DairyCo

Do you know how much your cows are eating?

Published 11 January 10

DairyCo has found that farmers who know their feed conversion efficiency (FCE) are well placed to get maximum efficiency from their feed, nutritionally and financially. Keeping track of dry matter intake is essential for calculating the FCE figure.

Calculating the FCE is as simple as dividing daily milk yield by daily dry matter in take.  The result shows how well the animal is utilising one kilo of feed, so that farmers can see where improvements can be made.  Data from Keenan [i] illustrates that as feed efficiency increases, costs per litre decrease.

Adam Clay, DairyCo extension officer says: "I believe many farmers can benefit from calculating feed efficiency. Taking one figure here or there may not be of much use, however regularly monitoring feed efficiency throughout lactation can show important trends and quickly flag up any problems before they result in serious underfeeding or poor feed use.

"Improvements can be made anywhere from providing more feeding space, or by providing a better formulated diet, improving digestibility," he concludes.

Farmers can learn more about feeding efficiency by requesting the feeding+ manual from DairyCo publications on 024 76478695.

ENDS

Image: Source: Prof. David Colman; Richard Keenan & Co, Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) publication. Advance & Thrive; Harper Adams; Feb 2007  

Date  11 January 2010

For further information:

N:        Helen Bond

T:        024 76478696

M :       07980 555369

E:        helen.bond@dairyco.org.uk

DairyCo is a division of the statutory levy board, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

DairyCo's current focus is on improving the profitability of dairy farming by focusing on four specific areas:

• Provision of high quality market information to help farmers and their representatives make the most of dairy markets and opportunities.
• Helping dairy farmers increase their profits while meeting regulatory and environmental requirements - through the provision of world class research programmes and practical on-farm tools and services
• Helping promote the positive perception of dairy farming with the general public.
• The development of DairyCo activities towards a self-sustaining model.

DairyCo is funded entirely by milk producers, via a statutory levy on all milk sold off-farm, at the rate of 0.06p per litre.  This provides an annual income of around £6.5m.