When Feeding Cows, Are You a Shotgun or a Rifle?

Profile Picture of Post's Author Andre Pereira | Posted June 4, 2024

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. Overfeeding nutrients might match the cow’s requirements for her milk potential but will do so using much more than what she needs, and, consequently, spending much more money. A few years ago, the best practice was to feed expensive diets at or above 18% protein to make sure cows could produce enough milk and not be deficient. But recent research has shown that overfeeding protein can be detrimental not only to your pocket, but in other ways too, such as low reproductive performance due to a toxic high nitrogen environment for the early embryos.  Feeding fat used to also be another shotgun approach. Years ago, feeding liquid fat or tallow was a strategy to give cows more energy and a nice shining coat. Cows were shiny, but feeding low-quality fats with unknown origin could cause milk fat depression and lower fiber digestibility in the rumen. Remember when 3.5% milk fat used to be good? Those times are gone.

But what about the scoped rifle?

Can we be more precise when feeding cows? One approach is to feed lower protein diets supplemented with the correct levels of amino acids. These amino acids can come either from feeds such as blood meal, heat treated soybeans or other treated protein feeds, or from synthetic sources of purified amino acids that can bypass the rumen bacteria, being precisely released in the intestine, where it is absorbed. There is research showing that it’s even more important to match the right amount of energy and amino acid for better efficiency. For example, recommendations for methionine can range from feeding a ratio of 1.05 to 1.14 grams for each megacalorie the cow consumes. And by matching that ratio, there is a potential to decrease total protein in diets.  Feeding lower protein results in less wasted nitrogen in the body, and a lower potential to harm embryos with that toxic environment. It is also more cost efficient, as bringing a diet from 18% protein to 16% with treated or synthetic amino acids usually has little or no cost difference. Milk protein is not paying much lately, so instead of buying your milk protein with excess in the diet, be more precise with amino acids.

When feeding fat in diets, the same approach applies. The old idea of feeding some liquid fat, tallow, or grease, has now switched to the much more precise feeding of specific levels of palm, stearic, and rumen protected oleic fats, which have less impact on fiber digestibility, minimal effects on milk fat depression, and may even improve reproductive performance. In the current milk economy, where 1 lb of milk fat is worth more than $3.00, feeding the correct sources and levels of fat can be an impactful decision. Some research has shown that a ratio of 60 to 30 in palmitic to oleic fat can increase milk production and absorption of nutrients in the intestine. Stearic acid is a great source of energy for cows but could be detrimental to fiber digestibility in high amounts.

So, when it comes to feeding cows, be precise like a scoped rifle. Avoid wasting money, overfeeding nutrients and be mindful when working towards your profitability and animal health goals.

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