Dairy cows are currently being fed incorrectly, at the expense of both the cow and producer, according to controversial new findings.
Speaking at a press briefing at the Dairy Event and Livestock Show, dairy consultant Andrew Holland said a failure to understand how the rumen really worked had meant the UK had got it wrong when it came to dairy cow feeding.
“Does feeding more and more concentrate actually produce more and more milk and where is the research to show adding straw to the diet has any benefit?”
In fact new research carried out by Bioparametrics showed that reducing concentrate levels in the ration and looking at how fibre is used in the rumen could help farmers reduce costs and boost yields.
Mr Holland explained how findings showed that NDF was an inaccurate way of assessing the amount of fibre in the diet and instead looking at Active Fibre levels would give a true picture. As such new Bioparametric software has been developed as the first analysis tool to assess the active fibre levels in a ration.
High fibre concentrates were also shown to actually displace forage NDF, so reducing concentrate levels and feeding the right balance of active fibre would maximise rumen microbial activity and increase yields.
>>Find out more in next week’s livestock section of Farmers weekly magazine.
For more from the Dairy Event and Livestock Show see FWi's dedicated page.
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