Increase the NDFD Of Your 2016 Corn Silage Crop with Amaferm
By: Barry Christie, Amaferm Dairy Business Manager
Going into 2016 new crop corn silage can be problematic in a number of ways. Tonnage will be there but NDFD (Neutral Detergent Fiber Digestibility) will be challenged. Higher Tonnage from 2016 warm, wet growing conditions created greater plant size with higher levels of lignin and ether bonds challenging the cow’s ability to break down and utilize the hemicellulose before it passes out of the rumen. The same wet conditions during the growing season lingered into harvest causing a lot of silage to be put up late increasing the dry matter content. Optimal dry matter in corn silage is 35. Each point over that reduces milk potential 100 lbs per ton.
Compounding this is suboptimal starch fermentation. Optimal starch fermentation will not occur until about 6 months of ensiling or on into the spring and summer of 2017. In the meantime cows coming off of the summer of 2016 will require more available energy to restock loss body weight from the summer heat stress. The energy to produce 1 lb of body weight is worth 8 lbs of milk. So energy will not only be limited but it will be diverted from milk production to body condition for 3 months or at least until the cow’s optimal body condition is recovered.
The first strategy in ration balancing is to know what the actual NDF and Starch Digestibility is before a diet can accurately be formulated. With tight 2016 milk prices, we cannot afford to overfeed or underfeed cows. NDFDs in a TMR can range from 30-55 with starch digestion ranging from 88 to 99. Each point of NDFD can be worth from .5 to 1 lb of milk. NDFD variation within a diet can range from 10-14 points. This is worth 5 to 7 lbs of milk. To cover the protein and energy impact of this difference you will need to feed the equivalence of either 1 lb of protein or .5 lb of bypass protein or up to .5 lb of bypass fat increasing the cost of the diet. Feeding higher levels of starch can be problematic by either increasing the chances of acidosis or lowering rumen starch digestion increasing post rumen starch digestion. Either one present’s health challenges to the cow. The cow will also maintain milk and butterfat to offset the lower NDFDs by pulling up to 1 lb of body condition per day until her reserves are depleted then milk and butterfat will be sacrificed. Replenishing that body condition can become costly and time-consuming.
Increasing forage NDFD should always be the first strategy in any successful diet. Increasing NDFD lowers cost per lb of milk produced, especially off-farm cost, and increases energy corrected milk efficiency. The optimal ratio is 1.6 to 1. Forage is the primary feed in the ration with energy pools being fully utilized by the cow going to body condition, butterfat, and milk. Feeding higher quality forages is always the big picture strategy. Cutting and packing properly is a short term strategy. Feeding Amaferm is a day in day out strategy decreasing negative NDFD swings.
Amaferm is a rumen modifier with over 111 published papers supporting its mode of action increasing rumen efficiency improving dry matter digestion by up to 9% and NDFD by up to 17%. This equates to 6-10 points increase in average NDFD with 100-200 grams of more microbial bacteria providing higher levels of perfect amino acid balanced metabolizable protein. Increasing NDFD with Amaferm allows you to lower feed cost while increasing energy corrected feed efficiency.
Want to learn more about Amaferm? Contact a Stutsman Territory Sales Manager for more information!