Expert calls for nutrition review at LUDF

Lincoln University Dairy Farm is exemplary in its pasture management, but it needs to balance its cows' diet better if it is to take the next step in profitability, says a leading UK livestock nutritionist in the Rural News. "The pasture management was really impressive," says Dr Mike Wilkinson, Nottingham University, who visited the farm recently. "The farm's had very tight grassland management applied for a number of years and it's not been detrimental to pasture density. There was only one paddock with significant poa in it and one with a few docks, which I'm told the cows will graze." Most UK farmers would be in awe at the farm's 4.3 cows/ha stocking rate, 2.5 cows/ha being "a good average" over there, he says. "Typically 60% of the available grass is made into silage with all the associated costs and losses that entails." However, when it comes to cow nutrition, that's where European producers often have an edge, and where LUDF could improve, says Wilkinson. Using a ration formulation programme which draws on dairy research data from Europe, the US and Australia,* he shows that supplementing with 5kg/day of grain (4.3kgDM) would boost production 0.5kgMS/cow/day."That's 116g of milksolids for every kg of grain (dry matter)." Valuing the grain at $500/t and milksolids at $6/kg, that's 70c of milk for 50c of grain. Multiply that across Lincoln's 680-cow herd and that's a $136/day net return.Admittedly, there are capital costs in getting a shed set up to supplement with grain, but such margins multiplied across a large part of a season's production would easily justify the investment, he says. Alternatively, similar results could be achieved with another high starch feed, such as wholecrop grain or maize silage.The other point is that stocking rate could be increased: in his calculation Wilkinson reduced grass intake from 16.6kgDM/cow/day to 14.3kgDM/cow/day to allow for the 4.3kgDM intake of grain.