Finding the next dollar

MADISON, Wis. — During the hustle and bustle of World Dairy Expo in early October, visitors paused for a seminar to learn about goals and tools to maximize income over feed cost.

“When high-producing cows are fed to their potential, the return on income over feed cost is substantially higher than cows that are fed to a lower cost strategy,” said Sarah Stocks, technical services manager at Novus International Inc.

The goal is to be able to maximize IOFC. Stocks said being able to accomplish this increases the chances for success and profitability.

To calculate IOFC, the feed cost is subtracted from the total milk income.

“We are using this as a metric to evaluating profitability with the feeding program,” Stocks said. “We are capturing, hopefully, an accurate picture of the total value rather than just the total cost of your nutrition program.”

To know the feed cost, Stocks said farmers need to know how they are allocating it in their budget.

“When you ask producers what their homegrown feed costs are, it’s not uncommon to get, ‘Well, what did my neighbor tell you?’ (or) ‘What kind of numbers are you hearing in the industry?’” Stocks said.

There can be an opportunity to save money by managing refusals in the feed bunk.

“It’s not an income, but the difference between $500,000 and $50,000 is a pretty big number when we look at the 2,000-cow herd,” Stocks said.

There are many tools farmers can use to help maximize IOFC. These include improving production and feed components, reducing feed costs and improving feed efficiency. These can be accomplished by management changes, forage changes or different feed additives.

“The more we can improve digestibility, the more economic value we have in getting to how we maximize income over feed cost,” Stocks said.

In the rumen, the total mixed ration is primarily converted into propionate, acetate and butyrate. Propionate leaves the rumen and goes to the liver, where it can be converted into glucose, which helps drive milk production. It can also be oxidized as a fuel in the liver, which gives the animal energy. Glucose makes its way to the mammary gland and gets converted into lactose, then, ultimately, milk.

When feeding forages to cows, particle size matters for rumination.

 “If we have a forage that is high in digestible fiber and we chop it smaller, we will actually see that there can be a recovery on milk production,” Stocks said. “We allowed the cow to get in, eat her feed, get back, lay down and do her job.”

 There are also many different additives to help improve feed efficiency. Some that Stocks shared were Rumensin, Monensin, yeast, probiotics and essential oils.

“We make some really big strides when we can increase propionate production in the rumen by using some of these feed additives we have available,” Stocks said.

Doing so can increase energy balance, milk yield and milk quality at the same time.

“If we are using the cow’s energy reserves to help maximize production, we are not doing ourselves any favors when it comes to getting her pregnant down the line,” Stocks said.

There are many different things to measure or take into consideration — production, components, intake, rumen fermentation, timeframe for response, cost to implement, labor, milk price, management and more.

An example of a management change could be creating different feeding groups with cows.

“As we move from a one-group to a two-group to a three-group feeding strategy, each of those income over feed costs increases,” Stocks said.

Going from a high group to a low group, the cows made a higher IOFC than leaving them on the same diet, Stocks said.

Being able to lower some of the higher-expense ingredients and either maintain production or not have a large hit gives farmers an opportunity to maximize IOFC.

Like most things, there are challenges associated with it. Cost to implement, labor costs, inability to split animals into separate groups or being able to manage just one group are some of the challenges that may be faced.

It is important to work with professionals to make sure they are paying attention to the numbers to make these decisions work on each farm, Stocks said.

“If we can optimize dry matter intake and maximize milk production … we can certainly make a difference on our income over feed cost,” Stocks said.