In this months Newsletter: 

• Mowing – Before or After the herd? 
• Pasture Tests for October
• Loose Lick vs Lick Blocks
• Product of the Month 
• What’s Being Seen in the Field 
• Calves on Maximize
• Making Money with Silo Guard
• Market Update
• Contact Us

What are the benefits and disadvantages of mowing before or after the herd? Taking into account overall pasture quality which includes:

DM – Dry Matter – the percentage of feed that is dry and not water.
NDF – Neutral Detergent Fibre, slows the rate of passage as takes longer to break down.
CP – Crude Protein – the total protein estimated in feed. This contains Rumen Degradable Protein (RDP) and By-Pass Protein.

Pre – Grazing Mowing

Mowing in front of the herd can allow cows to consume more but only if the standing pasture is low in DM. Physically cows will consume the grass faster but that does not necessarily mean there is an increase in total grass consumed. Mowing before grazing blends the higher quality, more palatable feed with the poorer quality, less palatable feed limiting the sorting ability of the cow. This can often reduce the average ME in the diet.

Pre-mowed pasture is wilted, becoming drier. If the grass was at only 12%DM that means the cow has to consume 9kg wet grass to equal 1kgDM. This can send messages to the rumen weight receptors that the animal is feeling full, therefore stops grazing due to extra water content in the rumen. Just because the animal has stopped grazing, does not always indicate that she is fully fed.

Post – Grazing Mowing 

Mowing after the cows allows the herd to pick and consume the more favourable feed which tends to be the higher quality pasture. Mowing after the herd removes all the unfavourable pasture, seed heads etc.. and allows for higher quality grass to grow for next round. This allows for better control of quality going into the cow.

Differences between DBC’s Loose Lick Minerals and Molasses Lick Blocks.

Loose licks are an efficient and easy way to supplement young stock and dry stock their minerals. However, how does the DBC Loose Lick stack up against the Molasses Lick Blocks?

With Lick Blocks, either salt or molasses, intake rates are too slow to provide enough mineral to each cow. They must stand and lick for a long time to meet mineral requirements, this results in either; cows not having enough time at the block to get enough minerals or the farmer putting many more blocks in the paddock – costing in time and money. In addition, consumption is encouraged by sweeteners so satisfaction of mineral requirement is not guaranteed and excess consumption is a possibility.

DBC Loose Lick is a water proof, loose mineral that has no added flavouring which means the animal is only consuming what minerals they are craving. There is minimal harvest cost as in one – two mouth fulls the animal has received their daily requirements!!

Comparing DBC Loose Lick to 150g Dose Rate of the Lick Block, DBC Loose Lick is…

5x greater in Copper
1.7 x greater in Cobalt
4.5x greater in Selenium
4x greater in Zinc & Iodine
There is also 20% more available Phosphorous !

When comparing price – Lick Blocks are costing you 2 -4 x more to receive less than the animals daily mineral requirement!!

For better bang for buck and for superior overall quality of minerals try Dairy Business Centre’s Loose Lick range!!

Product of the Month! 

Spring Loose Lick 

DBC’s Spring Loose Lick is a combination of Salts and Rumen Buffers to aid in balancing the rumens pH preventing/ easing acidosis for stock consuming lush, protein rich pastures.

Lush, protein rich spring pastures can alter the rumens pH resulting in Acidosis. The addition of rumen buffers such as Spring Loose Lick will allow cows to raise their rumen pH back to a comfortable and efficient state.

Provide in troughs for ad lib availability allowing the cow to self medicate.

To learn more about the benefits of Spring Loose Lick and what it can do for your herd contact your local DBC rep!

What’s Being Seen in the Field?

• Mating – How are the cows cycling? Are you meeting target number of cows up each day? Can your mating success be improved? Talk to your DBC rep about nutrition and mineral supplementation management that benefits your in calf rate.
• Monitor pasture quality – Protein will begin to drop and NDF rise. To monitor these changes send  your pasture samples to the DBC lab. To prevent the lack of protein crashing milk production, get in touch for protein supplementation to combat the NDF rise.
• Manure Score – Use your herds manure score to help monitor pasture quality and cow comfort. Score 1-2 and bubbles, the cows diet is rich in protein and may have SARA. Score 4-5, NDF is high in the cows diet.
• Calves – Keep feeding quality nutrition such as calf pellets and minerals to calves post weaning to ensure healthy and consistent growth rates.
• BCS – Cows in peak milk will be struggling to maintain weight. Make sure there is enough energy in the diet to meet their requirements for milk production, reproduction and weight gain.
• Young stock mating – Heifers should be at target weight for mating by now. Ensure they are receiving appropriate mineral supplementation such as loose licks for continued growth and successful reproduction. The best form of mineral supplementation for heifers at grazing are Loose Lick options. This always ensures consistent mineral consumption when compared to mineral injectables and lick blocks.

Canterbury calf rearer, Charlie has had a great season rearing calves.

Using Maximize Calf Pellets “I was able to achieve target weights two weeks earlier… My calves have grown a really strong frame and have developed really good capacity… I don’t feed any muesli or starter feed, just Maximize… I truly believe in the nutrition in the Maximize pellets and have seen first hand the benefits of Maximize in my calves. “

Calves pictured below averaging 120kgs at 9.5-10 weeks of age.

Did you know that using Silo Guard could give you a return on investment?

With Silo Guard the quality of silage and/or baleage is improved by removing the oxygen from the stack/bale faster allowing for better fermentation!

Improved quality leads to maintained ME in the stack/bale. If ME is maintained then cows have the ability to produce an extra 15KgMS per Tonne of feed! Working on rounded figures, that extra production could potentially give you, the farmer, an extra $90/T back in your pocket!

Silo Guard is an oxygen scavenger, eliminating oxygen from bales and stacks allowing for fermentation to occur faster. Silo Guard is simple to apply, easy to handle and can last up to 3 years in storage. There is no need to premix, cool store or worry about handling when using Silo Guard.

Use Silo Guard for efficient, healthier fermentation, better quality silage and increased feed utilisation from your herd.

The DBC arrow traffic light system is a good indication on the direction the market price is moving and when the time is right to buy.

The PKE price is still on the rise with sudden significant price increases occurring overnight. Although PKE crops are plentiful, production is an estimated 20% down due to the ever continuing effects of COVID19 on labour at origin, which makes harvesting and processing slower than usual.

Many farmers who typically use PKE in their systems have not contracted PKE for the latter half of the season. This reducing the overall volume importers are bringing into the country.

The cost of barley has increased compared to previous years, where wheat pricing is remaining fairly consistent due to ample supply.

Protein such as Soya continues to firm as other countries are pulling heavily on supply, alongside a concerning start to Soya plantings into a very dry season in South America. This is likely to continue to put pressure on supply and price.

For key dairy areas we are seeing soil ground water levels dry up far earlier than previous seasons. We are advising to balance your feed budgets and determine the costs between imported products such as PKE compared to home grown silage’s.

If you have not contracted the commodities you require for the latter half of the season, please get in touch with your DBC rep about feed options we can provide to help you through these times.