Low Milk Prices Research Articles

Dairy farm feeding and income effects of using Voisin grazing management of permanent pastures

AbstractPermanent pastures produce far below their potential, as they are usually managed in the northcentral and northeastern United States. Dairy farmers in these regions generally feed their cattle year-round from stored forage and purchased concentrates, and use permanent pastures as mere holding or exercise areas, grazing them continuously. This practice involves high operating costs that, combined with lower milk prices, have resulted in greatly reduced profit margins. Farming practices that return more net income are needed. The Voisin system of rotational grazing management, which applies intensive management to forage crops on pastureland, is widely used on dairy and sheep farms in New Zealand. Farmers using the Voisin system there have low operating costs and obtain high yields of excellent quality forage over long grazing periods; increased net income results Between 1 May and 1 October 1984, 497 forage samples were taken and analyzed from permanent pastures grazed according to the Voisin management system on six Vermont dairy farms. This was done to provide farmers with current estimates of forage feeding value so that they could balance their cows' rations accordingly throughout the season, and determine if they could improve the profitability of their farms by using Voisin grazing management. Average grazingseason analyses (dry weight) were: 22.5% dry matter, 22.4% crude protein, 20.8% available protein, 28.4% acid detergent fiber, 1.18% calcium, .48% phosphorus, 1.60% potassium, .22% magnesium, and 1.58 Mcal/kg net energy lactation. Average dry forage yield was 8.9 metric tons/ha. Dry matter intake was adequate for milk production up to 36 kg/cow/day. Forage protein and energy contents were sufficient for at least 25 and 18 kg milk/day, respectively. On three farms where economic factors were calculated, net profits per cow averaged $67 more during the 5-month period from using Voisin grazing management, compared to continuous grazing of the same pastureland in the year before Voisin management was used. This profit resulted mainly from feed savings and a more favorable milk:concentrate ratio of 4.1:1 obtained with Voisin management, compared to 2.7:1 with continuous grazing and more feeding of stored or machine-harvested forage. Voisin-managed pastures can produce high yields of excellent-quality forage that can be incorporated into dairy feeding programs, thereby reducing feed costs and increasing profitability of the farming operations.

Economic Effects of High-Level Grain Feeding

The most profitable levels of grain feeding, as measured by returns above cost of feed, were at rates 1,100 to 1,600lb higher for the high than the low response cows. Differences were the greatest when milk-feed price ratios were least favorable.The economic optima in grain feeding were attained at nearly the same levels for the Western and Pacific and the Midwestern areas when normal hay-grain price relationships existed, and milk was priced at $5 and $4 per hundredweight, respectively, for the two areas. These levels of grain feeding were at 5,300lb and 5,200lb for high response cows and 4,200lb and 4,300lb for low response cows, respectively, for the two areas. With more recent higher hay prices in the Western and Pacific area, it became profitable to feed 1,000lb extra grain to high response cows and 600lb extra grain to the lower response cows. Increased hay prices for localized areas in the Midwest resulted in the profitability of feeding 700lb and 600lb more grain, respectively, for the high and low response cows.Reducing the average price received for milk in the Western and Pacific area from $5 to $4.25 per hundredweight, but with no change in feed prices, suggested a reduction in level of grain feeding by 1,000lb for high response cows and 600lb for low response cows. For the Midwestern area, a change from a blend price of $4 to a maunfacturing price of $2.75 per hundredweight, reduced the most profitable feeding rate by 1,100lb for high response cows and by 1,550lb for low response cows.A knowledge of the magnitude of response of individual cows to variable quantities of grain and milk-feed price relationships can form the basis for economical feeding programs. Dairymen can and have in the past made reasonably good adjustments to milk-feed price relationships in their market areas. A 1960 study (7) showed a range of from 1,800lb to 5,500lb grain fed per cow for six milk production areas of California. The low rate was associated with a Northern low-milk price area distant from metropolitan markets. The high level was for the metropolitan Los Angeles area for which a high percentage of milk is contracted at Class I prices.There are some indications that some dairymen are feeding grain at uneconomical levels. A 1963 DHIA special tabulation for Michigan showed no difference in returns over cost of feed for Holstein herds fed 4,500 to 5,999lb grain per cow. Returns were reduced for cows fed more than 6,000lb grain (10).The lack of precise information on production responses of individual cows and the kind of feeding adjustments most profitable during different months of the lactation period makes it necessary for dairymen to do some experimenting and to use judgment in feeding grain to dairy cows.

Some Economic Aspects of Free-Choice Feeding of Dairy Cows

DURING the early 1950's, a series of articles appeared in this Journal concerning the nature of feed-milk relationships and their economic importance.' The articles focused on the following questions: (1) Are the marginal rates of substitution between hay and grain constant or changing? (2) Does the principle of diminishing returns apply to milk production? (3) What is the economic significance of the feed-milk relationships? Some previous estimates of feed-milk relationships are used in this study to compare net returns for optimum rations (rations giving maximum returns above feed costs) with most profitable stomach-capacity rations, after adjusting for body weight changes and the additional costs of limiting roughage intake. Four hay/grain price combinations40/80, 30/70, 25/75 and 45/55-were selected to approximate alternative price situations which could exist in North Carolina.2 Two milk prices, $5.75 and $5.00, were selected to represent, respectively, the North Carolina average blend price and a lower milk price. The hypothetical milk production function in Figure 1 provides the theoretical framework of the problem. If the marginal rates of substitution are changing (nonlinear isoquants), the expansion path (DE) may be as shown. However, if the marginal rates of substitution are constant (linear isoquants), the expansion path will coincide with either the