for feed improvement are technical knowledge, available information and experiences of the extension offices as well as specific knowledge on conditions of the dairy farms receiving this extension.

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