Cover cropping is something we would like to do more of at Miner Institute. There are excellent incentive programs available for this practice, and the long-term benefits to yield, soil health, and edge of field losses have been well documented. The challenge is often just getting the seed out there at a time when bunks need to be covered, manure needs to be spread, and 5th cut is ready to come off.

In my last Farm Report article, I mentioned having a strong interest in forage quality, mainly due to a research project that I completed last summer with Alltech Inc. and Poulin Grain Inc. This project was presented this past June at the American Dairy Science Association annual conference. I know it is late in the year now to be discussing managing grass silage, as everyone is in the midst of another busy season of corn harvest,

Traditionally we have promoted, myself included, a set volume and quality of first feeding colostrum to calves. Often we recommend 4 L or one gallon of high quality colostrum within the first two hours after birth to our large breed calves. However, this blanket approach might not be what’s best for each individual calf and maybe we should be incorporating a precision feeding mindset when implementing our colostrum feeding recommendations.

Have you noticed your milk fat numbers creeping up over the years? You’re not alone. Data from the Federal Milk Market Orders, including Order 1 (see figure) show a steady rise in both milk fat and true protein concentrations. While we still see seasonal ups and downs (peaking in winter and dipping in summer), the overall trend is clear: milk components are increasing.

As a forage agronomist I usually find myself preaching about how short the optimal harvest window is for hay crop forages. This is because, for most of the season, the optimal window for maximizing haylage yield and quality only lasts for a week or two.

Over the past six years I’ve written extensively in these pages about the agronomic and environmental impacts of tile drainage, as did Eric Young before me, and Ev Thomas before him. With so much ink spilled on the topic, I hope you’ll permit me a quick trip back into the past to help explain its importance to the region, and why it was adopted locally long before it achieved the widespread popularity it now boasts throughout our farming communities.

This past summer was a busy one for all of us. With students on the farm there was a lot of activity and learning taking place each day. Now that the season has ended and our students have returned to school, we’re taking the opportunity to step back and look for areas of improvement. It’s important to identify areas where small changes can make a big impact.

Knowing what’s really in your feed is the first step to making good rations that meet the cows’ needs. That’s why taking and testing feed samples regularly is such an important tool — it helps to avoid nutrient shortages or waste. But the more tests we run, the more we see that feed values can vary a lot, especially in forages and by-products.

Methionine is more than just another nutrient in a dairy cow’s ration. As one of the key building blocks of protein, it influences not only how much milk a cow produces but also how efficiently she uses the nutrients in her diet. Over the years, advances in feed technology have made it possible to deliver methionine in a form that bypasses the rumen and reaches the small intestine, where it can be fully absorbed.

Much emphasis has been on the calf period and improving growth and health of the preweaning period. However, the postweaning period is a very dynamic transition as heifers move to solid feed intake. Consumption of starter or grain and forage can be influenced by age, body weight, previous milk or milk replacer consumption, ambient temperature, availability of forage, water intake and others. How much do we expect them to consume and what is motivating intake during this age?