Forage First

The Forage First guide is for GB dairy farmers with block-calving and all-year-round herds. It collates the available knowledge and numbers on forage utilisation and feeding. Here you can find links to further information on all the resources mentioned in the guide.

Forage First focuses on improving feed efficiency from the ground up. Get the most you can from grazed grass, then silages and make up the deficit with concentrates and other purchased feeds.

Improving milk from forage can save money and increase profits. Learning from other farmers through discussion groups, meetings, or farm visits can offer practical ideas to improve your own business.

Setting targets for your herd gives you a framework to help identify the things that need to change.

Feed conversion efficiency (FCE), also known as feed efficiency (FE), is a useful measure to determine cows’ relative ability to turn feed nutrients into milk or milk components. To improve it, give your cows continuous and easy access to feed, with at least 60 cm of feed space per cow.

Know the essentials 

Feed lactating dairy cows a diet with the correct particle size distribution to optimise rumen function and cow health and performance.

The dry matter (DM) of forage can vary considerably as you progress through the clamp or the paddock, and this can lead to variation in the feed.

Different forages and feeds have varying moisture contents and require different production, handling and storage inputs. It’s difficult to compare their values on a like-for-like basis.

You can compare different feeds by analysing their ME and CP content. Our relative feed value calculator allows you to do this by using figures for rapeseed meal and barley as comparable feeds. You can add feeds and own forages alongside common products.

Cows need sufficient minerals and vitamins to avoid imbalances or deficiencies. Most feed ingredients (especially forages) provide reasonable amounts, but testing grass or silage helps identify imbalances.

Many of the key trace elements, especially copper, cobalt, selenium, zinc and iodine, are adequately supplied in most diets. However, copper deficiency is common in dairy cows and often supplemented.

Be careful not to over-supplement, which can impair health and productivity and can be fatal in acute cases. Always check and balance rations as required.

Water is often called the ‘forgotten nutrient’. Yet, milk production means modern dairy cows have a very high daily requirement for drinking water per unit of body mass. High-yielding cows can drink well over 100 litres of water per day, and this amount can double in a hot climate.

Making the most of grazed grass on your farm can increase profits.

CSR is a method of assessing the balance between feed demand and supply on farm. It is more accurate than counting cows per hectare because not all cows are the same weight, not all hectares grow the same amount of feed and purchased feed per hectare is not counted using cows per hectare.

Good grazing infrastructure gives more days at grass, makes management easier at times of peak grass growth, and makes grazing less weather dependent.

Several deficit scenarios can occur when managing grass. It is important to recognise a deficit early and to implement strategies to protect future grass supplies.

Making and feeding high-quality digestible silage encourages higher feed intakes and better cow performance. High-quality forage has a high nutritional value in terms of energy and protein and is also well preserved. This makes it highly palatable, which supports high levels of forage dry matter intake (DMI).

Feeding in the right way is just as important as what you are feeding, for many reasons – time saving, ensuring correct intakes and reducing waste, to name a few.

As well as different grazing regimes, various systems have been developed to deliver individual feeds and mixes to dairy cows.

Compact feeding is a relatively new technique developed in Denmark. The aim is to reduce selection by adding water to make the diet wetter and to mix for longer. This allows all cows in the group to access the same diet throughout the day.

To be able to manage something effectively, you must measure it reliably, so you can monitor change and detect at an early stage whether things are going to plan. Regularly measuring BCS is an essential component of transition. It has a huge impact on future lactation performance and animal health.

The transition period covers the three weeks before and after calving. During this time, cows face huge challenges and changes, as well as increased nutritional requirements. Correct nutrition management is essential to support calving and ensure a successful start to lactation.

Negative energy balance (NEB) occurs when a cow does not eat enough to meet her daily energy requirement. Managing negative nutrient balance is key to the success of the transition period. All dairy cows in transition will encounter NEB, but the aim is to try and minimise it.

Diets with home-grown, high-protein forages are naturally rich in CP (particularly soluble protein), making it harder to reduce dietary protein levels.

The current National Research Council (NRC, 2001) recommendation for phosphorus content in the diet of lactating cows is to achieve 0.32–0.38% (on a DM basis). AHDB-funded research on 50 farms found that phosphorus is often overfed by more than 20%, especially in early lactation, though some farms also underfeed it.