Feed is the single largest expense on the dairy farm, representing from 30 to 44% of total gross receipts based on seven-year financial data from Cornell University Dairy Farm Business Summary.
The year 2022 brought high milk prices, and the checkbook flowed well, like the promised land of milk and honey. But 2023 will be tighter.
Feed costs are often scrutinized to remove extra to improve profit, but cutting feed costs does not guarantee an improved bottom-line profit. Experienced farmers know the long-term effect of cheap does not result in more income.
Return on investment is a proper measure of evaluating cost savings. What is the cost reduction compared to the return? Risk is always involved in business.
Lessons
Lessons from the past often can get forgotten when evaluating decisions. It reminds me of the two hunters who flew deep into the remote backwoods of Canada to hunt elk. They bagged six elk. The pilot told them the plane could only carry four elk out.
“But the plane that carried us out last year was exactly like this one,” the hunters protested. “The horsepower was the same, the weather was the same and we had six elk then.”
Hearing this, the pilot reluctantly agreed to try. They loaded up and took off, but sure enough, there was insufficient power to climb out of the valley with all that weight and they crashed.
As they all stumbled from the wreckage, one hunter asked the other if he knew where they were.
“Well, I’m not sure,” replied the second, “but I think we are about two miles from where we crashed last year.”
Life lessons can be a challenge to learn. As it applies to dairy farming, taking risk is your life. The saying goes, “Most people travel to Las Vegas to gamble, farmers just go to work.”
High oleic soybeans
As a dairy farmer, stay educated and updated on opportunities to improve profit with new feeding technologies. A new development that is being adopted with success by more and more farms in the eastern U.S. and being adopted by Midwest dairies is feeding high oleic soybeans, also called Plenish beans.
Whole soybeans are a valuable source of protein, hulls and oil for dairy cows. The veggie oil in high oleic soybeans is more rumen-friendly than regular soybeans.
The food industry drove the early demand for high oleic soy oil as it supplies more shelf-stable food products and longer fryer oil life.
The feeding of high oleic soybeans to dairy cows has picked up, and in my nutrition consulting across the Midwest and eastern U.S., it has potential benefits. No technology works 100% on every farm but when a technology has the right research behind it along with practical applied feeding experience, the success rate can be increased for a specific farm.
Just like the four R’s of proper planting, the four R’s of applying feed technology are right science, right forages, right feeding system and right management. Run the numbers and evaluate the ROI with a qualified nutritionist.
The science of feeding high oleic roasted ground soybeans comes from research at Penn State and Michigan State land grant university systems where extruded or raw processed Plenish beans improved milk fat percentage.
MSU fed 0, 5, 10 and 15 pounds of ground Plenish beans to cows producing in excess of 100 pounds of 4% milk per cow per day with varying responses but overall higher milk, fat and protein yields. Additional research is ongoing at other locations.
Practical on-farm feeding guidelines would recommend feeding from 3 to 8 pounds per cow per day of roasted ground Plenish beans. The option for extruded Plenish beans is available in some markets, but the oil content is lower and performance and savings will vary.
The farm feed savings will vary by farm depending upon the current TMR ration nutrient specs. Feed savings have ranged from $1,500 (-$0.10/hd/d) to $16,500 (-$1.10/hd/d) per month based on a 500-cow dairy. Proper roasting is very important to obtain the full benefit as over- or under-roasting results in less performance. Dairy herds that are feeding high oleic soybeans have seen improvements in butterfat and milk protein.
For more information on growing and feeding high oleic soybeans for your herd, contact your experienced and certified agronomist and nutritionist. Good science and solid experience are needed to properly make decisions on using feeding technologies. Don’t crash your herd like those elk hunters of Canada.
When the science makes sense and the practical experience shows positive results, the risk is lower and ROI better. Thank you to Kevin Putnam and Derrick Bender from Pioneer for research data summary and Paul Hann from Pennsylvania for farm feeding information.
Summary
As a dairy farmer, evaluate the economic return of growing and feeding high oleic soybeans for your dairy herd using solid science and experience from qualified consultants.
As consumers, let’s applaud our dairy farmers for the quality care they give 24/7/365 to their cows. These farmers provide all of us with quality milk, ice cream, cheese and yogurt for year around nutritious enjoyment. Cheers to our dairy farmers for their dedicated work.
