Forage Sampling Frequency as Influenced by Dairy Herd Size by Pat Hoffman, Randy Shaver, and Paul Dyk Introduction The practice of forage sampling and analysis has long been the foundation for dairy nutrition consulting and ration formulation. As the forage and dairy production industries have evolved, forage sampling/analysis has become integral not only for ration formulation, but […]
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Relative Forage Quality by Dan Undersander, John E. Moore, and Nick Schneider Introduction Relative Feed Value has been widely used for ranking forage for sale, inventorying and allocating forage lots to animal groups according to their quality needs, as well as determining when to harvest. With the introduction of the new approaches to determining animal requirements […]
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Potassium in Forages by Keith Kelling, John Peters, Mike Rankin, and Dan Undersander Introduction The potassium (K) content of harvested forage has become an increasingly important issue in recent years. As most dairy producers already know, a high level of K in forages has been identified as the causative factor for milk fever in […]
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Shrink is a Deceptive Term Brian Holmes, Professor Emeritus, UW-Madison The term shrink is used widely in the feed industry. It frequently is used to refer to the loss of feed during harvest, handling, and storage. Since it refers to the weight before and after a process, the moisture content and moisture content change can […]
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Making Sure Your Kernel Processor Is Doing Its Job by Kevin J. Shinners and Brian J. Holmes Introduction For cows to digest the starch in corn efficiently, the corn kernels in chopped and processed whole-plant corn must be broken into small particles. Three decades ago it was thought that effective starch utilization occurred if […]
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Using In Vitro Total-Tract NDF Digestibility in Forage Evaluation by Dave Combs1 1Department of Dairy Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison Introduction Fiber is an essential component of diets for dairy cattle. In high producing dairy cows, about a quarter of the energy for milk production comes from digested fiber. Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) is a laboratory […]
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A new Focus on Forage fact sheet, Influence of Ensiling on the Digestibility of Whole-Plant Corn Silage, has been posted to the Focus on Forage, Feeding and Testing, and Corn Silage pages.
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