The 2015 Dairy Symposium was held in Port Perry, Drayton and Woodstock this past January. In total, 320 dairy producers came out

to hear about the latest information on successful calf and transition cow programs. Here are highlights from our dynamic speaker lineup.

Dr. Katy Proudfoot, a research scientist and professor at the Ohio State University, brought new light to the age old topic of transition cow management. Her research, which she conducted during her time at the University of British Columbia, focused on behavioural indicators of sickness during this critical time period.

Despite the large diversity in dry cow housing facilities and management strategies, Katy outlined a few points that contribute to successful transition cow programs. 1) Monitor cow behaviour to identify cows at risk of becoming ill or lame. This includes time spent standing and eating. We need to maximize resource availability, including stall and feed access, to optimize feeding and lying time of dairy cows.

VOL 17 ISSUE 1 | SPRING 2015

A P E R I O D I C N E W S L E T T E R P R O D U C E D B Y G R A N D V A L L E Y F O R T I F I E R S L T D .

GRAND VALLEY FORTIFIERS LTD.PO Box 726 Cambridge ON N1R 5W6 1-800-567-4400 www.grandvalley.com

Ian Ross, President | Jim Ross, ChairmanClarke Walker, VP & COO Mark Bowman/Jeff Keunen, Ruminant NutritionistDavid Ross/Patti Bobier, Publishers

Dairy GristJim Ross, Chairman

Dear Friends,

Truly it has been a very long and cold winter, however over the last few days we are beginning to believe that spring will soon be with us. Tractors will till the soil, fertilizers will be spread and seeds will be sown and all will look forward with enthusiastic confidence that our fields will bring forth another year of bountiful harvest. This is all part of the life of a true farmer! And what happens if we are disappointed and the crop is considerably less than we had hoped; the weather was too dry, too wet, too hot or too cold? To the true farmers there is always next year! That is the indomitable spirit of a farmer – He is the ultimate example of a true optimist.

The months of January and February were busy ones for dairy producers as two major events took place. First of all our Grand Valley Fortifiers Dairy Symposium which was presented in Drayton, Port Perry and Woodstock. Then came the third annual Canadian Dairy Xpo which was held in Stratford on February 4th and 5th where over 15,000 people attended. This dairy showcase is drawing dairy industry people not only from Ontario but from across Canada and the Northern States.

We believe you will enjoy all the contents of this spring issue of the Dairy Grist where we report on these two special events. There are some important management tips and techniques throughout these Grist articles which we trust will be helpful and interesting for managing your dairy operation.

Wishing you good farming this spring. Sincerely, Jim Ross, Chairman

2015 GVF DAIRY SYMPOSIUM RECAPby: AMY SOVARuminant Nutritionist, Grand Valley Fortifiers

Dairy Grist

Cows that spend less time eating and more time standing are at higher risk for lameness, ketosis and metritis post-calving. 2) Minimize stressful events and pen transfers during the week before calving. Cows will seek seclusion if given the choice and will try to calve at night, during periods of low activity. Simply providing a partition or locating calving pens in a low activity area of the barn will improve calving ease.

Mark Bowman, ruminant nutritionist with GVF, spoke about the GVF transition cow philosophy. A successful transition cow program will have cows off to a quick start with a rapid increase in DMI, minimal body condition loss, high peak milk and low days to conception. To achieve this, we need to consider nutrition and management aspects. From a nutrition standpoint, we want to provide a controlled energy diet with optimal starch, protein and mineral concentrations. Diets high in corn silage, straw or grassy hay work well. We want to limit high potassium forages such as alfalfa hay and haylage. The transition period is the best time to take advantage of cost effective nutritional additives such as monensin, choline, yeast and organic trace minerals. A proper nutrition program, coupled with cow comfort will help to bring healthy cows and calves into the milking herd.

Dr. Sam Leadley is a calf specialist from Attica Veterinary Associates in Attica, NY. Sam led the afternoon off to a good start with an entertaining discussion on successful calf management practices. He challenged producers to question their current on farm practices. Just because “we’ve always done it that way” doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way to do it. One of the dilemmas in raising calves is the level of milk feeding. We know that there are benefits to feeding higher levels of milk to calves. These include greater feed efficiency, reduced age at first breeding and a potential increase in future performance when the calf reaches the milking herd. So how do we feed more milk and reduce incidence of scouring in calves?

Sam identified a few areas that should be considered in order to be able to successfully feed more milk and have a healthier calf to contribute to the future of the herd. 1) Milk the fresh cow as soon as possible after calving as the quality of colostrum rapidly decreases over time. 2) Monitor colostrum quality and allocate higher quality milk to new born heifers. High quality colostrum contains >50 g IgG/L. 3) Feed 3.5–4 L of high quality colostrum (>50g IgG/L) within 4 hours of birth. 4) Keep milking and feeding equipment clean so as to avoid dosing the calf with bad bacteria, and ensure colostrum stored for later use is properly chilled to limit bacterial growth. 5) Monitor passive immunity transfer in calves to determine if you have room for improvement. By keeping these tips in mind, you should expect to raise healthier calves that enter the milking herd earlier and with higher levels of performance. For an opportunity to download the proceeds from the 2015 GVF Dairy Symposioum please visit www.bit.ly/2015ds-proceedings. n

SceneHerd&

by: ANDY ANDERSONDairy Specialist, Grand Valley Fortifiers

The Ontario dairy industry has experienced a lot of optimism in the last 2 years, with strong butterfat and milk demand resulting in additional

quota and incentive days. Although welcomed by all dairy producers, this has many asking, “How can I ship extra milk when our existing herd

facilities are maxed out?” This is a dilemma facing some producers for the near future. However, there are often unrealized milk potential opportunities within a herd. This is what you may call “found milk”.

One of the best ways to increase herd production, is to focus on transition and fresh cow health and nutrition. An extra 1 litre of peak milk translates into 200 litres of extra milk for that lactation. Close up and transition cow nutrition and management have a huge effect on the incidence of fresh cow problems such as milk fever, ketosis, DAs and RPs, etc. The following table shows the impact of these disorders on milk production.

Table 1 Economic Impact of Post-Calving Metabolic Disorders Milk Retained Ketosis Left Displaced Fever Placenta Abomasum

Deaths, % 4 1.5 0.5 2

Culls, % 5 6 5 8

Delayed Conception, days 13 15 10 12

Discarded Milk, kg 0 150 0 140

Lost Milk, kg 130 250 230 400

Average Cost, $ 181 206 151 312

Source: C. Guard, Cornell University, 1998.

Reduction in the incidence of some of these disorders can be achieved through improved management and feeding properly balanced transition cow diets. Consider adding GVF products, such as RSC Transition Supplement and Trans Energy Supplement into your feeding program. Small improvements in this area can pay big dividends in milk shipped.

In milk cow rations include proven feed additives that are shown to improve milk and butterfat yields. Additives that increase production and have a favourable return on investment include: monensin, sodium bicarbonate, yeast, and palm fat.

Increasing the milking herd dry matter intake (DMI) by improving forage quality will have a strong positive effect on milk volume. Research has shown a 4% increase in digestible fibre (NDFd) can result in 1 kg of extra milk and 0.6 kg of extra DMI per cow. Early harvesting and variety selection are keys to improving your forage NDFd and overall quality.

Feeding management strategies which improve DMI will also increase milk production. These include providing enough so that cows always have feed available, frequent feeding of fresh feed, frequent push ups, feeding TMR in late afternoon and maintaining optimum ration dry matter.

Shipping all marketable milk and feeding calves milk replacer is another way to increase milk shipped that makes economic sense. Milk replacer cost is lower than the price of milk by 20 to 35 cents per litre. Bioforce® Acidified Calf Milk Replacer is an excellent option for replacing whole milk.

These are just a few strategies to “find milk” within your operation. To discuss additional ways to improve your herd performance, please contact your local GVF Dairy Specialist. n

Stay connected to find out about upcoming events, new products & exciting promotions.

/grandvalleyfortifiers @grandvalley /gvftv

Dairy Grist

grandvalley.com

Q: WE ARE RUNNING A 25% PREGNANCY RATE. IS THERE AN ADVANTAGE TO MAKING EXTRA EFFORTS TO INCREASE THAT PREGNANCY RATE?

A: Well, congratulations you have a 25% preg rate!! So should we stop and celebrate because you have reached the top of the mountain amongst some of the best managed operations? Or is this only the top of the hill and there is still room to improve?

Attaining a 25% preg rate is something definitely to be proud of, however many producers pose the question; now what – is there any incentive to press onward to 30%? Let’s look at the numbers in the table below calculated with the CanWest DHI Herd Management Pregnancy Rate worksheet calculator.

New Preg Rate Economic Impact – $ per 100 Cows

Current PR – 15% Current PR – 20% Current PR – 25%

20% $22,000

25% $6,500

30% $625

If a 100 cow herd currently has a 15% preg rate and is able to improve 5 points to 20% there is an economic gain of $22,000. Now once this 100 cow herd has a 20% preg rate and is able to improve 5 more points to 25% there is additional economic gain of $6,500.

These kinds of improvements in a 100 cow herd would show huge economic benefits and could be accomplished with the help of several reproduction tools: sync protocols, electronic heat detection systems, etc. Also, improving transition cow comfort and care would have tremendous impacts in how the herd would perform reproductively. So you would assume going on to a 30% preg rate is a no brainer! Let’s go, let’s make it happen.

However, we see in the table above that once this 100 cow herd has established a current 25% preg rate, then if they were able to improve it 5 more points to 30% the additional economic impact would only be $625.

But how can this be? A lot of this has to do with the effort and cost of gaining each additional percentage point. Typically by the time we hit a preg rate in the range of 20–25% the herd has strict protocols in place for heat detection and servicing cows in a timely manner. The additional effort and expense required and also the diminishing additional milk production associated with each additional percentage point reduces the net benefit as preg rates approach 30%.

So should we just be complacent at 21% or 25%? I’m not totally convinced. The progressive minded will continue to press on, looking for ways to make it happen. Perhaps using sires that focus more on health traits and immunity could yield a cost effective improvement.Technology will continue to provide our industry with tools for cow health and reproduction. With the advent and use of the latest heat detection and rumen monitoring systems producers are seeing substantial improvements in preg rates with minimal time and investment.

Achieving a preg rate in excess of 20% should be on the list of every dairyman. Working with a knowledgeable veterinarian and solid nutrition advisor this goal can be reached in an efficient and timely manner. Once achieved, improving on a 25% preg rate will come down to the managerial protocols, nutrition, genetics and wise use of new technology by the dairy herd manager. n

QA&with RICHARD OSBORNE Dairy Specialist,Grand Valley Fortifiers

Years of Service: 1Hometown: New HamburgEmail: richardosborne@grandvalley.com

ROBOT METRICS – MILK AND MILK QUALITYby: JEFF KEUNENRuminant & Robot Nutritionist, Grand Valley Fortifiers

In the last issue of the Dairy Grist we gave you a brief overview of the Ontario milking

robot industry and summarized some general results that were col-lected from the survey we ran last summer. As mentioned in the December issue of the Dairy Grist 102 active robot producers took part in the survey. Recalling that the average robot farm in Ontario has 91.7 cows and 1.9 robots, today we will look at some of the pro-duction and milk quality data that was gathered.

Average milk production for all the herds surveyed was 32.6 litres/cow/day, with a high herd of 40 L and a low of 23.5 L, with two-thirds of herds in the survey ranging between 29.2 and 36.0 litres per cow. Herds averaged 2.9 milkings/cow/day with a low of 2.4 milkings and a high of 3.8. Producers reported a wide range of total milkings per day with an average of 267 milkings per farm and range from 110 to 1275 per day. Using the average of 1.9 robots per farm, we can calculate that each robot does about 140 milkings per day. This shows that most robot farms currently have the capacity to expand within their existing operations until they reach a typical maximum level of 170–190 milkings, a good position to be in with our current milk quota increases and added incentive days.

Looking at refusals of cows at the robot we see an average of 1.55, with numbers collected ranging from zero up to a high of 6 refusals/cow/day. The zeros in this dataset may be on farms with guided cow traffic systems as gates may do the sorting before the cow reaches the robot.

Farmers are fetching an average of 8.1 cows to the robot, with two-thirds of farmers fetching between 0–16 cows. Fetching cows may be part necessity and part management strategy when looking at individual farms. Producers are fetching cows an average of 2.1 times per day with some farms doing this zero times per day and others choosing to do up to 5 fetches in a day. Looking at cow numbers we also see a wide range from zero up to 50 cows per day being fetched, with herd size, system design and management style of the producer playing a role in what this number may be for a farm.

Failed milkings is another factor in robot milking that may be influenced by the producer’s management style, with cleanliness and freedom from long hair on the belly and udder playing a big part in successful attachment and milking, as well as regular maintenance of the robot by the producer and the service provider. In saying that, there may be cows that still do not do well in the robot and we will still see some failed milkings on many farms. In our data set, producers were averaging 6.3 failed milkings per day, with the majority having between 0–13 per day.

We also took the time to talk with farmers about milk quality and udder health, asking about bulk tank somatic cell counts, bactoscan results and mastitis cases treated per month. Table 1 shows the results for average bulk tank somatic cell count. The average for this group was between 150,000–200,000 cells/ml. The Ontario average bulk tank

Thought for the Day He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32 NKJV

If you ever feel that you are so insignificant that God does not care about you or that he does not want to listen to your prayers you will be encouraged by Romans 8:32. There you are assured that your heavenly Father loves you unconditionally. There was nothing so precious to Him that He would not give it up in order to provide for your salvation. When the Father gave His precious Son to save you he proved once and for all that His love is boundless. – Henry T. & Richard Blackaby

Wishing you a happy Easter,From all of us at Grand Valley Fortifiers

NEW HIRE: STEPHANIE MURPHY

W e are very pleased to announce that Stephanie Murphy has joined the Grand

Valley Fortifiers team. Stephanie grew up at the Ronbeth Holsteins Farm and brings a wealth of experience to her position of Dairy Specialist at GVF. Stephanie and her husband Cam live in her

home town of Hastings Ontario. Steph will be supporting dairy and beef producers in the surrounding counties, helping them reach their production and operational goals.

Recently, Stephanie was awarded the Andrea Crowe Achievement Award at the 2014 Royal Winter Fair; an award going to an industry person that shows “an everyday love of the industry”. Steph’s passion, drive and enthusiasm for the industry will serve her well in her role as a Dairy Specialist at GVF. Steph is an aspiring judge for Holstein Canada and has a great eye for cattle, as well as terrific observational skills on farm. She is also a patient person and treats others with respect and professionalism.

We are very pleased to have Steph on our team as she services, supports and grows the business for Grand Valley Fortifiers.n

COMMODITY OUTLOOKby: STEVE MCGUFFIN

The March USDA Supply and Demand report left US projected ending soybean stocks

unchanged from the February report and sub-sequently didn’t move the futures market.

On March 31st the USDA Grain Stocks in all positions along with the Prospective Plantings reports will be released.

One of Ontario’s two main soybean processors has been shut down due to a production issue for over two weeks now and as I write this they are still almost another week away from an attempted plant start up with the objective of running at 2/3 crush capacity until their scheduled June maintenance shut down. If this start up isn’t successful the plant will be going down a further 4-6 weeks so the problem can be fixed. Either way I expect SBM supply to remain tight so projecting ahead for futures needs will help avoid supply interruption and also consideration of alternatives like canola meal or roasted soy’s to stretch or eliminate your SBM requirements will bring you savings.

If you have any commodity questions or would like to make some commodity purchases don’t hesitate to call Alexa Main or I directly at 1-877-743-4412. We are happy to serve you. n

O n February 4th and 5th Stratford was once again the place to be if you are a dairy pro-

ducer. The Stratford Agriplex and Rotary Complex facility was home to the 3rd annual Canadian Dairy Expo. This year’s show saw the high-est attendance yet with 9,000 people attending on Wednesday and 6,200 on Thursday. The show organizers did a fantastic job plowing over 60 acres to provide enough parking for exhibitors and guests to easily visit the show. The GVF Dairy Team enjoyed two great days visiting with dairy customers and prospects and learning more about new technologies and trends in the dairy industry. This was the third year of the show which marked the conclusion of Grand Valley Forti-fiers’ original founding partner agreement with the CDX, however given the success of this event we are proud to have recommitted to be a founding partner for an additional four year term. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Grand Valley Fortifiers and Farmers Farmacy displays over the course of the show; it was a pleasure to visit with you and learn more about your dairy operations. n

CDX 2015 REVIEW

somatic cell count for 2013–2014 was 212,000. (DFO Dairy Statistical Handbook, 30th Edition)

Table 1 Average Bulk Tank Somatic Cell Counts

Average Somatic Cells/Millilitre Percentage of Respondents (%)

0–50,000 1.0

50,0000–100,000 8.1

100,000–150,000 22.2

150,000–200,000 32.3

200,000–300,000 27.3

300,000–400,000 8.1

400,000 + 1.0

When looking at average bulk tank bactoscan results, over 90% of responses came in below 24 (1000’s/mL), with 0–12 accounting for 30% and 12–24 totaling 61% of the responses. Six percent of producers had an average of 24–36 and the remaining 3% counted for 1% each in the categories of 36–60, 60–90, and 90–120 respectively.

With regards to mastitis treatments per month, the average farmer has 1.4 cases per month on 91.7 cows. Almost 90% of producers treated 3 cases or less of mastitis per month, with numbers in the data set ranging from 0–10 total cases. With more frequent milkings and increased technology available to the producers, early detection and prevention of udder health challenges are obvious benefits that can help keep this incidence rate low compared to traditional parlour or tie-stall set-ups, remembering that cleanliness and proper milking routine play large roles as well.

Hopefully these robot metrics on milk production and milk quality give you a bit more insight into how your fellow producers compare to your operation and give you an idea of where the strengths and potential areas for improvement lie within your dairy operation. If you would like to talk with a GVF Dairy Specialist or a member of the Nutrition Direct team about your operation, we would be happy to visit with you and share some ideas. n