Results are food for thought

The trial has given guidelines relevant to feeding levels of PKE staying within the FEI limits imposed by Fonterra, says Debbie McCallum (Hawera), operations manager for Dairy Trust Taranaki - pictured.

‘‘The experiment showed very little difference in milk production or cow condition score and no difference in reproduction between the two supplementary feeding treatments. However, as kibble maize/barley is substantially more expensive than PKE, it is not seen as a viable alternative to PKE,’’ she said.

‘‘The aim of feeding PKE was to be within the FEI limits imposed by Fonterra. With the early drought last year, pasture supply was tight in early to mid January so we increased the PKE feeding to five kg/cow/day. With decreasing per cow production, this put the FEI level into the C level, which would have been a grade.

‘‘However, as soon as the PKE feeding was reduced to four kg/cow/day and pasture silage was fed, the FEI level was lowered to a non-grading level.’’

Given that the metabolisable energy (ME) value of the grain is 13 compared to palm kernel’s ME value of 11, there was an expectation of greater milk production from the grain-fed herd, says McCallum.

While the cost of grain at 58.6 cents per kilogram of dry matter made its use uneconomic in the Hawera trial, results could be more favourable if the grain could be sourced more cheaply – e.g. grown on farm it was conceded.

‘‘The lower the price the better the economics,’’ says McCallum. ‘‘Yes – grain could be grown on farm but it needs to be dried and crushed. ’’

The trial is continuing this season, but the grain has been replaced with an in shed fed blend with PKE as a base, says McCallum.

‘‘In shed feeding has become popular in recent years, due to improved utilisation of the imported feed and an ability to feed blends and incorporate minerals. The blends are being viewed by farmers as an alternative to PKE to be used in periods of feed deficits.’’