34 | Sustainably meeting demand for nutrition Russell Fredric RURAL SERVICES » ADM Stock Feeds As one of the world’s leading agricultural processors, ADM plays a pivotal role in sustainably meeting demand for animal nutrition needs from a business that extends across six continents. The company established a small presence in New Zealand 10 years ago with just two staff, initially supplying the dairy industry with palm kernel extract (PKE), but has since considerably expanded its products and services. Nutrition sales specialist Hayley Benfell says ADM’s global reach and integrated supply chain is a key point of difference that enables it to deliver unrivalled value by ensuring farmers can reliably obtain competitively priced quality products. This point of difference, along with increased demand from farmers for concentrated feeds aimed at increasing milk production, has underpinned ADM New Zealand’s growth, she says. Consequently the company now employs 30 staff nationwide and its product range today includes palm kernel extract, dried distillers grain, a range of gluten free pellets, soy bean meal and speciality ingredients for bulk and customised animal feed blends to complement farm forages. It also supplies specialised human food ingredients for a variety of sectors including bakery, beverage, confectionery and dairy, while its services includes providing consultancy to farmers. ADM’s nutrition specialists can advise on the best options, including customised blends, for complementing available grasses, forages and other supplementary feeds. “And to find that limiting factor and just to make sure that their cows are fully fed and performing at their best to reduce animal health problems and to maximise performance and production,” Hayley says. One of ADM’s products is Summer Blend comprising highly palatable meal, pellets and kibble which is designed to provide a dairy herd with a cost-effective extra hit of protein and energy as the grass changes over the warmer months. Another, Milkers Blend, is a viable option to increase milk production by providing supplemental rumen degradable protein and energy. Lower metabolisable energy in fast growing grass can be a limiting factor for cows, Hayley says. “Coming into mating you want to make sure they are in a positive energy balance and also to make sure that you’re not supplying them with excess protein.” This will be reflected in milk urea – an approximate indicator of the amount of crude protein in a cow’s diet – which, particularly if over 40mu (million parts per decilitre) when trying to get a cow in calf, means there will be a high percentage of embryo loss. The benefits of good animal nutrition go well beyond in-calf rates, she says. “What you do now will affect the cows in six to twelve months time, so most issues that farmers have throughout the dairy season will start at calving and what happens at calving is dictated at dry- off.” Hayley recognises farmers are sometimes faced with some difficult budgeting decisions in tight times, but says the worst thing is to reduce cows’ nutrient intake. Being proactive versus reactive will pay dividends 100% of the time and this includes ensuring there is at least three months feed supply ahead year-round. “Feeding the cows well is essentially the fence at the top of the cliff rather than trying to deal with the A transition program aims to mobilise calcium, one approach to achieve calcium mobilisation is to lower the DCAD in the springer cows' diet, DCAD diets in New Zealand are between +20 to -15 mEq/100g, this is a broad range, let’s take a closer look at the differences in this range *+ve DCAD: 18.3 mEq/100g Urine pH 8.2 which is 0.7g of mobilised calcium *+ve DCAD: 5.9 mEq/100g Urine pH 7.9 which is 1.7g of mobilised calcium *-ve DCAD: -7.4mEq/100g Urine pH 6 which is 8.4g of mobilised calcium *Leno et al., 2017. J. Dairy Sci. 100:4604 As you lower the DCAD of the diet, and therefore urine pH, greater amounts of calcium are excreted through the kidney. The greater the amount of calcium excreted through the kidney during late pregnancy, the easier it will be for the cow to meet the requirement for milk calcium once she calves. It lessens the difference between required (for milk synthesis) and available calcium (what is being delivered to the exchangeable calcium pool from diet and bone). DCAD value above “0 mEq” will not change the pH of urine. Lowering the DCAD of the diet but maintaining urine pH above 8 may result in a modest positive impact on cases of clinical milk fever. However, there will be little, if any, impact on the number of cases of SCH. DCAD values between “-5.0 mEq” and 0 will lower urine pH values below 7.0. Partially acidifying cows within this range typically results in wide variations of urine pH between cows. Feeding partially acidified diets may result in significant reductions in clinical milk fever cases and will also have a modest impact on the prevalence of SCH. DCAD value below “-10.0 mEq” will result in urine pH values below 6.0. This diet will have a significant impact on reducing cases of clinical milk fever and the degree of clinical milk fever and it will have the greatest impact on reducing cases of SCH. The health and performance of cows will be optimal, with the greatest impact on diseases caused by hypocalcemia. Animate can achieve a DCAD level of -10 to -15mEq/100g. HEALTHY ANIMALS. HEALTHY FOOD. HEALTHY WORLD.® TALK TO US TODAY 027 228 9277 / nzsupport@pahc.com / pahc.com DAIRY ARE ALL DCAD DIETS EQUAL? ambulance at the bottom. “Making sure a cow is in top physical health through really good nutrition and making sure that her mineral requirements are met year-round not just seasonally, that cow will stay in the herd longer, she will produce more over her lifetime and the return from her will be much greater and the baseline cost of treating her with animal health will be lower.” Headquartered in Tauranga, ADM New Zealand has a team of seven representatives nationwide, plus a logistics team that coordinates freight options. It has bulk stores in Tauranga, Taranaki, Timaru and Bluff. ADM’s global reach and integrated supply chain is a key point of difference that enables it to deliver unrivalled value by ensuring farmers can reliably obtain competitively priced quality products.
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