{"id":12613,"date":"2014-09-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/feeding-for-production\/"},"modified":"2014-09-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T12:00:00","slug":"feeding-for-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/feeding-for-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeding for production"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Maintenance feed requirements\u00a0are closely related to bodyweight and\u00a0increase as bodyweight increases.<\/p>\n

Maintenance feed requirements\u00a0also increase slightly in cold winter\u00a0conditions \u2013 see\u00a0Graph 1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This ewe (and lambs to weaning)\u00a0consumed about 630kg drymatter (DM)\/year \u2013 about 400kg DM is required for\u00a0maintenance (64%) based on Farmax\u00a0modelling.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Compromises may be required with\u00a0heifer grazing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Dairy heifer grazing is great for\u00a0cashflow, and shows solid gross margins\u00a0of about 22c\/kg DM. However, gross\u00a0marginal analysis does not account\u00a0for the cost quality or timing of feed\u00a0requirements.<\/p>\n

It also does not account for how well\u00a0that enterprise fits into the whole farm\u00a0system.<\/p>\n

Dairy farmers are becoming more\u00a0demanding in their expectations, not\u00a0only of total weight gain, but when it\u00a0is being put on. This will mean there\u00a0are reduced opportunities to use heifer\u00a0growth rates to buffer feed supply and\u00a0competing requirements of other classes\u00a0of stock.<\/p>\n

Specific issues<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Heifer feed requirements do not match\u00a0pasture growth well in most New Zealand\u00a0districts.<\/p>\n

Requirements are high in February,\u00a0March, and April when feed should\u00a0be accumulated for winter, or used to\u00a0increase mating weights of ewe hoggets\u00a0and ewes.<\/p>\n

Feed requirements from winter to\u00a0spring only increase by about 40%, while\u00a0feed supply may lift tenfold.<\/p>\n

Heifers require high-quality feed\u00a0throughout the year \u2013 DairyNZ refers to\u00a0diets of 11 megajoules of metabolisable\u00a0energy.<\/p>\n

At these requirements dairy heifers\u00a0are competing directly with the most\u00a0profitable classes of stock on a drystock\u00a0farm \u2013 finishing animals, replacements\u00a0and lactating ewes, hinds, and cows.<\/p>\n

Dairy heifers often compromise the\u00a0profitability of existing enterprises by\u00a0competing for feed at critical times.<\/p>\n

Rather than putting the best feed\u00a0into grazers should effort be put into\u00a0improving the productivity from existing\u00a0enterprises?<\/p>\n

Whatever enterprise is chosen it\u2019s\u00a0likely more productive and profitable\u00a0farms will result when a greater amount\u00a0of feed, and of higher quality, is grown.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Wayne Allan is a registered consultant for\u00a0Allan Agricultural Consulting, based in\u00a0Christchurch. It is acknowledged that for\u00a0the sake of clarity some of the analysis\u00a0in this article may be overly simplistic.\u00a0However, this is not considered to greatly\u00a0influence the trends and relativities of any\u00a0enterprise.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article is based on a\u00a0presentation at the 2014\u00a0Lincoln Science Day which\u00a0looked at the potential\u00a0compromise heifer grazing\u00a0can have on the production\u00a0of a sheep flock.\nThe focus this time,\u00a0however, is on the benefits of improved\u00a0sheep nutrition at times when the\u00a0animals are productive by using some\u00a0slightly different analysis.\nMaintenance versus production feeding\nMaintenance feed goes into sustaining\u00a0daily body function \u2013 keeping an animal\u00a0alive \u2013 while production feed goes into\u00a0pregnancy, lactation, growth, and wool\u00a0production.\nIn short, feed that goes into\u00a0maintenance keeps the animal alive\u00a0while feed that goes into production\u00a0generates income.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":12614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t