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Description of High Cow Premix Recipes in California Dairies
The objective of this study was to describe high cow premix (HCP) recipes prepared in 13 California dairies ranging in size from 1,000 to 6,000 cows. Records from a consecutive twelve month period, starting from Jan-June 2012, were extracted from the feeding management software FeedWatch 7.0. The variables included were: date, drop number, recipe, ingredient, loading sequence, target weight, as-fed weight, tolerance level, and mixer wagon capacity. Descriptive statistics were conducted with SAS 9.3. Throughout the study period, HCP recipes were prepared on farm at least 90% of the days (n=3) or less than 70% of the days (n=5). The median number of HCP recipe prepared per day were one (n=5), two (n=7) or four (n=1). The median number of ingredients included daily in the HCP recipe was four to six (n=7) and seven to nine (n=6). The number of ingredients included in HCP recipe varied over time within dairy in three (n=3), two (n=5), one (n=4) or zero (n=1) ingredients. The most commonly used ingredients in HCP recipes were canola meal (n=13), whole cotton seed (n=11), dry distillers grains (n=8), corn gluten meal (n=8), almond hulls (n=6), wheat middlings (n=6), molasses (n=5) and rolled corn (n=5). Forages were also included in the HCP [straw (n=5), alfalfa hay (n=1)]. Other ingredients used less frequently were slow release non-protein nitrogen (n=3), beet pulp (n=2), rice grain (n=2), cotton meal (n=2), safflower (n=2), whey (n=2), soybean meal (n=2), by-pass fat (n=1), ground wheat (n=1), and soyhulls (n=1). All dairies but one added the mineral-vitamin mix in the HCP. The ingredients most frequently added first were straw (n=4), cotton seed (n=3), canola meal (n=3), almond hulls (n=1), mineral-vitamin mix (n=1) and wheat middlings (n=1). The ingredients added most frequently last were molasses (n=5), whey (n=2), mineral-vitamin mix (n=4), beet pulp (n=2), soybean (n=1) or corn gluten meal (n=1). Ingredients with assigned tolerance level >10% of admissible deviation from target were mineral-vitamin mix, molasses, and straw (n=1) and mineral-vitamin mix (n=1). The frequency of HCP recipes prepared over 10% of the mixer wagon capacity (based on weight) was over 90% in four dairies. There is a large variation in HCP ingredients and preparation across dairies in California.
Keywords:
dairy cattle
high cow premix
feeding management software