Brian Garry’s message at the liquid milk conference was clear – forage quality is the most important nutritional factor in producing milk indoors and feeding for maximum per-cow milk yield does not ensure profit.

Brian went as far as saying that sometimes farmers need to think about feeding for profit rather than yield and which diet optimises returns to the farmer.

He said: “The total spec of the diet is more important than the meal spec and yet often all the talk we hear about at farm walks is the percentage protein in the meal or whether it’s a coarse ration or nut."

Forage should make up the majority of the diet and farmers need to maximise forage quality.

Brian then went on to explain that large responses to concentrate feeding are not always a good thing.

“Drill into it. Research has shown it’s a non-linear response to additional concentrate, so, this means additional concentrate fed is not completely added to total energy intake.

“Feeding meal reduces fibre significantly. Also, be mindful of substitution rate as concentrate will displace other feeds, and finally remember the law of diminishing returns as response to concentrate is non-linear.

“Think of it another way – the reality is after feeding 8kg of concentrate feed per cow per day the response decreases significantly.”

Feeding for maximum yield

Brian then went on to explain that feeding for maximum yield does not always ensure maximum profit for the farmer.

You need to examine what is on farm in terms of forage quality and then make up diet to suit that.

If you want to formulate a diet to 30l average but don’t have the forage quality to make this happen then it might not be worth doing it. Every farmer making a diet needs to keep this in mind.