Benefits of Timely Feed Delivery and Push Ups

The physical feeding environment of the cow is comprised of feed bunk space, headlocks, manger surface, alley width, and floor behind the manger. Another factor impacting the feeding environment is the cow's natural behavior.

Cows are naturally competitive and aggressive eaters. For this reason, managing the physical environment is necessary to control the inherent competitive feeding behavior which promotes dry matter intake (DMI). Keep in mind that one pound of DMI translates into two pounds of milk for Holstein cows (Grant, 2015).

Three factors are considered in feed stimulating behavior – delivery of fresh feed, feed push-ups, and milking. Feed delivery is the most important stimulus, but it has its limits (DeVries et al., 2005; Grant, 2015).

Fresh feed delivery twice a day is preferred under most conditions. This significantly improves the efficiency of milk production. Sova et al. (2013) found that, under the twice a day feed delivery strategy, feed was available more throughout the day, was less sorted out, and DMI and milk yield were increased by 3.1 pounds per day and 4.4 pounds per day, respectively.

However, when feeding frequency was increased to four or even five times a day, it reduces dry matter intake and lying time (DeVries et al., 2005).

More frequent feed delivery is particularly beneficial during heat stress conditions as it reduces sorting and improves intake. However, if twice-daily feeding is maintained, it is recommended feeding be divided 40 percent in the morning and 60 percent in the evening as the intake patterns change in hot conditions (Hart et al., 2014).

Pushing feed is perhaps the simplest and least expensive management strategy dairy operators can implement. It is one of the major management factors that explain the differences in milk production between dairy herds. Bach et. al. (2008) found out that herds where feed was routinely pushed up produced on average over eight pounds milk more (63.7 pounds vs. 55 pounds) as opposed to herds that did not push feed.

Pushing feed is most critical one to two hours after the fresh feed delivery. This is the time when cows are most competitive (Grant, 2015) Pushing feed two times per hour as opposed to once per hour for the first two hours after delivery increased milk yield by 4 pounds per cow per day and feeding efficiency by 0.15 pounds milk per pound of DMI with no negative impact on resting time (Armstrong, et. al., 2008).

It is recommended that cows be without feed for not more than three hours. After three hours, cow's motivation to eat increases (Schutz et. al., 2006). When a cow is without feed or when access to the feed bunk is restricted for 10 hours, usually during nighttime, DMI is reduced by 3.5 pounds per day (Collings et. al., 2011).

On the other hand, when cows have unrestricted access to feed throughout the night, from 12 AM to 6 AM, milk yield improved by an additional 7.9 pounds of milk per day, lying time was 1.8 times greater, and cows spent twice much feeding at the bunk (Matzke and Grant, 2002)

Here are some management strategies related to the cow's feeding environment that managers can implement on their farms with minimal or no investment to increase DMI by one pound per cow per day are (Grant and Albright, 2001):

• Feed available on demand
• TMR fed twice daily
• Push-up feed every half an hour for the first two hours post-feeding
• Bunk empty no more than three hours
• Feed refusal target – 3 percent

If you are interested in more on milk yield improvement or the economics of feed delivery and feed push-ups, you can visit this Penn State Extension webinar.