The Feedbag
P.O. Box 39
3216 Mill Lane
Gordonville, PA 17529
Back to Milk Protein
WITHIN THIS ISSUE
By: Tom Nauman
Back to Milk Protein.
Tom revisits the topic of
protein and goes more in
depth on protein nutrition.
Bigger Calves, Bigger
Results. Stephanie explains
the importance of a higher
plane of nutrition for calves.
This Month’s Grain Highlights
By: Brad Wagner
Grain Highlights. Corn has
been trading lower over the
last few weeks along with
soybean prices.
As of May 12, 2015
Corn: $4.05 / bu compared to $5.40/bu last year and $7.25/bu in 2013
Soybeans: $9.85 / bu
Soybean Meal: $360 - $365 / ton compared to $580/ton last year
Corn:
Winter is suddenly over and just like that
we have 75% of the corn in the ground
(as of May 10, 2015). Traders are
already projecting a 13.63 billion bushel
crop on a crop that is not completely
planted and only 39% emerged. The
dryer Spring has allowed corn planting
to start 3 weeks earlier than last year
and farmers took advantage of that
opportunity; which is evidenced by the
planting progress noted above. The
projected yield is lower than last year
due to fewer acres being planted and
slightly lower yield/acre. Corn is trading
hooberfeeds.com | 1-800-256-4567
soybean price is $9.85/bu. Current
cash prices on a trailer load of soybean
meal is $360-365/ton compared to
$580/ton for a trailer load last year.
Soybeans and Soybean Meal:
Important Dates to Remember:
Since the April grain report, we have
seen South America straighten out their
typical logistic challenges and begin to
take away some of the U.S. export
market.
Both the U.S. and South
America experienced large crops last
year. As such, since the beginning of
April we have seen a steady decline in
bean and soybean meal values. The U.S.
has 31% of their soybean acres planted
and traders are projecting a 3.85 billion
bushel crop this fall.
The current
June 30th- USDA Acreage Report
only Authorized Reseller in
the region specializing in
feeding the P-One Program
EZ OPEN – Hold Wide Tape…Pull Small Tape
For HealthyCows
®
From - the Smart bacteria
& Nutrition Company TM
makers of P-One™ and the P-One Program™
Contains a source of live (viable) naturally occurring microorganisms, Amylase which can hydrolyze
starch, Protease which can hydrolyze proteins, beta-Glucanase which can hydrolyze ß-glucans (a type
of non-starch polysaccharide), Hemicellulase which can break down hemicellulose.
Guaranteed Analysis
Total Propionibacteria (minimum).............................................
(Propionibacterium freudenreichii)
Total Yeast (minimum) ...........................................................
(Saccharomyces cerevisiae)
16 billion cfu/lb (35 million cfu/gram)
300 billion cfu/lb (661 million cfu/gram)
Enzyme Activity (minimum)
Please feel free to call the office to
discuss grain purchasing and forward
contracting opportunties.
Bacterial Amylase (Bacillus subtilis) ...........................................................................
59,000 BAU/lb.
Fungal Amylase (Aspergillus oryzae) .........................................................................
47,625 SKB/lb.
Fungal Protease (Aspergillus oryzae) .........................................................................
34,020 HUT/lb.
beta-Glucanase (Trichoderma longibrachiatum) ..............................................................454 BGU/lb.
Hemicellulase (Aspergillus niger) .....................................................................................113 HCU/lb.
Ingredient s
Sodium bentonite, yeast culture, rice hulls, dried yeast, dried
Bacillus subtilis fermentation extract,
dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation
extract, dried Aspergillus niger fermentation extract, sodium silico aluminate, mineral oil, dried
Propionibacterium freudenreichii fermentation product.
Directions for Use
Branded Strains of
Smart bacteria:
A4000h ™ .....................
Pediococcus pentosaceus
A2020 ™ ...............................
Enterococcus faecium
EF141 ™ ...............................
Enterococcus faecium
LC222 ™ ....................................
Lactobacillus casei
LBR1000 ™ ..............................
Lactobacillus brevis
Lactobacillus plantarum
LP100 ™ ............................
Found Only in Priority IAC Products
Pre-fresh Cows (or Lactating Cows): Feed DCP at 1 ounce per head per day for 14–21 day period to
colonize and act as a lactic acid utilizer. Follow with feeding P-One™ (see P-One label for proper use)
For proper use, consult your P-One Specialist.
Storage Recommendations
Store in a cool, dry area out of direct sunlight.
Manufactured For:
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3504 County Road CR
Manitowoc, WI 54220 USA
forhealthycows.com • [email protected] • 920-682-0264
Net wt. 30 lb. (13.64 kg)
FULL WARRANTY/DISCLAIMER INFORMATION IS ON OUR WEBSITE: forhealthycows.com
Priority IAC
the Smart bacteria Company
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.
Two months ago I mentioned that we would
be starting a series on milk protein. Then for
two issues of “The Feedbag” we got
sidetracked. So now, we are finally back on
track and ready to talk about what it takes for
the cow to make milk protein up to her
genetic potential. We mentioned several
issues ago that there were three areas of
importance in order to have the cow make
milk protein.
These three areas are:
1. Protein nutrition. We will discuss how
much and what kind of protein we need to
feed the cow. We will talk about amino acids
and how important they are to making milk
protein.
2. Energy Nutrition. Most people, including
many dairy specialists, do not understand
how important carbohydrates are to the cow
when it comes to making milk protein. We
will discuss why the high carb P1 diets shine
when it comes to making milk protein.
Hoober Feeds,
around $4.05/bu and has been trending
lower over the last few weeks. Last year
at this time corn prices were trading at
$5.40/bu and $7.25/bu in May 2013!
Volume 15 Issue 5
TM
3. Cow Factors. The cow herself, and how
we care for her other than feeding, can have
a big influence on how much milk protein she
and her herdmates make. We will talk about
these items and how there are times when
we can have protein and energy nutrition
right, but we still cannot make the milk
protein we want because some other aspect
of feeding or management needs to be
addressed first.
This month we will begin by talking about
protein nutrition. As we discuss protein
nutrition please keep in mind that all of the
three areas above need to be in place and
well managed in order to have a cow make a
decent amount of milk protein. Therefore,
we don’t want you to come away from this
discussion with the thought that “as long as
I have my protein feeding right my cows
should have a good protein test.” You can’t
have a good protein test if protein feeding is
not right. However, just because protein
feeding is right doesn’t necessarily guarantee a good milk protein test. This concept is
especially important when we talk about
feeding amino acids. But before we get into
that, let’s talk a little about what milk
protein is.
Protein Basics.
The very first thing to think about is why milk
has protein in it. Is it so that we can make
cheese to put on sandwiches and on our
pizza? No, it is to feed the baby calf. A baby
calf has the potential to grow at a very rapid
rate. Our customers that are on the BIG
program see calves doubling and sometimes tripling their body weight by 56 days
of age. The majority of that growth is in
muscle tissue and organ tissue. These
tissues are made up of mainly proteins. The
average Holstein cow has a protein test of
about 3% and if a calf is consuming 2
gallons of milk from its mother it is consuming about a half a pound of protein a day. It
needs to consume that much protein in
order to have rapid growth. The proteins are
in two major categories. The first is casein
which makes up about 82% of the milk
protein. When the milk is treated with a
mild acid, the casein precipitates out (put
some orange juice in a little milk some time
and watch what happens) and this product
is called the “curds”. Cheese is made
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out of the curds. The other 18% of the
protein is called the “whey”. To grow a
calf, we need both “curds and whey”. As
the cow is making the protein that she is
putting in the milk, she is making both
types for the calf. There are major differences in the structure of these components and the differences are in what we
call the amino acids. This is a term that
you have probably heard before but you
may be a bit confused about it. Simply
put, amino acids are the building blocks
for proteins. There are 20 different amino
acids that a cow needs in order to make
milk protein. 10 of those are what we call
“essential” and must be fed to the cow.
The other 10 are called “non essential”.
They can be manufactured by the cow
herself therefore we do not need to provide
them in her diet. Of the 10 that we need
to feed the cow, there are 4 that cows tend
to run short of with our normal forage and
grain programs. The names of these are
Methionine, Lysine, Arginine and Histidine.
As we are balancing a diet keeping in mind
that we need to feed the cow adequate
amounts of all 10 essential amino acids,
we need to select ingredients that especially help us with these 4. Of the 4, the
two that are the most challenging to
provide enough of are Methionine and
Lysine. Because of this, these 2 amino
acids are available to the feed industry to
purchase and add into dairy feeds. Keep
that thought in mind as we move into the
idea of “amino acid balancing” later on in
StartUp™ Gel Promotion
Hoober Feeds will be
participating in a National
StartUp™ Gel promotion beginning now through July 31st.
Producers must purchase 12
tubes at a time in order to be
eligable for the extra tube or gel
applicator.
Please contact your Hoober
Feeds Representative or call
the Hoober Feeds office at
717-768-3216 for more
information.
hooberfeeds.com | 1-800-256-4567
our discussion.
Amino Acids For Dairy Cows
When we put together the proper diet of
Essential AA
Milk Meat
a dairy cow, we start with an analysis of
16.0 16.3
Lysine
the forages. If we have good quality
5.5
5.1
Methionine
alfalfa hay or haylage, we have a feed
7.2 16.8
Arginine
that is above 20% crude protein. We
5.5
6.3
Histidine
have been trained through the years to
19.5 17.0
Luecine
11.4
7.1
use that number to determine whether
Isoluecine
10.0
8.9
Phenylalanine
the hay meets our standard of quality or
8.9
9.9
Threonine
not. That is not how the cow determines
3.0
2.5
Tryptophan
the quality. She does not care about the
13.0 10.1
Valine
amount of protein in the hay. She cares
about the building blocks of the protein,
the amino acids. She needs a specific
You will notice for almost all of the amino
amount of each of these in order to do all
acids the amount in the milk of the cow is
of the things she is expected to do, like
the same as the amount in the meat. This
growing and producing milk and milk
should make sense in that the baby calf
protein. The hog and poultry nutrition
gets all of the amino acids it needs for
industries have known for years that the
growth of muscle tissue (meat) from the
amino acid level is what is really important
milk it gets from its mother. If you buy a bag
and not the protein level. The dairy
of cheap milk replacer and do an amino
nutrition industry is relatively new to the
acid analysis of that milk replacer you will
idea but is rapidly adopting it but it has
find deficiencies in a few amino acids. If
taken us a while to find out what the amino
they are deficient, the calf will not grow like
acid levels are in our forages, and it has
it should. All of the amino acids need to be
taken us a while to figure out what the cow
supplied in the right level for it to grow well.
really needs. Although there are still a lot
The same holds true in how we feed the cow
of questions, we now know a lot more
in order for her to make the milk protein. If
about giving the cow the right amount of
we shortchange her on one of the amino
the right kind of amino acids. This all starts
acids, the other ones do not make up for it.
with knowing the amount of each essential
She produces less milk protein. She also
amino acid in proportion to the total
may have other issues that go back to being
amount of essential amino acids. The
short of a certain amino acid that may be
following chart shows the proportions of
needed for a specific body function. Therethe 10 essential amino acids in milk and in
fore, when it comes to feeding the cow, we
meat.
don’t want to just pick an amino acid and
Bigger Calves, Bigger Results
By: Stephanie Smith
In the first six months of life, a heifer is
the most efficient in utilizing protein for
growth and muscle development. By
offering calves a higher level of protein
and fat through milk replacer and starter
we can meet their nutritional needs and
enhance immune function and growth.
Increased average daily gains all year
long and lifelong profitability have also
been seen when calves are fed higher
levels of fat and protein in the first six
months of life.
Hoober Feeds offers the BIG 30/32 milk
replacer that is formulated to mimic
feeding whole milk from early lactation
cows. With this program, an increasing
amount of milk is fed to meet the
increasing caloric needs of the calf with
a unique fat blend that does not give the
calf a false sense of being full. When the
BIG milk replacer is coupled with a
jack the level up thinking that it will give
us more milk protein. Here is the
protocol that we use as we are picking
out protein sources to balance the
protein side of the diet in order to get
the cow to make adequate levels of
milk protein:
1. Start with high quality forages. We
will talk more next month about how
the energy of the forage is important in
making milk protein, but for now we
want to say that we need forages that
are properly fermented in order for the
cow to make milk protein. Forage
crops, especially hay crops, that are
poorly fermented have a lot of damage
to their proteins. Some of that damage
is heat damage that comes from
excessive heating of the forage while it
is trying to ferment. Some comes from
the production of lots of ammonia that
is a byproduct of adverse fermentation.
Some comes from damage to the
protein that is done by wild fungal
organisms.
2. Feed enough forage to get good
rumen function. The fiber in the forage
causes the cow to chew her cud and
causes rumen contractions. This
results in a good fermentation which
can lead to the production of lots of
rumen bacteria. We don’t want to
overdo fiber feeding because it can
Pictured is
Dane leading
Maggie, who
was raised on
the B.I.G. Calf
Program. At
birth she
weighed 100
lbs. At 3
months old,
she weighed
300 lbs and
stood 40
inches tall.
starter grain that compliments feeding larger
volumes of milk, rumen development and
growth is encouraged. At weaning, if the
rumen is not developed properly, the calf will
have a hard time transitioning from milk to
grain and may go through the post weaning
slump, resulting in little gain and potential
weight loss.
Beyond weaning, the BIG starter and grower
pellets are designed to meet the calf’s needs,
enhance her immunity, and promote lean
growth. The grain is designed to match the
lower the amount of bacteria that are grown
in the rumen.
3. Formulate the diet to provide adequate
levels of degradable and soluble protein.
These proteins break down quickly in the
rumen (soluble protein) or more slowly in the
rumen (degradable). If the protein available
in the rumen is too low, once again we will
not get the bacteria grown in the rumen that
we need to make good milk protein amounts.
4. Calculate the amount of amino acids
that need to be supplied to the cow to
make up for what has not been provided by
the forages or by the rumen fermentation
process. This is where it gets a little more
complicated because we can’t go into the
rumen and actually measure this. However,
there is a lot of good research out there that
helps us predict the amino acids coming
from the rumen. Once we know that, along
with knowing what the requirements of the
cow are, we can calculate what we need to
add.
5. Add economical sources of bypass
protein which can supply the amino acids
that are not coming from the forages or
rumen fermentation process. Several items
that we have on hand for this are Canola
Meal, Corn Distillers, Exceed Pro, Toasted
Soybeans and Gem-Pro. You will see the
amounts of these items vary in your program
based on your forage tests and your forage
key amino acids needed to continue to grow
frame size and lay down lean muscle tissue. The
blend of carbohydrates in both grains is a blend
of low starch carbohydrates that the calf can use
as an energy source. Because the starter and
grower provide plenty of calories, vitamins,
minerals, and amino acids, calves immune
systems will be heightened which will result in
less illnesses and lower treatment costs.
It is more than just growing calves bigger and
faster. Nutritionally, what makes calves grow big
is also what improves their immune system.
Amino acids are responsible for building protein
and protein is what grows bones, muscles, and
boosts the immune system. Growth is actually
an effect of a healthier calf and can be used to
measure health.
For the past year, Hoober Feeds has had several
customers feeding the BIG Calf Program and
have seen healthier, taller, leaner calves with
consistent growth and manure from calf to calf.
For more information contact Stephanie Smith,
Hoober Feeds Calf and Heifer Specialist, at
717-768-3216.
feeding program.
6. Add synthetic amino acids to meet the
needs that cannot be supplied by the
forages or the normal feed ingredients.
This is the last item on the list because it is
the most expensive. We always want to try to
meet the amino acid needs of the cow in the
most economical way which means saving
this step until last. However, in most
programs for high producing cows, we cannot
get enough Lysine and Methionine from the
traditional feed ingredients, so, where the
farmer wants to get as much milk protein as
possible, we will add these items. Typically
they will add 10-15 cents to the cost of the
diet so we do not add them unless all of the
other items above have been properly cared
for. We also don’t add them if there are cow
factors (like poor cow comfort) that will hold
the cows back and we especially don’t want
to add them if the energy balance of the diet
is not correct.
And on that note we will conclude. We
started this milk protein talk with protein and
amino acids in the diet because this is the
stuff that everyone makes a big deal out of.
However, it is not the most important part of
the diet when it comes to making milk
protein. The most important part is the
energy balance of the diet. That will be our
subject for the next issue of
“The Feedbag”.
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