Front End Solutions to Back End Problems

Photo by Dan McFarland

Precision feeding of dairy cows is a great way to address water quality concerns in local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay.  So what is precision feeding?  It is feeding dairy cows to most precisely meet their nutrient requirements based on their level of production.  Because precision feeding depends on the level of milk production it is a very farm specific practice that can be difficult to identify without evaluating more than just the nitrogen and phosphorus content of the ration.  

However, the ration is the first place to start when implementing precision feeding and we will start there with more specifically defining precision feeding.  Phosphorus is a required nutrient for the cow, but it can be supplied in the ration at levels greater than what she needs.  Any excess phosphorus is excreted in the manure and provides no benefit to the cow.  In general, a phosphorus level of 0.37% of the ration is enough to meet the needs of most animals. Supplementation of phosphorus in dairy rations is rarely needed and is a quick ration adjustment to make.  Many farms are doing better at feeding a lower phosphorus diet, but byproducts (brewer’s grains, distiller’s grains, etc.) tend to be a cheaper feed alternative to more traditional feedstuffs, but they are also high in phosphorus.  Therefore, incorporating byproducts into a ration can lead to higher phosphorus diets than would be recommended.

Nitrogen is the other nutrient we are most concerned with and, like phosphorus, excess nitrogen above what the cow needs for her level of milk production will be excreted in the urine.  However, unlike phosphorus, nitrogen cannot simply be reduced in the ration without potential negative impacts.  The amount of energy in the ration along with a number of other factors greatly impacts how efficiently nitrogen is utilized by the cow and how much needs to be included in the ration.  If other aspects of the ration are not balanced correctly or there is a problem with how feed is managed on the farm reducing the protein content of the ration could potentially lead to a loss of milk production.

When done correctly precision feeding will not only benefit local water ways, but will also increase the profitability of the dairy farm by reducing feed costs, but if implementing improperly it can lead to a loss of milk production.  Therefore, implementation of precision feeding requires that the nutritionists and the farmer be educated on this practice before it should be implemented on the farm. 

Penn State University along with other organizations have, and continue to, provide education to farmers and nutrition consults on how to best implement precision feeding on a farm.

Here is a link to the Penn State Extension website with more information on feeding dairy cattle. http://www.das.psu.edu/research-extension/dairy/nutrition

Water Education Resources are Easy to Find

It is not hard to find information on almost any topic on the web, but sorting through what is reliable information is another story.  The Penn State Extension Water Resources team makes finding water education materials a lot easier.  The group focuses on four main program areas: Safe Drinking Water, Pond and Lake Management, Discovery Watersheds, and Marcellus Shale Water Issues.  All four of these programs have areas that impact agriculture as well as the general population.

Safe Drinking Water program educates private well owners on best management practices to protect and improve drinking water supplies.  On many farms, especially small dairies, the cows are drinking water from the same well as the people.  Although human health concerns are always the priority, animals can also get sick from poor quality water and the level of production can also be decreased when water quality is poor.  Animals on the farm can also contribute to the contamination of the well in the first place if the well is not considered in relation to animal management.

Pond and Lake Management program educates pond and lake owners on how to properly maintain their pond or lake for the desired purpose.  Many farms have ponds and animals may have access to this water resource.  Therefore the water in the pond needs to be safe for the animals to consume if they do have access, but it is also important to make sure the animals do not contribute to contamination of the pond.  In most cases it is best to keep animals away from ponds as it will reduce the water quality of the pond.

Discovery Watersheds program is a new program focused on disseminating lessons learned on improving water quality in local watersheds to other watersheds across the state.  There are many small watersheds that have made significant improvements in water quality through community involvement and implementation of best management practices so getting the word out on how these watersheds were successful is very important in light of the large number of impaired watersheds.  As agriculture is generally are large portion of many watersheds disseminating how the agriculture community was involved in the improvement of the local water can be beneficial to all.

Marcellus Shale Water Issues program is another relatively new program created by the advancement of technology that allowed for gas well drilling in areas that were previous inaccessible.  This new process of extracting the gas requires a lot of water that may be reducing water availability for other sources.  Also, this new gas boom is happening in an area of Pennsylvania where there is a lot of farming and there are huge water quality and financial implications to farmers.  Cattle coming in contact with contaminated water has already occurred, but the financial benefits to many farmers are hard to turn down and have allowed some to continue farming.  

The Penn State Extension Water Resources web page is a great source of in-depth information on these topics and other related topics. 

Environmentally Friendly Milk, Would You Pay for It?

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/clip/milk.html

Some consumers are willing to pay extra for organic milk to support the method of production of that particular product even though the actual product is not different from conventionally produced milk.  Would consumers be willing to make that same choice for milk that has an “Environmentally Friendly” label?  That is a question that is being tossed around these days as a way to make improving local water quality and the Chesapeake Bay more financial feasible.

The quality of the water in local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay is gaining a great deal of attention lately after President Obama issued an Executive Order in May 2009 designating the Chesapeake Bay as a national treasure that needs to be preserved.  Also, the requirement for a TMDL (total maximum daily load), or a pollution diet for the Chesapeake Bay watershed, have put everyone and every practice within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed under a microscope.  Agriculture is especially feeling the heat.  Even though agriculture has made more progress in reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment going to the Chesapeake Bay than any other segment, they are still the largest contributors of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment to the bay overall.  

Although everyone agrees that they want clean waterways, the economic crisis is making achieving those goals even more difficult.  The economy has hit everyone, but dairy farmers were especially hit hard with low milk prices and high feed costs in 2009.  Although the milk price paid to farmers has increased in recent months it is not enough to make up for the huge losses that occurred last year and it will take many years for the dairy industry to recover.  Therefore, convincing farmers to spend money they don’ t have on a management practice that may be good for water quality but will not increase milk production or bring in extra income is a very hard sell.  In other businesses, when increased regulation requires capital investment the cost of that investment is passed on to the consumer of that product, but farmers do not have that luxury.  Farmers are paid based on the amount of milk they produce and the pounds of fat and protein in the milk, not the method of production (except for organic).  However, what if a new brand of milk were produced similar to how organic milk is marketed where consumers would pay a premium for milk produced on farms that met curtain environmental and nutrient management requirements and the premium paid by consumers would be passed onto the farmers that made the capital investment to improve the environment.

In order to truly improve local water quality and the Chesapeake Bay everyone in the watershed will have to do their part, and it is not fair to expect one segment of the community to carry so much of the burden.  Many farmers have a desire to reduce what environmental impact they may be having, and many have taken those steps on their own and invested their own money with no hope of seeing any financial payback for their investment.  However, there are others that just don’t have the money to spare and this type of program might take a best management practice from too expensive to doable.   Of course developing a new label and monitoring that the farms that sell their milk under that label are doing what they are supposed to do is not a simple task, but improving water quality in the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed will take every idea there is.

What is in Manure?

Manure can be both a blessing and a curse on many farms.  It is a great fertilizer for the crops, but it also has to be managed diligently from when it comes out of the cow to when it is spread on the field to ensure that it is all ending up where it should.  From collections systems to storage and spreading there are many things to consider about manure management, but one benefit to manure is often overlooked.  It is a great indicator of the health of your cows and how well they are utilizing the diet that is being fed to them.

There is a great deal of effort put into creating a well balanced ration and presenting it to the cow, but after that the cow and her rumen microbes are in control and do we really know what is happening in there?  Yes, we know a great deal about how feeds are digested and utilized, but every farm and every cow are different.  Therefore, the only way to determine how cows on your farm are utilizing your diet is to look at the manure.  Many producers look for loose manure as an indicator that there might be too much protein in the ration or too many concentrates in general.  Some even look at whether there are corn kernels in the manure.  Identifiable corn in the manure is a good sign that not all the corn in the ration is being utilized for milk production.  

However, not many look beyond the looseness of the manure or whether there is corn in it.  There is more that can be learned from the manure and it requires that a manure sample be taken and sent to a lab for analysis.  Manure analysis do not need to be done as often as forage analysis, but looking at it once or twice a year might yield some surprising information.  From an environmental perspective looking at the phosphorus content of the manure will give you a good idea as to whether the diet is providing the right amount of phosphorus to the cow.  Manure phosphorus levels should be between 0.55% and 0.7% in a diet that is meeting the phosphorus requirements of the cow without providing too much.  Manure can also be analyzed for neutral detergent fiber to determine how well the fiber portion of the ration is being utilized.  Starch is also a great thing to measure because it will quantify how much of the starch from the corn in the manure is being excreted.  

In order for manure analysis results to be useful they first need to be taken properly.  The general rule is that 15% of a specific group or up to 20 cows should be sampled.  The sample should be of fresh manure, which means palpating cows or obtaining samples from piles that have recently hit the floor and are not contaminated with feed or bedding.  As with any sampling, it is important that the sample is representative of the entire group.  Samples from all the cows in a group are mixed together and sub-sampled.   The sub-sample is placed in a well sealed container and shipped overnight to a lab that performs manure analysis, or should be frozen if not mailed immediately.  This analysis can take two to three weeks to perform.  The results need to be interpreted relative to the ration that specific group was eating at the time of the sampling.

Having done many manure analysis I understand that it is not something that folks are eager to do, but it is another tool that can be utilized on the farm to help ensure that the ration is being utilized as efficiently as possible.