Beat the Heat in Three Steps
As temperatures rise, cows will show they feel the heat – intakes decrease, meal patterns change, and metabolism and energy requirements are significantly altered. In order to help combat this, there are nutritional strategies we can consider to help offset heat stress and help maintain productivity.
Best Practices for an Excellent Haylage Harvest
Now that spring is here, I am holding pre-harvest meetings with my clients, and these meetings involve an assessment of the previous year’s harvest and quality, identifying areas of success and strategies for improvement. Additionally, we will go through the GPS FeedFIT 9-step process for harvesting high-quality haylage. While I will not discuss all 9 steps here, I would like to highlight my top 4 steps, which are: when to harvest, dry matter (DM), relative feed quality (RFQ) as well as filling and packing. Let’s dive into those steps…
Navigating Fatherhood: How Parenting Parallels Feeder Training
My first months as a father have been life changing. Welcoming our daughter brought immense joy, but the weeks that followed (with her in the NICU) challenged us to navigate her care and development. Reflecting on this experience, I realized many lessons I’ve learned in fatherhood also apply to how we train feeders. Both center around precision, patience and collaboration, emphasizing the importance of building a solid foundation for success…
Four Reasons Every Farm Needs a Truck Scale
There is no need to emphasize the importance of managing feed costs in a dairy business. Between managing yields from cropping enterprises, purchasing feed, calibrating mixer scales and managing inventory, read more about the ROI of a truck scale on your dairy.
When Feeding Cows, Are You a Shotgun or a Rifle?
When it comes to hunting, using the right tool for the job is very important. In some regions of dense vegetation and close-range, a shotgun without a scope can be practical, but imprecise and less effective. For more precision, a rifle with a scope may work better. Being a better hunter depends on patience and practice, just like dairy farming. So, what does this have to do with feeding cows? When it comes to nutrients in the diet, be a scoped rifle, not a shotgun.