16322 West Washington Street P: 920-775-9600Valders, WI Fax: 920-775-9646 www.cpfeeds.com July 2017

Mill Matters

Adequate dry matter intake in the post-calving period is crit-ical to maximize production and prevent disease, notes Trevor DeVries with the University of Guelph. Often, housing and management play as large of a role as nutrition in the perfor-mance and health of these cows. To maintain good health and production, these animals, in particular, need enough time and resources to perform the behaviors in the pie chart.

The majority of a cow’s day (10 to 13 hours) will be spent lying down, and she will spend about a third of her time ru-minating. The remainder of her time will be used to eat, drink and be milked.

Any factors that limit cows ability to perform these activities will have negative consequences. When opportunities to rest are restricted, as is often the case with overcrowding, lying will take priority and the time devoted to eating and other activities will be reduced. Overcrowding must be avoided in fresh cow pens so that cows can maximize their eating and lying opportunities when their dry matter intake is at its lowest.

Management of the fresh cow diet should be focused on max-imizing opportunities for cows to go to the bunk across the day, either by increasing the frequency of feed delivery or by altering the timing of feed delivery.

Fresh feed delivery drives cows to the feedbunk. Therefore, the frequency and timing of fresh feed delivery are important factors for stimulating intake. More frequent feed delivery can result in cows more evenly distributing their intake across the day and improves subordinate cows access to fresh feed.

While moving to more frequent feed delivery may be difficult on some farms, DeVries noted that there is potential to alter the timing of feed drops to better spread feed intake out across the day. One study shifted the time of feed delivery ahead of milking

by 3.5 hours and found that this resulted in cows consuming their feed more slowly in smaller, more frequent meals, improv-ing the efficiency of milk production.

Feed push-up is another important factor to ensure constant access to feed across the day. Push-ups need to occur often enough so that any time a cow decides to go to the feedbunk there is feed available. Push-ups are particularly important in the first few hours after feed delivery, when the bulk of feeding activity occurs.

Further, keeping first-lactation heifers in separate groups, and minimizing group changes helps reduce social stress. Research has shown that keeping first-lactation heifers in a separate group after calving positively impacts feeding behavior, production and health. When cows are moved, steps should be taken to minimize the impact of relocation. Examples of this include not overcrowding pens, moving cows in pairs, or moving cows into new pens during quieter times of the day (i.e. away from milking and feeding).

Respect Fresh

Cow's Time

Ruminating 29%

Eating13%

Drinking 2%

Resting46%

Milking10%

How cows should spend their time

PRESORTED STANDARD

US POSTAGE PAIDVALDERS, WIPERMIT NO 15

CP Feeds LLC16322 W Washington St.Valders, WI 54245Return Service Requested

Wrightstown --- it’s Coming

On July 11, the crew at Wrightstown began pouring the main mill slip. It has 57 bins and its finished height is 100 feet. The crew finished its 24/7 continuous pour on July 15 and then they began pouring the load out slip, which is 70 feet tall. That portion of the project was completed on Mon-day, July 17. With that finished, they will start removing all the forms and superstructure on top of the mill, which is a 4 week process. Then they will form and pour the roof.

Country Visions Cooperative and CP Feeds presented scholarship awards to ten exceptional area high school students. The students were each awarded a $1,000 scholarship to further their education at a college, university, technical or vocational school.

Country Visions and CP Feeds awarded the following recipients the 2017 scholarships:• Conner Geurts, Wrightstown High School, Agribusiness/

Science Technology • Austin Goehring, Kiel High School, Agribusiness• Kalista Hodorff, Campbellsport High School, Dairy Science

• Alyssa Johanek, Kewaunee High School, Agribusiness• McCoy Mack, Manitowoc Lutheran High School, Agriculture

Power Equipment • Josh O’Hearn, Reedsville High School, Agriculture• Derek Schmidt, Brillion High School, Agribusiness/Science

Technology• Emily Schwanke, Waupun Area High School, Animal Science/

Chemistry• Kaylee Warner, New Holstein High School, Animal Science/• Madeline Zutz, Valders High School, Animal Science

Country Vision/ CP Feeds Scholarship Recipients