Using grass to improve dairy feeding – Audio
Using grass to improve dairy feeding
Dan Undersander, Extension Forage Agronomist
Department of Agronomy
UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
djunders@facstaff.wisc.edu
Phone (608) 263-5070, (608) 262-1390
For more information: www.uwex.edu/ces/forage select “Grasses”
3:00 – Total Time
0:13 – Dairy rations too hot for cows
1:00 – How to add grass fiber
1:40 – Positive economics for the dairy
2:23 – The transition to grass
2:51 – Lead out
Transcript
Sevie Kenyon: Dan you’ve been looking at using grass in these dairy rations, what are you learning?
Dan Undersander: We’ve been feeding primarily alfalfa and corn silage and then, of course, concentrate. The thing that we are seeing though is, is that we’re feeding more corn silage; this becomes a very rich ration. And in fact a survey indicated that twenty, twenty-five percent of the herds in the Midwest have some degree of lameness. Forty-tow percent of that’s attributed to nutrition, and the thought being that the rations are too high and non fibrous carbohydrate, which is the starch and the sugars, and therefore we should add a little bit more fiber back into the diet.
Sevie Kenyon: And how does a dairy farmer get to go about adding that grass and fiber back to a ration like this?
Dan Undersander: Well our recommendation is for those that are having issues with too much non-fibrous carbohydrate, and want to lower it, that they would plant a mixture of alfalfa and grass. We’d recommend either orchard grass or tall fescue because they yield more consistently throughout the season than timothy or brome grass. But we also want a late maturing variety, so we probably need to buy the premium seed rather than the cheapest seed, and we want a rust resistant variety, so we’ll get good yield out of each of those species.
Sevie Kenyon: How does this affect the economics on the farm?
Dan Undersander: That small amount of lameness, not only effects animal welfare, but does effect the milk production of those animals. We would recommend approximately six pounds of seed per acre along with ten to twelve pounds of alfalfa per acre. We would also recommend a cover crop to increase seeing your yield. WE generally have used oats for this, and then that can be harvested as oatlage or we could use two pounds of Italian rye grass, which can be mixed with the orchard grass or tall fescue, and then seeded.
Sevie Kenyon: Dan, how hard is it going to be to make this transition?
Dan Undersander: Our theory of having a mixture of the alfalfan grass is that a farmer could feed just as before, where he has one bunk or a tube of the alfalfa, now alfalfa grass, he has one of corn silage, and then he has his concentrate storage, so the mixing process and the feeding process is exactly the same, we just need to pay attention to the different parameters as the nutritionist is balancing the ration.
Sevie Kenyon: We’ve been visiting with Dan Undersander, Department of Agronomy, University of Wisconsin Extension and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Madison, Wisconsin, and I am Sevie Kenyon.