Record keeping and expert advice

Maintaining good records of feeds, diets and feed plans is becoming increasingly essential to comply with legal and farm assurance requirements.

As well as demonstrating full traceability, good feed records are invaluable in investigating nutritional links with performance revealed through production, fertility or health records.

They can also be extremely useful in tracking value for money in feed purchasing and comparing current volumes, values or quotations with previous supplies.

For purchased feed ingredients, records should include:

• Feed description (with analysis, if available)
• Date of supply
• Fresh weight
• Load/batch reference (if available)
• Supplier name and address
• Feeding period (dates)
• Cost

Most of this information is typically available from feed delivery notes and invoices.

For home-grown feeds, records should include:

• Feed description (with analysis)
• Observations on preservation/physical quality
• Fresh weight (approximate)
• Reference to field sources (if required for management improvement)
• Feeding period (dates)
• Cost (estimated)

For rations, the minimum requirement is to keep a record of the quantity of feeds being fed to each group of stock.

However, supporting information, such as silage analyses or printouts with nutrient breakdowns, should also be kept.

Home-mixing records should include the dates of mixing, the ingredients and the quantities mixed.

For traceability purposes, feed record information should be kept for at least two years, although more historic records can be very useful for reference purposes.

Even those who formulate all their own diets find it useful to get a second opinion from an outside expert every now and then.

This is particularly valuable when major changes are to be made to the diet – such as moving from one forage to another, at turnout or when performance falls below expectation.

Nutritional advice comes in different shapes and forms, with varying degrees of commercial independence. The best advice invariably comes from professionals who:

• Are independent of any feed supplier
• Have a good practical knowledge of feeding dairy cows
• Understand the herd’s requirements, limitations and feeding resources

For health-related problems, veterinary advice will always be helpful, although it is important to appreciate that vets may not necessarily be experienced nutritionists.

Good expert feeding advice should include:

• A review of the existing diet
• A check of feed analyses
• An examination of milk records
• An assessment of cow body condition
• An assessment of dung consistency
• A general appraisal of herd health

The vet, herd manager and nutritionist should meet together occasionally to review progress, assess problems and agree forward plans.