South-west Victoria farmers have been told that healthy cows that avoid heat stress and inflammatory diseases and are given nutritious feed and clean water will produce the most profitable results.
WestVic Dairy hosted three interactive workshops on dairy farms across south-west Victoria during February to give farmers options to improve their feedbase and nutrition strategies.
The sessions highlighted the importance of selecting the best quality seeds for your region, managing body condition and inputs and the value of forage quality and digestibility.
During the sessions, Pip Gale from FeedWorks provided an overview of the Advanced Nutrition in Action Program (ANIA), which will run in the WestVic Dairy region in 2023.
Dairy Australia’s Forage Value Index lead Ruairi McDonnell discussed recent developments in the FVI and the important role it can play in helping farmers to select the best pasture seed to meet their feed requirements.
Local farmers also opened their businesses for on-farm visits during the sessions at Pirron Yallock, Portland and Simpson.
Mr Gale said farmers can’t separate nutrition and performance and that common threads exist in all profitable feeding systems.
“Forage quality and digestibility are very important factors in optimising dry matter intake,” he said.
Mr Gale emphasised the importance of having healthy cows to maximise nutrient partitioning and revenue and the need for technical efficiency and effective cost controls across all farm systems.
“Cows are the champions of our businesses,” he said.
“The nutrients we provide can switch on the genes to make cows more profitable.
“Producing more blood glucose and getting it to the mammary glands will drive more milk and we need to provide a diet that makes that happen.”
Multiple studies have shown that managing cows’ heat stress leads to increased milk production, as does avoiding illnesses such as mastitis and lameness.
“Avoiding inflammation will avoid immune cells sucking up blood glucose. The first rule is to optimise intake, and illnesses will mean less milk and therefore less profit,” Mr Gale said.
Ensuring cows are not dehydrated is critical to good milk production.
“The first and most important nutrient for any living creature is water,” Mr Gale said.
“Milk is 87 per cent water so what they drink is critical and the hygiene of troughs and quality of water is very important.”
He said cows could consume 40 per cent of their daily free water intake after milking, meaning coffin troughs at the end of the dairy can be very beneficial.
“If you impinge on their ability to drink good water, you impinge on their milk production.”
Mr Gale also highlighted the importance of grazing at the 2.5 to three-leaf stage, the value of investing in the growth of replacement heifers and seeing it as a profit factor rather than a cost, and the need to carefully manage the mix and composition of TMR mixer wagons.
Mr McDonnell described a high-quality fibre diet as essential for good production and he urged farmers to consult the FVI for an independent review of seed performance so they can benefit from long-term genetic gain for yields.
The FVI was introduced in 2017 with just six trial sites but it has grown massively over recent years and now offers significant amounts of data from across all dairying regions.
The FVI will be further improved with the upcoming addition of forage quality and persistence traits.
Seasonal yield tables were presented during the workshops, showing which perennial rye-grasses perform best in autumn, winter, early spring, late spring and summer.
Base AR37 had the top FVI for south-west Victoria, with a substantial lead over other perennial rye-grasses.
“They all do well in spring so it is important to look at those that do well at other times of the year,” Mr McDonnell said.
He also urged farmers not to opt for the cheapest seed option.
“Cheap seed can be fool’s gold,” he said.
“You need to consider the forage quality and milk yield potential. It is difficult to make high-quality forage out of standard endophyte Victorian rye-grass (Vic-rye).
“Sadly, there is still a lot of poor quality seed being bought and that’s why the FVI is important to help people to capitalise on the genetic gains being made.”
The index also details novel endophytes that have helped to reduce insect damage, and other species are also evaluated.
Mr McDonnell said farmers should be aware of the facts and think more carefully before buying their seed and he urged them to discuss the FVI with their seed sellers.