COWS :: The Bullvine - The Dairy Information You Want To Know When You Need It

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Archive for COWS

How to Keep Your Dairy Cows Cool and Feed Fresh for Higher ROI

Thursday, June 20th, 2024

Prevent feed spoilage in cows and boost dairy profits. Learn how to combat heat stress and contamination in your herd. Ready to improve your ROI this summer?

Cows, hailing from Ice Age ancestors, thrive best in the cool 40-60°F (4.4-15.6°C) range. In the summer heat, they struggle, mainly when fed unstable, spoiled feed. This situation isn’t just uncomfortable—it’s detrimental to their health and your dairy farm‘s profitability.

Heat stress and spoiled feed can drastically reduce a cow’s intake and production, making summer a tough season for dairy farmers.

Recognizing cows’ natural preference for cooler climates underpins the need to effectively tackle heat stress and feed spoilage. It’s not only about comfort but also about protecting your herd and maximizing your investment returns. The solution begins with proper feed management.

Unseen Threats: The Real Culprits Behind Feed Spoilage

Many people think mold is the main issue with feed spoilage. Still, the real problem is the rapid growth of spoilage microorganisms, especially wild yeasts, in warm and humid conditions. These tiny organisms are nearly invisible but can cause significant nutrient losses before mold even appears. They thrive when temperatures consistently exceed 60°F/15.6°C, exceptionally when moist.

Wild yeasts lie dormant on crops and come alive when exposed to air, such as during silo opening. Under the right conditions, their population can double in about two hours, leading to massive feed contamination. This rapid growth destroys the highly digestible nutrients crucial for cattle health and productivity.

As yeasts consume sugars and lactic acid in silage, they produce heat and increase the pH, allowing mold and bacteria to grow. This accelerates spoilage and causes significant dry matter (DM) losses, reducing feed quality. Aerobic spoilage driven by these microorganisms can lead to DM losses as high as 30% to 50%, drastically impacting the feed’s nutritional value and profitability.

High Yeast Counts: A Silent Saboteur in Your Silage

Hours Exposed	Yeast Count (per gram)
0	100,000
2	200,000
4	400,000
6	800,000
8	1,600,000
10	3,200,000
12	6,400,000
24	400,000,000

High yeast counts can drastically impact aerobic stability, leading to significant nutrient losses. When yeasts proliferate, they consume highly digestible nutrients for your dairy herd‘s health and productivity. Aerobic spoilage can cause dry matter (DM) losses between 30%-50%. Even short-term air exposure can result in up to a 6% DM loss in corn silage within a couple of days (Ranjit and Kung, 2000).

As yeasts increase, they raise the temperature and pH of silage, making it prone to bacterial and mold contamination. This chain reaction reduces feed quality and digestibility, hurting intake and production. For example, high-moisture corn in an aerobic environment saw a rise in yeast levels and a decline in milk yield over 14 days (Kung 2010).

Financially, a 15°F/8.4°C rise in a ton of 30% DM silage can consume over 6.3 MCal of energy, equating to about 20 pounds (or 9 kilograms) of lost milk production per ton of silage. This increases feed costs as you need to replace lost nutrients and DM, affecting profitability.

Understanding and controlling yeast levels are crucial for maximizing cattle health and improving the return on investment in your dairy operations.

When Prevention Fails: Practical Strategies to Counter Feed Spoilage

When prevention is no longer an option, there are still ways to mitigate feed spoilage’s impact. One strategy is dilution: mix small amounts of spoiled silage with fresh feed, but keep it minimal—a mere 5% spoilage can reduce feed digestibility.

Chemical additives are another tool. They inhibit spoilage microorganisms and enhance silage stability. For best results, choose products backed by research.

Minimizing oxygen exposure is crucial. Smaller, frequent feedings reduce air exposure time, limiting spoilage. Ensure your silage is tightly packed and well-covered to keep oxygen out and maintain feed quality.

Setting the Stage for Success: Steps to Prevent Contamination

Producers can take several steps to prevent contamination and set themselves up for success. The most important thing is good silage management.

Harvesting
Start with proper harvesting. Ensure forage is at the right maturity and moisture level. Chop and process it correctly, fill quickly, and pack it tightly (minimum 45 pounds fresh weight per cubic foot or 720 kilograms per cubic meter). Avoid delays, and cover, weigh, and seal the silage immediately to prevent air exposure.
Inoculation
Consider using a high-quality forage inoculant. Research shows these products improve aerobic stability both in the silo and during feeding. Look for an inoculant with specific strains, applied at 400,000 CFU/g for forage or 600,000 CFU/g for high-moisture corn. This can prevent wild yeast growth and enhance stability. Such inoculants ensure fast fermentation, better digestibility, and extended aerobic stability, maintaining silage hygiene. A proven inoculant maximizes forage quality and strength, leading to healthier cattle and a better ROI.
Monitoring
Regular monitoring is crucial for maintaining feed quality and your cows’ health. By catching early signs of spoilage, you can prevent more significant issues and keep productivity high. Use silage temperature probes to detect potential spoilage. These probes help you spot temperature changes that signal aerobic instability. Regular checks at different depths are essential to early detection. Send samples to a lab for a more detailed analysis. This can reveal harmful microbes and spoilage agents not visible to the eye. Combining these methods ensures your cows get the best nutrition.

The Bottom Line

Unseen threats like wild yeasts can silently sabotage your silage, leading to nutrient and dry matter losses. High yeast counts harm feed intake, milk production, and profitability. Practical steps like proper harvesting, effective inoculants, and vigilant monitoring can help mitigate these issues and protect your cattle’s health.

Feed quality doesn’t just maintain health—it impacts your return on investment. The calm, stable feed can enhance cow performance and improve your financial outcomes. Remember, hot cows hate hot feed, and preventing spoilage results in healthier herds and better profits.

Key Takeaways:

Cows prefer cooler temperatures ranging from 40-60°F (4.4 – 15.6°C) due to their lineage tracing back to the Ice Age.
Heat stress in cows is exacerbated by unstable, heated, and spoiled feed, which fosters harmful microbes and compromises intake, performance, and profitability.
Unseen spoilage microorganisms, particularly wild yeasts, proliferate rapidly in warm, humid conditions, causing nutrient losses before mold is even visible.
Aerobic spoilage can lead to dry matter (DM) losses of up to 30%-50%, further diminishing feed quality and impacting ROI.
Effective feed management strategies include dilution, chemical additives, and proper harvesting techniques to minimize oxygen exposure and microbial growth.
Implementing high-quality forage inoculants and regular monitoring of feed temperatures and stability are crucial preventive measures.
Properly managed feed results in healthier cows, improved milk production, and better overall profitability for dairy farms.

Summary: Cows, native to the Ice Age, thrive in cooler climates, but summer heat can lead to instability and spoiled feed, negatively impacting their health and profitability. This makes summer a challenging season for dairy farmers, as they must recognize cows’ natural preference for cooler climates for effective feed management. The main issue with feed spoilage is the rapid growth of spoilage microorganisms, especially wild yeasts, in warm and humid conditions. These microorganisms cause significant nutrient losses before mold appears, leading to massive feed contamination. Aerobic spoilage driven by these microorganisms can lead to DM losses as high as 30% to 50%, significantly impacting the feed’s nutritional value and profitability. Practical strategies to counter feed spoilage include dilution, chemical additives, and minimizing oxygen exposure. Proper harvesting, inoculation, and monitoring are essential steps to prevent contamination and maintain productivity.

Categories : Nutrition

CALIFORNIA, COWS, CASINOS and WATER. Place Your Bets

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Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

The term “desert resort” is synonymous with the City of Las Vegas. The Venetian canals of the Bellagio, as well as the Mirage’s water-and-fire volcano, make conspicuous water consumption in Sin City iconic. Appearances can be deceiving, though. In fact, the Las Vegas Strip accounts for just three percent of local water use, according to the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Fully 70 percent of the city’s water supply goes toward irrigating the 60-plus golf courses and the many residential lawns in the area. The municipal government has, however, taken steps to scale back on the city’s greenery, for example, by cutting the maximum size of a domestic lawn to just a backyard patch. Nevertheless, keeping grass verdant in the middle of the desert is arguably folly in the first place.

Don’t Believe Everything you See and Hear

The sight of golf courses lush and green next to nearby desert… the 460 foot gush of the Bellagio Fountains punctuating every 15 minutes of the desert evenings. If this pushes your “water wastage” button, you may be reacting without all the facts. Yes there is an eight-acre lake supplying the Bellagio’s fountains. Yes all the water is recycled. Furthermore automated irrigation systems, high efficiency dishwashers and linen reuse are saving more water. And whether they were first or were inspired by others, water use per person fell 40 percent between 2002 and 2013, according to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the water agency that serves the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

If It “Stays in Vegas” Does it Dry Up Downriver?

However, the news is far from good. In February of this year it was especially bad for farmers in California’s Central Valley. That’s when they were informed that their request for water had been denied by the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation. The record books will show that 2013 was the driest year on record in California. Reservoirs fell to dangerously low levels. Ten rural towns in the state were identified as having less than 100 days of supply remaining. The impact of this drought must also be seen in the context of the fact that California is the top agricultural producer ($44.7 billion). California accounts for 20 percent of U.S. milk production and dairying is the state’s largest agricultural business ($6.9 billion).

Early in 2014 California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency.

Watch Out! All Bets are Off! They Want Your Water!

There are times when a state of emergency, brings people together to meet the challenge. When it comes to the dwindling life-giving resource of water it’s a whole different game. The old saying is that “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Today, in California, the added nightmare of that road is that it is lined and overseen by consumer advocacy and environmental groups. They are more than ready to point the finger of blame at dairying for being the evil squanderer when it comes to groundwater depletion and contamination.

Surface Water Versus Ground Water

There are two main water sources for water in California: ground water sources and underground water sources. Drinking water – at least more than half of it – comes from underground sources. Growing population consumption means that more of these aquifers will be needed. And once again, changing times have added further problems here.

Although dairy farms use a tremendous amount of water, most of it pumped from the ground and used for drinking, cooling and sanitation. Unfortunately they are now being charged with contamination of the surface water because of the over application of manure and commercial fertilizer in areas such as the Central Valley. This results in high levels of nitrates and other dissolved salts. The end result is that, as surface water allocations are declining or becoming unusable, more and more ground water is needed.

Water quality and water allocation are passing the level of ongoing debate and becoming an all out war.

Whose Side Are You On?

It would seem that both sides have common interests based on the production of healthy food. Neither the producers, nor the human consumers want to see prices rise in response to the water crisis. However, farmers can’t afford to irrigate the crops and thousands of acres will not be put into production. No crops. No milk production. And the impact reaches deeper into the California population as farm workers are out of work and that creates a domino effect among all jobs relating to the industry.

Other states facing dwindling water supplies are responding by charging for consumption. Kansas already requires dairies that pump more than 15 acre-feet of water to put meters on their wells. A 1,000-cow dairy in California consumes 15 acre-feet of water in less than two months. California dairy farmers may soon be paying for more than just the electricity to pump groundwater.

Columbia University’s water scarcity study showed most of California, from San Diego all the way to Santa Barbara, at high risk for water problems. And CIRES’ study showed much of the same areas with high to moderate stress on regional watersheds from the coast and all the way inland. Los Angeles relies on importing much of its water from the Colorado River system which has long provided the American West with water — seven states in all that are home to almost 40 million people. But demands on the river are often cited as unsustainable, due to predicted population increases and climate change.

Your Water Budget is as Crucial as Your Dollar Budget

Dairy cows in California now number over 1.5 million. The majority consume between 20 and 50 gallons of water per day. Crop irrigation, in some cases, could run the total beyond 100 gallons per cow per day. Cows must consume water. Their health and the production of milk require it. Every drop of water that is expended has a rising cost attached to it. Although all water usage is of concern, here are four areas that may help in finding ways to reduce water consumption.

Milking parlors, cooling and sanitation.
Goal: 10 gallons per cow per day conservation when flushing freestall lanes.
Udder prep procedures:
Use hand-operated wash hoses or automatic prep systems (target between 1 and 4 gallons per cow per milking). Water can be reduced to less than ½ gallon per day, when using low water techniques.
Bedding and freestall management
Goal: keep cows well bedded so that they enter the milking parlor clean.
Irrigation:
Keeping grassland productive may not be an option. Deeper wells may be the first step in responding to water needs. Growing more drought-tolerant grasses (than alfalfa) may be the second step. Somewhere in the priority list, some may decide not to plant corn at all. Certainly, irrigation is on the cut backlist.

THE BULLVINE BOTTOM LINE

If you’re reading this and your vantage point includes a pond, river, lake or another large body of water, you may feel that water isn’t on your problem priority list. You may even applaud the casinos and cow operations in California that have started to conserve and solve their problem. However, the simple equation is: No water= Expensive food. If everybody who consumes water doesn’t join the effort, everybody loses. Game over!

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