At Phoenix Feeds & Nutrition, our team of dairy nutritionists partner with farmers every day to help their herds thrive and farms succeed. We recently spoke to Dave Burnham, one of our experienced nutritionists, to talk about his career, the latest trends in dairy nutrition, and practical tips for farmers to improve herd health, productivity, and profitability.
Q: When did you know you wanted to be a dairy nutritionist?
A: I’ve always had an interest in making good things better. During my undergrad, I was on a pre-vet track and realized veterinarians often focus on making sick animals better. I was more interested in helping healthier animals become more productive. That, and organic chemistry was really tough!
Dairy Nutrition Insights & Trends to Watch
Q: What trends should farmers be paying attention to?
A: The use of activity monitors that measure individual cow behaviors has become a very popular tool for farms. There is a lot of information to interpret from the collection of this data. Beyond identifying cows ready to breed or those that are sick, this data helps to interpret the cow’s daily routine and how the cow’s environment is influencing her productivity. This data helps me to suggest more productive daily routines and drive nutritional decisions as well.
Q: Are there seasonal feeding strategies you recommend?
A: The end of the summer is a good time to take a deeper look at the herd’s body condition and foot health. This summer especially, has been hot and stressful for the cows. Each heat wave offered a period of time that the cow could have eaten less and utilized more body fat to maintain production. A cow’s defense against heat stress takes huge amounts of glucose to keep her healthy. This occurs during a time when she often reduces her intake by more than 10%. The resulting energy deficit is covered by stores of body fat. A ruminally safe and effective way to help her regain body condition is through the use of bypass fats.
Another outcome of heat stress can be an increase in lameness from slug feeding and longer standing times to dissipate heat. Reviewing herd locomotion scoring and visiting with your hoof trimmer can provide clues to the level of lameness. Nutritionally, we can help address this late summer and fall with additives such as biotin and zinc chelates.
Q: What’s an example of new technology or nutrition practice on the horizon that you think could make a big difference on farms?
A: Improvements in understanding the influence different fats can have on performance have helped to gain butterfat, health, and reproduction on herds. There is still more to understand and improve when it comes to fatty acid nutrition. I think we will be targeting different fatty acids at different stages of lactation in the near future, more so than we do now.
Q: How are advances in nutrition technology changing the way you approach ration formulation and herd health?
A: The great thing about bovine nutrition in the last decade or so, is the industry is building on research that has helped us to gain an understanding of the rumen and how to target a result better. I now feel that I have a better hold of how to steer results with ingredients and nutritional practices, than I did many years ago. I also see genetic potential being more readily exposed with good nutrition, it’s a great synergic effect.
Practical Problem-Solving
Q: What’s a recent challenge you’ve helped a farm overcome through nutrition adjustments?
A: I’ve seen a very nice response recently on a herd by feeding bypass methionine. As a nutritionist, it is always nice to see the result of a change in the bulk tank. We were considering ways to make improvements to milk components, and this ration happened to be rather deficient in methionine. After adding the product, within 3 days, we were seeing a .20% increase in butterfat and have seen a steady increase in milk protein percent as well.
Q: What’s one tip for improving feed efficiency and controlling costs?
A: A simple way to ensure both of those goals can be met is to take forage dry matters often. Incorrect forage dry matters are both directly related to feed efficiency and cost. Not feeding forage at the precise ration dry matter will reduce FE and can increase cost by over feeding grain.
I would also add that measuring feed refusals is a great tool to manage and help improve FE and costs. Too high of refusals can add a great deal of added cost to the farm. Too low of refusals will reduce potential optimal performance.
Q: What excites you most about the future of dairy nutrition?
A: Research and genetics are driving milk component changes faster than ever. The last five years have brought major shifts, and the next five could bring even more.
Q: What advice would you give dairy producers?
A: Become the best communicator you can. It will take time and effort but becoming a highly effective communicator will ease many daily stressors of leading and guiding employees. By empowering their employees, the potential for greater results becomes more attainable.
At Phoenix, we’re proud to have nutritionists like Dave on our team who combine science, technology, and practical know-how to help farmers succeed.
Ready to develop a custom solution for your operation? Contact us today for a consultation.