Optimising herd management with metabolic profiling

As part of the Strategic Dairy Farm programme, the team at Potstown looked at how metabolic profiling can help fine-tune the performance of their herd and achieve the margins they require, explains Senior Knowledge Exchange Manager Doreen Anderson.

With margins tight, are you optimising the forage, feed, and performance of your dairy herd? This is a question Strategic Dairy Farm host, Gareth Owen, of Potstown near Lockerbie, has been seeking to address.

Working with Alastair Macrae at the Dairy Herd Health and Productivity Service (DHHPS) at the University of Edinburgh, Gareth has undertaken metabolic profiling of his 255 strong herd to understand more about what his cows need from their diet.

Metabolic profiling can be an efficient and helpful tool to assess the nutritional and health status of your herd. It consists of blood testing cows within representative groups in the herd to measure levels of key indicators, providing information about the protein, energy, and mineral status of your cows. Results can be used to help tailor your feed programme to your herd’s needs, optimising efficiency and reducing waste.

At Potstown, Alastair has been working with the farm’s vets, Ark Vets, who took blood samples from three groups of cows (early lactation, mid lactation, and dry cows) for the DHHPS to analyse. From this, he looked at the levels of beta-hydroxybutyrate, glucose, and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) to assess the energy balance of the cows.

“If we look at the freshly calved cows in the early lactation group at Potstown, we can see that they were struggling with their energy levels. While they should be metabolising reserves, the results indicated that they were doing this at levels over and above what we would have expected,” says Alastair.

Studies have demonstrated the impact that this can have on yield. “We would expect these cows to be producing around one or two litres a day less during lactation,” says Alastair. “American studies have also shown that cows with similar results would be around four times more likely to get metritis or a twisted stomach and about 15% less likely to get back in calf.”

However, looking at the mid lactation cows told a slightly different story and could help shed light on the issues with the early lactation group. “Some of these cows were right on the cusp of what we would want to see. But they were still milking well, so this wasn’t really a cause for concern,” says Alastair. “The fact that this group were doing so well with their good energy results would indicate that there is little fundamentally wrong with their base ration. If the cows are eating enough of it and digesting it properly, the diet is working well.”

The dry cows also returned largely positive results. “When we first tested these cows in January 2022, the results did indicate that there was a problem with the energy, mineral and protein content in the pre-calving diet.” This was put down to the amount of unchopped straw included in the dry cow ration affecting pre-calving intakes. “Gareth was able to amend the diet and remove the excess straw,” says Alastair, “and by the time we tested the cows in March, this group were doing much better.”

Looking at the results as a whole, Alastair can get a clear understanding of where Gareth needs to focus attention to ensure he is getting the most out of his herd. “The fresh calvers are short of energy, but the issue is not a lack of energy in their diet. Nor is it starting with the dry cows. So, the problem must be with freshly calved cow intakes or digestion.”

There are several factors that could be affecting the feed intakes in the early lactation group. At Potstown there is plenty of space at the barrier, but Gareth has considered whether the team needs to be pushing feed up more regularly. They currently do so every two hours between 7:00am and 9:00pm.

The amount fed may also be something to consider. The team was feeding the same number of portions as cows currently in the milking herd. “I’d recommend feeding three to four portions more than the number of cows you have,” says Alastair. “I’d then usually expect between 3% to 5% refusals, assuming that these refusals will then be fed to youngstock or heifers.”

Moving forwards, metabolic profiling is helping Gareth and the team at Potstown fine-tune their feeding practices and build a greater understanding of how the herd can produce the milk quality, yield and margins they wish to achieve. It is a great tool to have in the toolbox for better understanding the needs of the herd.

Farm facts

• All-year-round calving herd of 255 cows and 220 followers
• Half the herd are pedigree Holstein and half are pedigree Jersey
• Cows are fully housed and milked via robots
• 450 acres, of which 325 is grass, 90 is trees/woodland and 45 is for cropping
• Average 9,000 litres per year with 4.8% butterfat and 3.6% protein