Feeding and Forage

Nutrition plays an essential role in expressing the full potential of your cows and to promote the performance of the dairy cattle. Our team of advisors, supported by seasoned experts, will assist you in developing feed programs and will inform you on the best practices in terms of feed management.

Cost-effective and customized forage rations

Forage abundance and quality vary throughout the year and the cows’ nutritional needs vary with age, parity and lactation stage. Over time, a feed strategy will also require continuous adjustments in order to optimize performance.

Using your milk analysis results and the milk recording reports to their fullest potential, your advisor can help you throughout the year to correct deficiencies and to maximize your milk production and profits.

In addition, our privileged access to each dairy cow’s data enables us to determine their specific dietary needs and formulate customized rations. Using our Ration’L formulation software, your advisor can balance, validate and formulate rations for lactating cows, transition cows and heifers, based on the feeding system (individual, TMR, PMR, in groups).

To ensure that feed costs do not exceed your production revenues, we also help you monitor your feed margin as well as the cost of concentrates.

Laboratory analyses of dairy cow forage

To ensure your forages have their rightful place in rations, it is important to know their nutritional value. Trust us for your forage, silage and other cow feed analysis and the results will be available quickly.

Forage production advisory services

Forages are the basis of dairy cow feed and they offer the potential to produce more milk at a lower cost. 

The production of a large quantity of quality forage at the lowest cost requires expertise and knowledge. For this reason, we favour teamwork with your field advisors (advisory groups, seed companies, etc.) and combine our expertise with theirs to help you achieve your forage production goals, mainly with regard to these four main elements:

1. Economics: producing forages at an optimal cost

We help you calculate the production cost of your forages and set up a plan to keep it under control. Together, we can review the different cost elements and determine where improvements can be made.

2. In the field: improving yield and quality

We calculate your crop yields, field by field, and help you choose the forage varieties according to the needs of your dairy cows:

  • Cows in lactation
  • Cows in transition
  • Heifers

We can help you determine the ideal time for the first cut and the right number of cuts required for your fields. We help you monitor the maturity, quality, quantity, humidity and sustainability of the plants at harvest. Our advisors also assess risk factors which might impact feed during the winter months.

3. Harvest and storage: harvesting efficiently while maintaining quality

Properly stored forages maintain their quality. Our advisory service includes the evaluation and sizing of your storage structure (ideal number and size of silos). We also advise you on the use of additives according to the type of feed.

4. Nutrition: producing milk while maximizing your margin

By providing your cows with quality forage, you can maximize their milk production and minimize costs. We help you determine the precise ratio of quality forage for optimal milk production at the best cost.

We can also help you monitor your forage inventory.

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