Lactating Cows
The dairy business has been a main area of concentration for us for many years. Prior to starting in business it was clear to us that there were many well proven methods of feeding and management practices that were not being applied to feeding programs on the farm or at least not getting to the mouth of the cow. The challenge for us was to build a feeding program that would provide many of these new concepts with the goal being lower feed costs per liter of milk. In many cases this was achieved by increasing the milk production of the cows by a more detailed feeding program.
This program included balancing diets based on rumen by pass protein and rumen degradable program. Many programs on the market show these numbers in their print outs but they do not adjust feeding rates to take full advantage of these concepts. Another important factor in our programs was our use of NDF both for calculating upper grain levels and predicting forage intake. Again many feeding programs do not take into consideration that when cows eat very high quality forage they eat more of these forages. Many programs have not taken into consideration the increased intake and this means that a large part of the advantage of high quality forages is not taken into consideration. It sounds simple but it is not easy to put into practical applications. This increased dry matter intake is the real reason why cows produce such high levels of milk.
In addition to applying many new concepts in our feeding programs we are continually looking for ingredients that will produce milk efficiently. We use many ingredients that are not used universally in the industry and they are a significant reason why we can reach higher production levels economically.
We balance diets based on the forages used on the farm. All of our testing is done by wet chemistry. We have done many tests confirming the accuracy of some critical tests and found the wet chemistry gave us the most accurate results. Continual testing is critical. It is so important to us that we continue to bear all the cost of forage testing.
Animal health is critical to achieve high performance levels. There are many products and services that we offer to ensure consistent and excellent animal health.
To this day we have many producers producing high levels of milk economically.
Most of the products we sell for commercial dairy farms are made on a customized basis. There is no way we can produce “off the shelf” products that meet current nutrition standards if we do not customize the products to meet the specific characteristics of the forages on a farm. There can be a very large variation in forages from one farm to another. Just changes in moisture level can have a significant impact on the way the cow absorbs the nutrition in the forage. This can change the optimal characteristics of the grain and protein of the supplement or complete feed. Even the way a forage is processed affects the nutrition in a forage again changing the optimal mix of nutrients in the grain and protein.
We offer the following standardized products for milking cows:
Spectrum TMR Top Dress
Cows at peak milk production have limited ability to consume enough feed to reach their genetic potential. In many cases when we balance diets for TMRs we are not feeding the high production cows to their maximum potential. If a one TMR mix was fed at this high a level it would simply be too expensive. Feeding the TMR Top Dress enables producers to maximize production from individual cows at peak. It is fortified with high by pass ingredients and uses dry fat to increase energy intake. A cow will respond to increased protein feeding within a few days if she has the genetic potential. An addition of 100gms of protein or 30gms of by-pass protein will raise production 1kg per day if her diet does not match her potential. One kilogram of TMR Top Dress has the by-pass protein and protein to produce 4kgs of additional milk.
Spectrum offers a wide variety of mineral/ premix options designed for different forages.