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Hosted by members of the University of Minnesota Extension Beef and Dairy Teams, The Moos Room discusses relevant topics to help beef and dairy producers be more successful. The information is evidence-based and presented as an informal conversation between the hosts and guests.
00;00;13;05 - 00;00;39;10
Brad
Welcome to The Moos Room. It's a sunny day here in western Minnesota. Actually, we've had some rain, which is kind of nice. It's been dry here in the western part of Minnesota, and I was getting a little worried about my pastures. They're growing, but they've kind of started to slow down a little bit. And some have even started pushing a seed head up already, which is kind of a sign of a drought when it's trying to reproduce already.
00;00;39;10 - 00;01;01;19
Brad
So we'll see. We did get some rain in other parts of the western Minnesota that got a lot of rain. We here had maybe a half an inch, which is kind of nice. So we'll see if the grasses come back. We've been grazing quite a bit and heifers out on pasture still have a one group of heifers that I'm training to virtual fence and they're getting used to it.
00;01;01;21 - 00;01;32;06
Brad
It's coming along, but we're going to send those to pasture this week and hope to see what happens. Hopefully they don't escape too much. But speaking of pastures and grazing, I saw a cool study come out from Wisconsin, from the USDA Forage Research Lab in Madison and in Prairie de sac, looking at growth and lactation performance of dairy heifers raised in confinement or pasture.
00;01;32;08 - 00;02;04;02
Brad
And I thought it was kind of interesting. We've did some of that work here at the University of Minnesota a long time ago, and I read this article with some excitement to see if they had found similar results to what happened here at Minnesota almost 20 years. And so I wanted to talk about the two studies, the one from Wisconsin that just came out does brand new stuff that just came out and the one that we did here in Minnesota and kind of see if we find similar things.
00;02;04;05 - 00;02;27;05
Brad
So I think the biggest thing is can we raise heifers cheaper on pasture, and do they have the same lactation production as what heifers are in confinement? And so that was the crux of both of the studies here in Wisconsin and Minnesota. But let's go through the Wisconsin study first and see what they actually found. So in Wisconsin this study was done over two grazing seasons.
00;02;27;05 - 00;02;49;21
Brad
So they started with the heifers right after weaning three months of age until they carved. So they had two grazing seasons on pasture. Obviously we had a winter season in here, Minnesota and Wisconsin. You feed a TMR in the winter time, but these heifers were on pasture for two grazing seasons and compared them to heifers that were raised in confinement.
00;02;49;21 - 00;03;24;13
Brad
And they standardized the winter the pre-party or pre fresh ration and the lactation diet. So after they kept all of the rations were the same. So really any divergence differences in first lactation performance can really be traced back to the pasture grazing seasons. So that's kind of where we start. So for these heifers if you think about the rotational grazing heifers they were raised on cool season perennial grasses orchard grass and smooth brome grass.
00;03;24;15 - 00;04;04;16
Brad
Obviously the confinement heifers were raised on a TMR that was pretty reliant on corn silage and alfalfa silage for the grazing heifers. They targeted grass, hay and minimal calf starter and there was no concentrate in year two, so they didn't provide any concentrate on pasture during the second grazing season. Obviously these heifers were bred and pregnant and didn't feel the need to put any more concentrate in their diets, whereas the heifers in confinement had high concentrate diets of roasted soybeans, DGS and high moisture corn.
00;04;04;17 - 00;04;29;21
Brad
So for management, the grazing heifers had intensive rotational grazing. They were moved to new paddocks every 2 to 4 days based on pasture biomass, which is what traditionally grazing producers do maybe every few days there, moving their heifers so they provide a lot more pasture. And the confinement heifers were raised in obviously a barn in a pen and they were bad.
00;04;29;21 - 00;04;53;07
Brad
1% of body weight of to really control their gain. So that was kind of what that group did. So what what did they find? Well, age at first calving didn't find any difference. Both calves right around 24 month time period. So no really delay in reproductive performance of the heifers while on pasture compared to the confinement ones. Final body weight.
00;04;53;07 - 00;05;28;19
Brad
The confinement heifers carved in about 1,350 pounds, whereas the grazing heifers about 1,310 pounds, so maybe about 40 pounds less than typical confinement heifers. So the pasture heifers had lower average daily gain compared to the heifers in confinement. So what was their average daily gain. Well for the heifers on pasture they were about 0.82 kilos per day, which is about 1.81 pounds.
00;05;28;22 - 00;06;03;07
Brad
And the heifers in confinement were .93 kilos per day, which is about 2.05 pounds per day, so about 0.25 more pounds per day in the heifers that were raised in confinement. So they grew more so, although the heifers that got to calving were 40 kilos or more lighter. This slightly restricted growth is actually a biological advantage that prevents detrimental fat deposition.
00;06;03;07 - 00;06;33;19
Brad
And we'll talk a little bit about that. During the pasture rearing phase they had lower average daily gain. So they had higher forage more bulky diet which required greater physical digestion. So they were relying more on forage, which stimulates rumen expansion and muscle tone. So you have greater physical feed intake capacity by being on forage. They just need to consume more to get the same energy, at least on pasture.
00;06;33;20 - 00;07;03;15
Brad
They had lower average daily gain, which prevented excessive fat deposition in the mammary gland as heifers, and it allowed for inhibited secretory tissue growth. So the final result was first lactation production. We'll get to it in a second. But the heifers on pasture outperform the conventional confinement heifers when they came into lactation. So if you look at dry matter intake across the different studies.
00;07;03;15 - 00;07;28;13
Brad
So this was after they had carved pasture cows after they carved had higher dry matter intake compared to the confinement one. So they had about 1.8 kilos more intake per day, which is about 4 pounds of intake in the pasture cows versus the confinement. So it was really driven by this expanded rumen capacity during their two grazing seasons.
00;07;28;13 - 00;08;11;06
Brad
So the pasture raised animals consistently ingested more high energy TMR throughout their entire lactation, through the whole lactation. Always high, dry, higher dry matter intake. Well, what about production? Pasture raised cows. They had milk production that was 12,335 kilos, which is about 27,194 pounds of milk. And the confinement heifers had 24,000 or 82. So the heifers that were raised on pasture had about 2700 more pounds of milk during the first lactation, so it's about 1230 kilos.
00;08;11;06 - 00;08;43;01
Brad
So they had more milk yield. However, the milk composition so fat, protein, lactose percent were no different. Percentages were no different. So really the pasture advantage was really about the milk volume. Just had more milk volume, almost 3,000 pounds more. So what about feed cost? If we think about feed cost from this Wisconsin study, because feed costs really represent of about 75%, sometimes of the total heifer rearing expenses.
00;08;43;02 - 00;09;15;21
Brad
So there was a 27% savings during the first grazing season and 42%, almost 43% savings in the second grazing season. And this was really led by eliminating the concentrate supplementation in year two. So you had a bigger savings if you're not feeding concentrate or grain during these heifers, obviously they're pregnant in a cab soon. You don't feed concentrate, you save 43% and it doesn't really compromise.
00;09;15;22 - 00;09;46;29
Brad
The calving target of 24 months certainly didn't have any effect on reproduction by eliminating some of these high feed costs. So the heifers that were raised on pasture 30 to 42% cheaper to raise on pasture. And if you think about it, from an income over feed cost, this was during the lactation. They had more feed cost, obviously, even though the pasture raised cows consumed more TMR during their lactation because they had higher dry matter intake, their increased milk production really offset the extra feed expense.
00;09;46;29 - 00;10;36;03
Brad
So by 200 days in milk, the daily income over feed cost of the pasture raised cows was $2.53 greater than the confinement raised animals, so $2.50 more per day by raising the animals on pasture compared to confinement. So really there was this big advantage in pasture feeding. So it's kind of pasture feeding is not necessarily a compromise. I think it's a good economic strategy that decreases feed costs and really helps generate more revenue into lactation, because in this study, they save 42% in feed costs because you're relying more on rotational grazing and the heifers are harvesting their own feed.
00;10;36;03 - 00;11;07;29
Brad
And during lactation they had a $2.53 advantage in income over feed cost because of greater rumen capacity and leaner, utter development. So it really equated to almost 3000 more pounds of milk. So the pasture raised heifers, they ate more, but they also produced more milk during lactation. So really the main finding was spending less on feed during the heifer rearing phase really created a biological carryover effect that drove lactation performance.
00;11;08;01 - 00;11;33;23
Brad
Kind of talk about what happened in Minnesota here. So this was done in Minnesota almost 20 years ago here at the research center that I met in Morris. My predecessor actually did this with a graduate student, so they only looked at heifers. This was kind of during the heifer raising period from 18 months to calving. So maybe not that first grazing season, but the second grazing season that these animals were on.
00;11;33;23 - 00;11;59;02
Brad
So the really the study was to look at raising regime on first lactation performance of heifers raised on pasture or in confinement. So here they had all Holsteins and all heifers were confirmed pregnant by the time they they started the study. So they either had actually they had two grazing treatments. They had continuous grazing, which is just throwing the animals out on pasture and not really rotating them.
00;11;59;02 - 00;12;20;04
Brad
They also had rotational grazing, which is obviously rotating the animals through multiple paddocks. And then they had confinement heifers. So the heifers obviously were on pasture and they were fed basically ad lib. They could eat as much as what they want on pasture. The cows that were in confinement also had tmrw they could, they were fed ad lib so they could have that advantage.
00;12;20;04 - 00;12;44;25
Brad
If they wanted to eat more, they could eat as much as what they want, mostly alfalfa, grass, hay and corn. So if you look at heifer growth, the heifers that were raised on pasture were lighter compared to the heifers that were raised in confinement here in this in the Minnesota study, about 90 pounds less for the heifers that were raised on pasture compared to heifers in confinement.
00;12;44;25 - 00;13;11;12
Brad
So that's about 40 kilos. Average daily gain, heifers on pasture about 1.7 versus 2.3 pounds in confinement. And the heifers that were raised on pasture had less body condition compared to the heifers in confinement. So you have a little bit smaller animal again less average daily gain, less body condition for the heifers on pasture compared to confinement, which is what they found in the Wisconsin study.
00;13;11;12 - 00;13;44;08
Brad
So heifers here at Minnesota, when they came in to lactation, they all got the same TMR alfalfa hay, corn silage, corn grain protein, about a 17% ration protein ration is what they had. Well, if you look at dry matter intake, the heifers that were raised on pasture, whether it was continuous grazing or rotational grazing, they had higher dry matter intake pre calving compared to the heifers that were in confinement.
00;13;44;08 - 00;14;09;22
Brad
So greater dry matter intake just before calving within the first couple weeks, before calving after calving again, heifers that were raised on pasture had higher dry matter intake compared to the heifers that were raised in confinement. And here in the Minnesota study, about 5 pounds of dry matter intake, more for the heifers that were raised on pasture compared to confinement.
00;14;09;22 - 00;14;35;15
Brad
And that's about 2.3 kilos. And here we didn't have many issues, a few if you look at some of the data after calving, one thing that was interesting was calf body weight was about the same compared to animals that were raised on pasture versus confinement calving score. So they had a little bit more difficult carvings for the animals that were raised in confinement compared to pasture.
00;14;35;17 - 00;15;01;09
Brad
And they had more live calves from cows that were raised on pasture compared to confinement, lost about 15% more calves from the cows that were raised in confinement compared to pasture. But what about some of the health disorders? They looked at? Health disorders. Cows that were raised in confinement had more days after calving. They had more calving difficulty.
00;15;01;12 - 00;15;37;02
Brad
They had more ketosis compared to animals that were raised on pasture. So mostly the digestive problems, Da and metabolic issues raised in confinement compared to heifers raised on pasture. So what about milk production? I think you you may be able to predict this. The heifers that were raised on pasture. So rotational grazing had higher milk production, about 5 pounds more of milk production, 2.3 kilos more per day of milk production compared to the heifers that were raised in confinement.
00;15;37;03 - 00;16;03;03
Brad
The continuous grazing heifers had about the same production level as the confinement heifers, but the rotationally grazed heifers had more milk production. Exactly what they saw in the Wisconsin study that was recent. So here in the Minnesota study, from this study, the heifers that were raised in confinement had increased days and more calves born dead compared to heifers raised on pasture.
00;16;03;05 - 00;16;30;19
Brad
The heifers raised on pasture consumed more dry matter during lactation than heifers raised in confinement, and the heifers that were raised in rotational grazing systems had higher milk production compared to the heifers that were raised in confinement. So kind of some interesting studies that just came out here recently from Wisconsin kind of co-operated the Minnesota study from a long time ago.
00;16;30;19 - 00;16;54;08
Brad
It was very interesting. I think there's something to this. And I think it's interesting that farms look for raising their heifers on pasture. Obviously you can help reduce feed costs. That's a big thing. And if really you can reduce feed costs during the heifer rearing phase and get the same milk production, if not more milk production when they come into calving, that's a benefit.
00;16;54;09 - 00;17;17;17
Brad
So we like raisin heifers on pasture out here. They do well, don't have many issues, have high production. So maybe there's something to it and maybe some farms will start looking at raising their heifers on pasture into the future as we go versus raising them in confinement. So with that, hopefully you learned a little bit today about raising heifers and confinement versus pasture systems on a couple studies here from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
00;17;17;17 - 00;17;27;19
Brad
And if you have any comments, questions or scathing rebuttals, feel free to contact me. That's thg moss r o.
00;17;27;22 - 00;17;37;17
Brad
Or find us on the web at University of Minnesota Livestock Extension or UMC Rock dairy. And with that, you have a great week by.