A Recap of This Summit Session
During the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit in February, Walt Moore from Walmoore Holsteins and Jared Kurtz from Kurtland Farms shared how grouping cows based on each stage of lactation, fine-tuning crops from the chopper, and utilizing risk management programs are helping them control feed costs in the midst of record-high fertilizer and grain prices across the market. Rainey Rosemond from Penn State Extension also provided some helpful research and tips.
Click below to access slides from their presentations to share with your dairy team:
Highlights from their session:
- “Six lactating diets sounds like a lot, and it is a lot. But we’re trying to optimize each stage of lactation and really target groups of cows. We do this to try to best match the cows’ needs and keep feed costs in line … My feeder is also extremely consistent on the time he’s putting the feed down. We focus on consistency with the mixing times, too. We try to have that consistency so we’re not over-mixing the feed but also give them a well-blended mix,” Walt said.
“I have a spreadsheet that I use with historical prices for both milk and feed prices. I kind of use that as a guide to help me make my decisions on when I want to engage in the markets, whether it’s locking in a feed price or locking in a milk price. Always track the numbers and have your pulse on the markets. When milk price dropped, we were protected with DMC and DRP which really helped a lot,” Jared said.
Be the first to comment