Report

This newsletter uses some recent research to remind us that stress is never good. The first one reviewed is from NY on conventional operations. The remaining 2 are from Europe using robotic milking systems, with activity collars. The studies are linked because they show the potential impact of changes on performance. Control what you can […]

The first time I heard mid-lactation milk fever was in 2005. We got a call from a client in Hanford regarding half a dozen cows that went down. Most got up with a bottle or two of CMPK. But some had to be euthanized. Luckily we have a senior partner that has seen almost everything.

We have been taught that you shouldn’t use a word to define itself. However, there are exceptions. Like, referring to an orange as being orange in color. I believe stress is stressful is also acceptable. Put another way, it may go like this “I don’t know what stress is, but I know it when I

A large part of our time consulting is spent relaying observations on what works. This includes things like ingredients, management ideas, cow comfort, etc. I asked our team to come up with a few ideas and topics that they know work and have yet to be fully adopted. We do understand the restrictions and challenges

At a recent producer meeting the speaker reminded us of how biological systems rarely result from chance. In general the systems are designed in specific ways to get specific results. This meeting was about colostrum composition and why it is not just composed of antibodies for calf survival. This is an active area of research

The Pine Creek Nutrition newsletters usually come about after conversations – this one is no different. “Better is Better” was discussed the other night with a fellow Penn State grad. We were talking about protein and energy for growing calves. The idea also applies while setting goals and expectations for the year. Jason and I

Introduction Over the past couple of years we have used the discussion of technical versus practical to highlight some real differences between nutrition and feeding as either being terribly complex or rather simple. In most cases getting results is all about practical application; as an example you have probably heard that mycotoxins are the cause

Every year the American Dairy Science Asso- ciation holds national technical meetings. This year the meeting was held in sunny Florida in July! This newsletter will be a short recap of one presentation on rumen adaptation to diet changes with a couple of practical application ideas. Very often research follows this pattern: New data confirms

Valuing Byproducts Ed and I were involved in a discussion on valuing a cull vegetable. In this part of the newsletter we want to cover the thought process we go through when evaluating byproducts. The same process is used when evaluating any substitution of ingredients. We go through a series of questions to get the

This newsletter highlights some of what we do in the background to ensure scientifically sound diets that are grounded in practicality, and are cost effective. Believe it or not the idea for writing on this got started about 4 years ago. Jason and I were hired by a client to go look at a facility