Managing Nutritional Variability of Feed Ingredients in Dairy Cattle Diets

摘要

Increasingly feed price volatility and uncertainty along with decreasing milk prices are narrowing the profits margins of dairy farms (Bewley et al., 2015). For example, the narrow profits margins have lowered the number of small scale dairy farms by8,000 farms in Wisconsin and by 10% in Minnesota (Endres, 2019). In 2018 the average production cost on farms with less than 50 cows per farm was $21.81 while on farms with more than 500 cows it was $17.21 (FINBIN, 2019). Out of this total production cost, feed costs account for the majority (40 to 60%) of expenses on farms of all sizes and is followed by labor costs (FINBIN, 2019). The higher profitability on large-scale dairy farms is largely a result of higher production efficiency, higher capacity to purchase inputs at discounted price, and more efficient use of human labor (Endres, 2019). However, in a study that included 67 dairy farms from Minnesota (average size 633 cows, range of 176 to 2,063 cows), Endres (2019) found small-scale farms that had lower feed costs had similar milk yields to large-scale farms and higher profitability. Thus, reducing feed costs through improved feed management is one key strategy to increase profit margins on dairy farms.