Buckeye Dairy News: Volume 12 Issue 5

Dr. Normand St-Pierre, Dairy Management Specialist, The Ohio State University (top of page) pdf file

At this time of the year, I wish that I could bring you some good news.  I am afraid, however, that what has been a modest recovery for our dairy farms starting in late spring is about to end.  Most dairy farms, still under the shock of the 2009 financial disaster, now barely hold their heads above the water.  What’s next?  Feed prices have gone through the roof, and the November decline in milk prices is just the beginning of further declines based on the current cash prices of butter and especially cheese.  Tight financial management will be the norm for the first half of 2011.

First, let us look at feed prices.  As usual in this column, I used the software SESAME™ that we developed at Ohio State to price the important nutrients in dairy rations to estimate break-even prices of all major commodities traded in Ohio and to identify feedstuffs that currently are significantly underpriced.  Price estimates of net energy lactation (NEl, $/Mcal), metabolizable protein (MP, $/lb – MP is the sum of the digestible microbial protein and digestible rumen-undegradable protein of a feed), non-effective NDF (ne-NDF, $/lb), and effective NDF (e-NDF, $/lb) are reported in Table 2. Compared to historical averages (i.e., since January 2005), NEL is now priced at about average (10¢/lb).  For MP, these figures stand at a premium of about 20¢/lb, or a 195 % premium over the 6 year average.  Thus, although we have seen a substantial increase in the price of corn and other energy commodities this fall, the rise in the protein complex has been more substantial.  One must keep in mind that over the last 20 years, dietary energy (NEL) has been priced at about 5¢/Mcal.  Thus, the current dietary energy cost is still well above the long-run average.  The cost of ne-NDF is currently discounted by the markets (i.e., feeds with a significant content of non effective NDF are price discounted), but the discount is at about the 6-year average.  Meanwhile, unit costs of e-NDF are historically low, with a discount of about 2 ¢/lb over the 6-year average.  Home-grown forages can be inexpensive sources of this important nutrient.

Based on mid December wholesale prices, central Ohio, feed commodities can be partitioned into the three following groups (Table 1).  The disconcerting thing from this table is that only 4 feeds are currently in the bargain column, and nearly half of all feeds are in the overpriced column.  This limits potential feed cost savings from feed ingredient substitution.

Table 1.  Partitioning of feedstuffs, Ohio, mid-December 2011.

As usual, I must remind the readers that these results do not mean that you can formulate a balanced diet using only feeds in the bargain column.  Feeds in the “bargains” column offer savings opportunity, and their usage should be maximized within the limits of a properly balanced diet.  In addition, prices within a commodity type can vary considerably because of quality differences as well as non-nutritional value added by some suppliers in the form of nutritional services, blending, terms of credit, etc.  In addition, there are reasons that a feed might be a very good fit in your feeding program while not appearing in the “bargains” column.  For example, molasses is often used to reduce ingredient separation in TMR.  Molasses is also an excellent source of sugars.  Some nutritionists balance rations for sugars.  In those situations, molasses might not be at all overpriced.

One must remember that SESAME compares all commodities at one point in time, mid December in our case.  Thus, the results do not imply that the bargain feeds are cheap on a historical basis. 

In Table 3, we report the detailed results for all 27 feed commodities.  The lower and upper limits mark the 75% confidence range for the predicted (break-even) prices.  Feeds in the “Appraisal Set” were either deemed outliers (completely out of price), or had an unknown price (e.g., alfalfa hay of different qualities).

Table 2.  Prices of dairy nutrients for Ohio dairy farms, mid-December 2010.

 Table 3.  Actual, breakeven (predicted) and 75% confidence limits of 27 feed commodities used on Ohio dairy farms, mid-December 2010.

Dr. Mark Sulc, Forage Extension Specialist, The Ohio State University

The 2010 Forage Performance Trial Results are available online at http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~perf/. The report summarizes data on commercial varieties of alfalfa, red clover, white clover and tall fescue in tests planted in 2008 to 2010 across three sites in Ohio (South Charleston, Wooster, and North Baltimore). Alfalfa varieties in established stands ranged in 2010 yield from 5 to 9 tons of dry matter per acre and in a spring seeding from 2 to 3 tons per acre. Alfalfa varieties with resistance to potato leafhopper yielded 7 to 19% more than the susceptible check varieties in an unsprayed (no insecticide) trial across three years of data. Tall fescue varieties ranged in 2010 yield from 4.7 to 5.3 tons per acre. Red and white clover trials were seeded in 2010 at South Charleston.  The reported yield of red and white clover varieties was low because the first-harvest yields were not included due to a weed infestation during establishment. Dry weather also had a major impact on subsequent summer harvesting; however, good stands were established.

Mrs. Bonnie Ayars, Extension Dairy Program Specialist, The Ohio State University

Tis the season to wrap up 2010 and think ahead for 2011 4-H Youth Programs.  The 2011 Dairy 4-H calendar is now posted on the opening page at www.4hansci.osu.edu/dairy.  Just this month, the calendar and a letter was mailed out to every 4-H dairy youth that participated in any statewide event and also to every junior dairy exhibitor at the Ohio State Fair.  This provided us an opportunity to reach everyone on a more personal level.

Also, posted on the web page is the current issue of my newsletter, Bonnie’s Buckeye Moos.  It includes several updates on new programming, current events, news, and notes, as well as information about our recognition program for dairy 4-Hers.  Each county will have the opportunity to nominate their members who attended any statewide event (judging contest, skillathons, state fair, clinics, Dairy COWreer Day, etc.)  I will review all nominees and then award Gold, Silver, and Bronze certificates based on their participation.  These will be sent in the mail in January.  County programs will have the opportunity to recognize youth by awarding these at county dairy banquets.  It could also encourage financial support from dairy committees.

A new program on the calendar is the Dairy Palooza on April 30th to be held at the Grammer Jersey Farm.  We continue to have many interested dairy youth who live in the northeastern area but who do not often make it to state events.  Therefore, we decided to take the message to them.   It will be a day filled with hands-on activities focused on topics of interest.  Topics will include how to select your 4-H dairy project, showmanship tips, clipping and fitting, animal husbandry, and a dairy science activity, and there will also be topics of interest for only Cloverbuds.  Volunteers are going to make the day special, and we offer our gratitude to the Grammers for opening up their farm and cattle for this event.