Supplements Overview
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Choosing the right supplement for your dairy farm requires careful consideration of factors such as energy content, cost, storage, wastage, and feeding logistics. The page provides details on common supplements, including energy levels (MJ ME/kg DM), nitrogen content, wastage, and key considerations for feeding. This information can help you select the appropriate supplement to match the needs of your cows and avoid health issues. Specific guidelines are given for various supplements, like potatoes, meal, molasses, and others, with insights on how to introduce and limit these in the cows' diet.
To choose the right supplement for your farm, you need consider the cost of energy (cents/MJ ME), storage, wastage, and feeding logistics. The supplements should have an energy content (MJ ME/kg) equal to or greater than 10.5 MJ ME/kg DM (dry matter) compared to pasture.
Here are some common supplements with their energy content, wastage, and key considerations:
Potatoes
- Energy: 13.0 MJ ME/kg DM
- Nitrogen content: 1.6% of DM
- Wastage: More than 20% when feeding out
- Considerations: Potatoes can make cows sick if they eat too much at once, so limit their intake to 3kg per day if fed in bins.
Meal
- Energy: Around 12.5 MJ ME/kg DM (depends on ingredients)
- Nitrogen content: Look at the ingredient list for protein content (CP) and multiply by 16%
- Wastage: About 10% or more, depending on how it's processed and fed
- Considerations: Introduce meal slowly and control how much cows eat to avoid making them sick.
Molasses
- Energy: 12 MJ ME/kg DM
- Nitrogen content: 0.6% of DM
- Wastage: About 10-15% when feeding out
- Considerations: Introduce molasses slowly and limit cows to eating 1.0-1.5kg per day to prevent sickness.
In-shed feeding mix of 25% Tapioca and 75% PKE
- Energy: 8.45 MJ ME/kg DM (tapioca 3.2, PKE 8.25)
- Nitrogen content: 1.98% of DM (tapioca 0.3, PKE 1.68)
- Wastage: 10-20% when fed in bins, 30% or more when fed in the paddock
- Considerations: Mixing this supplement well is important to avoid making cows sick. Limit tapioca to 25% of the mix.
Palm kernel
- Energy: 11.0 MJ ME/kg DM
- Nitrogen content: 2.2% of DM
- Wastage: 10-20% when fed in bins, 30% or more when fed in the paddock
- Considerations: Cows may not like the taste of palm kernel, so don't let it be more than 30% of their diet. Watch out for copper levels if they eat a lot.
Silage/baleage
- Energy: 9.0-10.0 MJ ME/kg DM (quality varies)
- Nitrogen content: 2.4-2.7% of DM
- Wastage: More than 20% when feeding out
- Considerations: This supplement isn't good for milking cows unless it has high energy content. It's better for dry cows or when there's no other good feed available.
Maize silage
- Energy: 10.0-11.0 MJ ME/kg DM (average 10.3 ME)
- Nitrogen content: 1.3% of DM
- Wastage: More than 20% when feeding out
- Considerations: Don't let maize silage be more than 30% of cows' diet. If they eat a lot, they need extra calcium, magnesium, and sodium.
Cereal silage
- Energy: 8-11 MJ ME/kg DM
- Nitrogen content: Varies
- Wastage: More than 20% for good quality, 30-40% for poor quality
- Considerations: The quality of this supplement can vary, and it may have high wastage if it's not good. Not all regions.
Hay
- Energy: 8-9 MJ ME/kg DM
- Nitrogen content: 1.1-2.7 % of DM
- Wasteage: 20%+
- Considerations: Suitable feed for dry cows, or if no long-chop feed for milkers (to reduce risk of acidosis).
Straw
- Energy: 6.3-6.7 MJ ME/kg DM
- Nitrogen content: 0.6-1.0% of DM
- Wasteage: 20%+
- Considerations: Not suitable as milking cow feed but can make part of a dry cow ration. Maybe required in diet to meet fibre requirements, esp. if diet high in sugar/starch and little long chop silage, hay or pasture available.
Onions
- Energy: 13 MJ ME/kg DM
- Nitrogen content: 1.9% of DM
- Wasteage: 20%+
- Considerations: Feeding may cause anaemia, cows may also choke and risk of milk taint.
Kiwifruit
- Energy: 12-12.5 MJ ME/kg DM
- Nitrogen content: 1.9% of DM
- Wasteage: 20%+
- Considerations:
- Intake must be increased gradually over 2-3 weeks.
- Up to 3kg DM/dry cow/day (15 kg fruit/cow/day) can be fed to dry stock but this needs to be reduced to 5kg fruit/cow/day if the fruit is ripe.
- If fruit is ripe, or you are getting fruit from a different orchard, reduce feeding levels to the lower end of the scale, and stay there.
- Milking cows have been fed up to 5-6kg DM/cow/day without obvious problems but only where cows have a high intake of pasture (10-12 kg DM/cow/day).
- As kiwifruit is high in soluble sugars there is a high risk of acidosis when fed to excess. There is also a risk of animals choking especially when fruit is hard.
- It is very difficult to exactly control individual cow intakes of kiwifruit in most paddock feeding situations.
- Fruit can be stockpiled in concrete fertilizer and silage bunkers, in 20-40 tonne lots. But ensure that the oldest fruit is always used first (preferably within 4-5 days of arrival on farm).
- To feed out fruit several days ahead of the cows, there must be no risk of breakouts.
- Hard, unripe kiwifruit can cause cows to choke. A vet should be called immediately if you experience any animal health symptoms