Producers can gain more from improved milk prices and take some of the sting out of rising feed costs by reviewing their rations this spring and consider using a new range of highly balanced blends of co-products.

“There are options well worth considering,” says James and Son national nutritionist Sion Richards. “They have been developed to meet the nutritional requirements of the cow yet can reduce feed costs by around 30%.”

Three blends are included in James and Son’s new Graze Max range to suit feeding preferences and systems and they are particularly suited to feeding cows during the grazing season.

“Grass is the cheapest feed available to producers and it is particularly good value if maximum use is made of its feed value,” adds Dr Richards. “These new blends complement grazed grass and are designed to improve intake. They are relatively low in protein to balance high proteins in grass but have high starch contents to promote rumen bacteria activity. This encourages the bacteria to capture more protein and sugar from grass so increasing grazing efficiency, yet still providing plenty of fibre to help maintain butterfat at grass.

The three blends are a moist, dry and nutty mix and all include Loch Lomond Gold, a concentrate liquid from the distiller at Loch Lomond. This is a liquid that is high in starch, energy and protein so a valuable feed and made easy to feed in a blend. More is included in the moist blend - making it an ideal addition to a TMR.

Also included in all three rations is FP Cereal, a 70% starch and sugar product that is a blend of cooked breakfast cereal and boiled sweets to give a very energy-rich, high starch product.

“The dry and moist blends also include shredded wheat; a cooked wheat starch that is very high in starch and does not require processing,” adds Dr Richards. “Shredded Wheat is highly digestible and can replace wheat at 0.9kg for every 1kg fed.”

Dairy farms feeding through in-parlour or out-of-parlour feeders can use the nutty blend that has a high proportion of wheatfeed and sugar beet pulp and offers the same advantages as the other Graze Max products but in nutty form.

Graze Max Moist is a 16% protein feed with a dry matter of 45% and 12.9MJ/kg ME. “The moist blend is already popular with producers using a TMR feeding system, especially as it can shave an attractive £30 or £40 a tonne off traditional compound and blend feed prices when compared on a cost per unit of dry matter. The moist blends will contribute at least the same value to milk production and, because of their highly palatable nature, they will increase ration intakes” says Dr Richards.

Graze Max Nutty has the same feed value as the Moist blend and Graze Max Dry has a dry matter of 88% with 13MJ/kg ME and 13% protein as fed.

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