1. HOME-MIXING DAIRY FEEDS - A cost-saving strategyby
Lovemore R. Mutetwa; Animal Nutritionist
Veterinary Distributors (Pvt) Ltd,
Cell:

2. OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
INTRODUCTION
FEED INGREDIENTS FOR DAIRY FEEDS
QUALITY CONTROL OF DAIRY FEEDS
APPROACHES TO HOME-MIXING DAIRY FEEDS
CONCLUSION & QUESTIONS / DISCUSSION

3. INTRODUCTION
Feed constitutes 60 – 80 % of the cost of dairy production
About 60% of dairy producers rely on bought-in feed from stockfeed companies
Nutrition impacts every part of milk production chain
Financial losses in a dairy herd (90-dy post calving) due to poor nutrition are:
Loss in milk production - 32%
Added vet costs %
Calf loss %
Added breeding costs - 11%
Replacement costs - 31%
[Source: J. of Dairy Sci. 1993]
Target feeding for dairy cattle is 4% of body in DMI; Microbial protein can meet up to 50% of the cow’s protein requirements.

4. INTRODUCTION
Commodity prices of feed ingredients increased much faster than the prices of milk, etc squeezing production margins
Due to the shrinkage in profit margins, an increasing number of producers are moving towards compounding their own feed on the farm.
The dairy farmer needs basic technical knowledge of the feed ingredients and an understanding of basic feed formulation techniques

5. Whither or whether TO HOME MIX?....
Existing / future storage capacities
Transport of feed ingredients bought
Additional labour costs
Interest paid on stock held
Equipment and machinery
Technical skills
Cost savings to feed bill of 20 – 30%

6. FEED INGREDIENTS (1) Maize / Corn Snap corn Barley Oats Small grains
Maize bran / germ
Hominy chop / DFR
Ginned cotton seed
Sunflower cake
Wheat feed
Brewers’ grains - masese
Molasses
Citrus pulp
Acid oil
By-products = cheaper
Milk production stimulated by: masese, starch grits, Oats reduce MBF due PUFA’s
Cereal grains / Energy
Processed by-products

7. FEED INGREDIENTS (2) ROUGHAGE / FIBRE Silage Veld hay
OILCAKES / PROTEINS
Cotton cake / meal
Sunflower cake / meal
Soya cake / meal Full-fat
FEED ADITIIVES:
Limestone flour
Monocalcium phosphate
Coarse salt
Urea
Dairy / Dry Cow premix
Dairy Macropacks
ROUGHAGE / FIBRE
Silage
Veld hay
Wheat / barley straw
Maize stover / husklage
Corn and Cob
Lucerne / alfalfa
Grass pastures
Bagasse
Forage sorghum / Bana
Cotton hulls / morts
Crop residues (g/nuts . Coffee shells)
Green maize chop, etc
High NDF high bulk density limits DMI; High ADF limits digestibility; Roughage & Flavomycin for high BF and TS; Roughage ideally fed ad libitum; SBM high RDP vs CSM ; Urea equivalent to 1/6 total protein; Na bicarb incl. at 1% of ration=buffers for more acetate – precursor for milk BF; summer grazing lack effective fibre hence low BF / TS = lactose+ casein+ minerals+ BF; Rice bran – protein is high BV vs maize. Heat stress potassium chloride incl. 0.1 – 0.2% of ration.
Roughages

8. FEED INGREDIENTS (3) Acid oil Poultry manure
SPECIAL-PURPOSE INGREDINETS
Buffers (anionic salts)
Potassium carb/chloride (heat stress)
Mycotoxin binder / deactivators
Rumen modifiers (ionophores )
Protected fats
Yeasts
Flavourants / Palatants
NON-CONVENTIONAL INGREDIENTS
Acid oil
Poultry manure
Copra Meal (coconut expeller meal)
Under-grade wheat grain/ flour
Stack-burnt maize / Maize reject
Maputi waste
Bakery waste
Acacia pods
Velvet beans, etc

9. FEED QUALITY CONTROL Reasons for quality testing / checks
Parameters for quality assessment of feed : Anti-nutritional factors (free-gossypol),
- Mould,
- Drug / pesticide residues,
- Salmonella,
- Rancidity,
- ADF – digestibility and NDF – intake , etc
- Milk Urea Nitrogen
Free-gossypol max. 0.!% or 1200mg /kg or 500mg / kg in total diet; rancidity 0.1% delta-pH;

10. APPROACHES TO HOME-MIXING FEEDS
Dairy Feed Concentrates
Dairy Macro-packs or Maxi-packs
Total home-mixing
TMR

11. DAIRY CONCENTRATE FEEDS
Simplest level – partial home mixing
Concentrates are feeds concentrated in a particular nutrient, mainly protein
Conc is diluted with maize, snap corn, roughage or other cereal grains
Example: 40% Dairy Feed Concentrate 1part to 3 ½ parts maize crush to get a 20% Dairy Meal

12. DAIRY MACROPACKS Dairy maxi- pack or macro-pack
Contains monocalcium phosphate, limestone flour, salt, amino acids, a mineral-vitamin premix and feed additives.
Maxipacks range 25 – 55 kg
Targeted farmers with their own maize, cotton seed cake and wheat bran

13. DAIRY MACROPACKS RECIPES
Raw Materials
Dairy 15
Dairy 19
Maize kg
800
700
Cotton cake
145
150
Soya cake 47%
100
Limestone
Dairy Macro pack 47
TOTAL
992
997
NUTRIENTS
By-Pass Protein
g/kg 62 76
ME Ruminant
MJ/kg 12
Fibre 38 40
Calcium 10
Mg, Na, S 2

14. TOTAL HOME MIXING Dairy producer sources all the feed ingredients
Feed formulation programme for least- costing.
Restricted to medium-scale and large-scale operators
High technical skills needed

15. Total home-mixed recipe
Milking ration
Cotton O/C
Maize bran
Maputi
Chicken litter (L)
Soyabean meal
LSF
Salt
Urea
MCP
Dairy premix
Nutrient analysis (%)
DM - 87 CP
Fibre 13 Ca
Salt

16. TOTAL MIXED RATIONS (TMR)
A TMR is a mixture of maize silage, dairy feed concentrates and roughage  
High-roughage or wagon mixers easily available
Mixing a ration involves the following stages:
Weigh the pre- ground feed ingredients,
Put the bulk ingredients portions (roughages)
Blend them thoroughly,
Put ingredients added in smaller quantities
Blend the whole mixture

17. TMRs – Rye Grass-based Low Milkers (<20L) Silage - 28%
18% Dairy meal – 34%
Hominy chop - 5%
Rhodes hay - 3%
Molasses - 2%
Top milkers (>30L)
Silage %
Rye grass %
16% Dairy Meal - 25%
Rhodes hay - 8%
Molasses - 1%
Feed about 50kg/h/dy
Feed about 40kg/h/dy

18. TMR Masese-based Ingredients kg/MT Cotton cake - 270 Maize bran - 230
Maize crush - 170
Brewers’ grain - 150
Molasses
Macropack
Total mix 1002
Nutrients analysis
CP %
Energy met MJ/kg
Fibre %

19. CONCLUSION
Despite challenges that may exist with home mixing; economic pressures of low margins and escalating feed costs make feed ingredient management a priority and home mixing dairy feeds can indeed help in cost saving and restoring viability.

20. THANK YOU!!!!
QUESTIONS &
DISCUSSION