My grandfather used to talk to me about the “spring flush” and the “fall slump.”  To me, these words were as synonymous with the changing seasons as “spring ahead” and “fall back.”

Advancements in management, tillage practices and nutrition have reduced the differences in production that some of our pasturing neighbors might experience with the “spring flush.” However, I still see farms of all shapes, sizes and styles face the dreaded “fall slump” on an annual basis with new crop corn silage. Production losses of 2–8 pounds of milk can be common, coupled with surges in fat and protein and increased instances of hindgut fermentation. Let’s take a closer look at some of the causes and potential solutions to this corn conundrum.

What’s behind the annual “fall slump” with new crop corn silage?

Corn silage can be the most energy-dense forage that we feed. Comparatively, it also has the highest yield potential and is, arguably, the most consistent forage that we harvest. Despite these benefits, there can be some drawbacks, including variability in quality related to changes affecting starch and fiber.

Of all these challenges, there is one in particular that reigns supreme over the king of forages. It is, of course, our friend and nemesis, Mother Nature, which can give us bumper crops or colossal failures. Success often hinges on the weather at the time of planting, silking and harvesting. Temperature and rainfall amounts can swing the pendulum, causing corn silage yield to range from 10 tons to the acre to 30 tons to the acre.  

Fiber

There is significant research on fiber digestibility in corn silage. Much of that information shows that neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility does not really increase over time, post-harvest. It seems that, in most cases, we have what we have. 

The greatest influences on NDF digestion are based on genetics, varietal differences and, most importantly, the weather. Years ago, certain cuttings and certain crops just fed well, but we were not sure why because the traditional fiber measurement methods of lignin, acid detergent fiber and NDF did not clearly distinguish performance. New testing methods and research can now demonstrate that the once-leaned-on lignin numbers were good on legumes but wildly variable on grasses, small grains and corn silage. With all the recent research on both 30-hour NDF digestibility and undigested NDF (uNDF240), we know so much more about the fast and slow pools of forage digestion.

A major nemesis to digestibility in our forage crop is the plant itself. We are beginning to understand the effects of cross-linking, the plant’s defense against stress, on our corn silage as well as other forages.  Cross-linking in the fiber portion of the plant will lock up digestibility as a defense mechanism. Because of the unknowns that come with Mother Nature, we can do everything just right and still have a silage crop that feeds below average.

There are three solid fiber-specific strategies for coping with the loss in production in the fall:

1. Feeding digestible corn silage varieties like brown mid-rib can reduce the lag time that it takes for the starch portion of the forage to catch up. Of course, selecting the correct relative maturity for the climate, elevation and soil type will make optimal harvesting much easier to achieve.

2. Tweak the digestible fiber that is delivered to the cow. In the past, wise nutritionists would outsmart the silage slump with a combination of increased starch levels and forage fiber sources like soy hulls, citrus pulp and wet brewers grain. The addition of these fiber byproducts can reduce the percentage of the indigestible forage.

3. Utilization of fiber-digesting enzymes like Fibrozyme® can help unlock some of the forage potential.

Starch

The real wild card is the starch portion of the corn silage plant. Research on monitoring the seven-hour starch digestibility levels yields some telling information over time. Starch digestion starts off at a crawl and ends up in a sprint. Many trials show that the starch portion is still increasing digestibility at close to 300 days after harvest. Our milk fat test surely knows the feeding difference between new crop corn silage and feeding out 9-month-old corn silage.

Why does this happen? Kernel type is a vital piece of the puzzle. There’s been a lot of talk of flinty versus floury kernels, and there’s been quite a bit of recent trial work on floury kernel types. 

The protein-starch matrix is crucial to how the corn will digest. The more vitreous the kernel type, the longer it will take to achieve maximum digestibility. Corn breeders are researching varieties and kernel types that will feed out faster than they have in the past. Recent research suggests that lower test weight varieties will feed out quicker than higher test weight varieties.

We can tweak the starch digestion somewhat with management during harvest and some management of the cow. Adequate processing of the kernels at harvest will help to break down the particle size, which will aid in starch digestion. Additionally, starch-digesting enzymes, like Amaize®, have been shown to assist in breaking down some of the starch so that the rumen can utilize it more efficiently. Consult with your seed representative, agronomist and nutritionist to see what the best option is for your soil type, ration and day length.

I want to learn more about improving nutrition on my dairy.

Calf care is key to the profitability and longevity of a herd. When it comes to attention to detail and calf health management, there are few better than White Rock Farms in Peachland, North Carolina.

Owned and operated by Roddy Purser, White Rock Farms of Peachland, North Carolina, includes a 600-head Jersey dairy farm, hog houses and a layer operation. An innovative first-generation dairyman, Roddy saw opportunity in the dairy industry, and he knew that the secret to success was putting together a capable team equipped with both passion for the industry and the knowledge to build a successful herd.

Dakota Sparks is one of those team members. She is in charge when it comes to managing calves at White Rock Farms.

Drew Gibson and Dakota Sparks, herd managers at White Rock Farms

Dakota has helped White Rock Farms to maintain a less than 1 percent death loss on the farm since the beginning in 2014. She attributes this astounding success to four key elements: an employee dedicated to calves, cleanliness, a prevention approach and no cutting corners.

How White Rock Farms has kept their calf death loss to less than 1% since 2014

1. An employee dedicated to calves

Dedicating an employee to calves can be difficult for many farms, but as a farm grows, it becomes even more important.

Dakota is the manager of White Rock Farms’ calf area, a responsibility she takes very seriously. Feeding

calves twice a day starts with the White Rock Farms’ team removing water buckets and replacing them with milk buckets. This gives employees the opportunity to check calves while emptying, cleaning and refreshing water. These opportunities to observe calves are important for identifying any illnesses or abnormalities, so Dakota and her team devote their full attention to the task.

2. Cleanliness

Once utilized, every hutch is cleaned. All sand and gravel are removed, and the hutch is kept vacant for one to two weeks.

Once ready for a new resident, Dakota’s team utilizes a layer of black cloth at the bottom to keep the sand from falling through and then adds new gravel. This attention to detail reduces disease transmission from one calf to another, giving newborn calves the best possible opportunity for a healthy start. Not only are the hutches cleaned and sanitized after each calf, but calf buckets are sanitized after each feeding.

After the calves are fed milk, their buckets are cleaned in a three-stage process:

1. The first water bath includes 125°F water with soap.
2. The second bath contains 145°F water with soap.
3. The third and final bath holds cold, chlorinated water.

Buckets are then stacked to air dry before the next feeding.

3. Prevention approach

Antibiotics are used only in instances of severe illness, but are rarely needed, according to Dakota. By taking a preventative approach, the need for therapeutic treatment is minimized.

White Rock Farms pasteurizes all colostrum and milk that is fed to calves and frequently utilizes electrolytes in water to help give calves a little boost. Dakota remarks that, when used properly, there can be substantial cost savings to pasteurizing milk for calves, especially once the cost of the pasteurizer is recouped (which occurred in two years for White Rock Farms).

4. No cutting corners

All colostrum is tested. This test is to identify the quality of the colostrum based on IgG antibody levels in the milk. If it meets the requirements, it is then used, refrigerated or frozen if not utilized within 24 hours. The frozen containers are organized and marked with the necessary information to enable easy retrieval of bags.

Roddy is confident the extra investments are worthwhile, as evidenced by heifers that are outperforming their mothers. With a solid foundation of nutrition, their calves have a healthy jumpstart on reaching breeding age with minimal illness.

White Rock Farms is a customer of CPC Commodities, based in Cowpens, South Carolina and is currently feeding the following Alltech products: Select GH®, Yea-Sacc®, Integral® A+, Bioplex® Hi-Four, Optigen® and Sel-Plex®

To listen to our entire conversation with Matthew, click on the player.

Tom:                      Where is the world’s most exciting animal nutrition market? Matthew Smith is here to tell us about that. Hint: Matthew is Alltech vice president of Asia-Pacific. Thank you for being with us, Matthew.

Matthew:                It’s a great pleasure.

Tom:                      Let’s go to that question. What country is home to the most exciting nutrition market?

Matthew:                One word: Vietnam.

Tom:                      And why is that?  

Matthew:                I would describe Vietnam as the most dynamic marketplace for agribusiness and agri-food currently within the Southeast Asian region. It’s probably best to put Vietnam in context with the Asian countries: It has the second-highest population density of the Asian countries. Of course, number one is Singapore. Singapore is a completely different model. Food security is the main concern in Singapore. But in Vietnam, we have many hidden treasures that are yet to be discovered globally, which are making a big difference in the industry in Vietnam. They have the potential to change the way in which other countries produce protein by adopting the right technology and the right platforms to get to the consumer.

Tom:                      What are the dynamics in Vietnam? What’s driving this?

Matthew:                The consumer. It’s very much a move toward growth in the middle-income bracket and the desire to westernize. Food is very much about culture in Asia, and culture is about food. The two are inseparable.

                              We do see a significant shift toward well-being and wellness and a more informed choice about food, maybe food with a story.

                                Clearly, the dominant segment of the industry — the highest consumption — is pork. When we look at that as a metric in the feed industry, pork or swine feed would account for about 64 to 65 percent of the 19 million tons of feed consumed annually in Vietnam. The majority of the remainder is poultry feed, so it’s really very conventional.  

                               However, we’re seeing big growth now in the move toward packaged and processed food. And, ironically, the biggest segment of the packaged food market is milk. I would describe milk as probably the real disruptor at the moment within the Vietnamese industry.

Tom:                      Can you elaborate on that?

Matthew:                I say the biggest disruptor because, where is the largest centralized dairy in the world?

Tom:                      Vietnam?

Matthew:                Good answer. That wouldn’t be apparent to most people. When we say centralized dairy, there is a business in the central part of Northern Vietnam that was originally a joint venture with an Israeli conglomerate and the Vietnamese government. They decided that they were going to produce milk in what effectively is a desert. And they now milk 42,000 cows on one farm, with the majority of the feed being produced on the farm in terms of total mixed rations.

                              The business is called TH Milk. It’s a fully integrated operation, a runaway success story in terms of the utilization of technology, whether it be milking technology or feeding technology or technology that they use to purify the water for the cows to drink. Also, the way in which they process all of the effluent and waste from the dairy farm so that you will have an entirely sustainable unit.

                               But, when we talk about disruption, it’s the way in which that milk is sold. Milk is very much seen as a premium drink. Domestically, the dairy industry within Vietnam only produces about 28 percent of demand. So, that creates a huge opportunity. The business, TH Milk, and other businesses that operate in a similar fashion have really made the purchase of milk into a consumer experience. 

Tom:                      Is dairy a relative newcomer to the Vietnamese diet?

Matthew:                No. There would have been a lot of what we would describe, maybe, as backyard farming in terms of dairy production. So, it would have been sustenance. We would have two, three cows, and we would produce for the family and the neighbor. We would share the milk. However, given this huge increase in demand for the consumption of milk, that’s prompted much more cohesive dairy farming and has attracted a huge amount of investment. That sums up Vietnam’s move away in the 1990s from a centralized approach to agriculture and food production and much more toward primary production and integration.

Tom:                      What are the opportunities for emerging technologies, innovation in the Vietnamese market?

Matthew:                One of the biggest trends that we see within the Vietnamese market is the use of technology on the horticulture side. There is a lot of investment from engineering industries, from car manufacturers, from businesses that would not historically have been related to agriculture in terms of them utilizing distribution mechanics.

                               We’re talking about growing vegetables in an enclosed environment: hydroponics, etcetera. And those other industries see a lot of overlap with their technologies in terms of assisting in a huge increase in vegetables, which would be grown very close to the cities, which obviously are the primary markets.

Tom:                      I’ve read that Vietnam’s aquaculture market has nearly doubled in only a few years. If that’s true, what’s driving it?

Matthew:                One of the most recognized brands in the U.S. and Europe would be barramundi. Barramundi would be the Asian sea bass equivalent. The brand is actually called Australis. Most consumers would buy that to fillet. Very nicely packaged and very heavily branded, believing that it’s come from Australia. But it hasn’t. It’s from a very progressive operation, which grows the barramundi offshore in cages, in an extremely isolated environment that has incredible water quality, which is what’s needed for sustainability and to grow the fish and have a good feed conversion rate.

                              That’s just one example of people using a brand that doesn’t necessarily present itself as coming from Vietnam, but that is utilizing the environmental assets Vietnam has. You do have to contrast that with some of the challenges that Vietnam has in terms of the environment, the recycling of waste, areas the industry is attempting to tackle. That’s another opportunity for technology.

Tom:                      We’ve been focusing on Vietnam, but what about other countries in the region such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Mongolia?

Matthew:                All of those countries represent a huge opportunity for technology for a number of different reasons. Cambodia is wedged between Vietnam and Thailand, two countries that have much greater recognition in terms of the food chain and primary production. But Cambodia itself is a natural resource, a very clean environment where crops can be grown, particularly in the south. As you move up to the north, you start to see the opportunity for fruits and vegetables to be grown. Cambodia is the world’s largest exporter of mangoes, a fact that is not necessarily at the forefront of people’s minds when they consume a mango.

                               We have to embrace the local regulations, which, until recently, has been a challenge for businesses going into those countries to set up operations. But there is a growing industry in Cambodia on the aqua side, a growing industry on the poultry side.

                               Myanmar, for many, many years was a closed market, but now government policy is changing. Myanmar is dominated by the poultry industry. And that poultry industry has the potential to grow with technology, to scale up and be in a stronger position to supply the export markets.

Tom:                      What disruptors do you expect to see in this emerging market?

Matthew:                I guess the implementation of a more cohesive food chain, more cohesive supply chain and retail outlets.

                                Thailand and Vietnam are not well-known for having big supermarkets, but they have an increasing number of smaller retail outlets, which are generally owned as part of integrated operations. So, whilst we still have a big wet market where food is bought on a daily basis and consumed that day, there is a much greater move toward processed and packaged food, and that has big implications. It requires a supply chain. It requires refrigeration. It requires speed. But with growing affluence in that middle class, the opportunity for the consumer to purchase packaged food is a clear opportunity and will be a disruptor moving forward.

Tom:                      How is Alltech fitting into the Vietnamese market? What’s going on there?

Matthew:                We opened our Vietnamese office in 1993. So, we’ve been there for some time now. As with all of the Alltech businesses, we really look to localize our approach in terms of the makeup of the team from a production point of view, from sales, from a marketing perspective. People who really know and understand the industry.

                              Vietnam has been a very successful marketplace for us in the past 24 years, and we just see our business going from strength to strength as we are now in the position to offer more feed solutions to a growing feed industry.

                               Across the Asian countries, we’ve had a presence for a minimum of 20 years. Myanmar is new. Cambodia is new, and Mongolia will be very new for us. A very small market, but it represents the opportunity for us to localize our business and takes us into more of those countries. 

Tom:                      Matthew Smith is Alltech vice president of Asia-Pacific. Thank you so much for joining us.

Matthew Smith spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE17). To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech Idea Lab. 

If you’ve ever slathered your bread with rich Irish butter, you may have wondered if the Emerald Isle’s grasses impart some sort of magic to its grazing dairy cows.

And perhaps there is a sort of magic. We’ve put together four reasons why Ireland is a promised land for dairy cows, a place where blessings flow out to the world in the form of butter, milk, infant formula, yogurt and cheese.

1. The comfortable climate

Pack your wellies! There’s a reason Ireland’s rolling hills appear so green and lush.

Rainfall is common on the island. The east typically experiences 30 to 40 inches of rainfall per year, and the showers are even more abundant in the west, which receives between 40 and 50 inches. But the mountainous regions of Ireland top them all, literally; rainfall there can exceed 118 inches per year!

In the winter months, the average temperature ranges from 40 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Summers stay cool, with temperatures ranging from 57 to 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite the rain, the climate remains relatively comfortable for cows and farmers all year long.

2. The greener grass

Generous rainfall, mild weather conditions and rich soils contribute to an abundance of grass for pasture.

In Ireland, the dairy farming schedule is dependent on this grass. When cows calve in the spring, they eat as much grass as they can during their 300-day lactation period. More than 80 percent of Ireland’s agricultural land is devoted to pasture, hay and grass silage for this exact reason! The land area of Ireland is 6.9 million hectares, of which 4.4 million hectares is used for agriculture (DAFM, 2014).

3. A growing milk market

In 2014, the Irish dairy industry had an estimated value of €3.06 billion ($3.61 billion) in exports to 140 countries, and its milk production is expected to increase approximately 50 percent by 2020!

According to the Central Statistics Office in Ireland, 2016 domestic milk output checked in at 6,654 million litres, which led to the production of:

• 527 million litres, or 139 million gallons, of milk sold for human consumption.
• 198,700 tonnes (219,000 U.S. tons) of butter.
• 117,700 tonnes (129,700 U.S. tons) of skimmed milk powder.
• 205,000 tonnes (225,900 U.S. tons) of cheese.

There are approximately 139,600 family farms in Ireland. Although they manage only 1 percent of the world’s dairy cows, they are responsible for producing more than 15 percent of the world’s infant formula!

4. There is more than one cow for every four Irish people!

In 2016, the total number of dairy cows in Ireland hit a record high of 1.39 million cows. Comparing this to the population of Ireland of 4.773 million, this means there is just about one cow for every four Irish people.

Come see Ireland for yourself on our Great Green Getaway. U.S. dairy producers with a minimum herd of 50 cows are invited to enter our sweepstakes for a trip to Ireland during St. Patrick’s Day week 2018.

Sources

CSO statistical release, 28 July 2017

http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/ms/milkstatisticsjune2017/

Irish Meteorological Service. July 2017. Climate of Ireland. Retrieved from https://www.met.ie/climate/climate-of-ireland

The Irish Times. March 7, 2015. There’s one cow for every four Irish people: the milk facts. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/there-s-one-cow-for-every-four-irish-people-the-milk-facts-1.2129270

World Trade Center Dublin. March 16, 2016. The Emergence of the Irish Dairy Industry: a Success Story or a False Hope? Retrieved from http://wtcdublin.ie/the-emergence-of-the-irish-dairy-industry-a-success-story-or-a-false-hope/

WHAT: Join Dr. Roger Scaletti, Alltech mineral management program technical support and sales for North America, for a live webinar covering trace minerals, their role in livestock health and performance, and how they can be used to optimize herd health, udder health and reproduction. Scaletti will also discuss how to choose the right mineral and how form can play a substantial role in mineral retention.

Scaletti received his bachelor’s degree in animal science from Pennsylvania State University in 1995 and his Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Kentucky in 2003. He has traveled around the world to discuss mineral nutrition and mastitis.

WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017

2:00 p.m. ET

WHERE: Reserve a spot now via this link. If you are unable to attend the live webinar, you can register via the link to receive the recording.

OTHER: Scaletti’s presentation will be followed by a live question-and-answer session.

To listen to our entire conversation with Emmet, click on the player.

Tom:                           Emmet Savage is co-founder of Moocall, one of the 10 finalists in The Pearse Lyons Accelerator program and one of two out of Ireland. He has founded numerous companies in the construction, demolition and fashion sectors. Moocall, however, is quite different from all those. And, under Savage’s leadership, the Moocall team has expanded into 38 countries in 28 months. Thanks for being with us, Emmet.

Emmet:                       Thank you. Nice to be here, Tom.

Tom:                           So, what inspired this technology?

Emmet:                       It all came about when a guy who used to work with me on the demolition side came to me with an idea. He was a farmer’s son, and they lost a heifer and a calf, which was really a huge loss to the family both emotionally and financially. So, he had an idea that there was really something specific in the movement of the cow’s tail when she’s close to giving birth. He had done some really early stage testing on it, and then he brought it to me. I was able to put some seed capital behind it, and we proved the concept really quick. So, it was that original loss that spurred the thought process around how we could solve this problem, and Moocall was born.

Tom:                           Is this “tail switching” something that’s commonly known in the cattle industry?

Emmet:                       It would definitely be commonly known by the farmers that a tail moves in a specific way. No one had actually gone into scientifically looking at what those specific movements were. But, when we started to research the tail movements, we realized very quickly a contraction makes the tail move a specific way. So, our device measures contractions and can then accurately give a farmer an hour’s notice as to when the calf is going to be born.

Tom:                           Your website says, “Enjoy healthier cows and calves, more sleep and increased profits.” What is Moocall, and how does it deliver healthier cows, more profit and, above all, more sleep?

Emmet:                       Sure. Obviously, healthier calves are a direct result of the farmer being there when the birthing process is happening. In a lot of cases in calving, there are problems with getting the calf out, or there could be a leg back. There are all sorts of problems. At that point, if the farmer is there, he can then make a decision to intervene himself or to call the vet. So, in doing that, we’re increasing profits on farms, delivering healthier calves and helping the farmer.

                                       And sleepless nights are something a lot of farmers will understand. They set alarm clocks every few hours to check on their herd. Most times when you’re walking down to check on the herd, there’s nothing happening. So, it’s a wasted trip, and sleep deprivation happens. With Moocall, you have it on the cow’s tail. You go to sleep soundly with the knowledge that Moocall will wake you when you need to be awakened and not unnecessarily.

Tom:                           Could you describe exactly what the device looks like? It slips onto the tail, correct?

Emmet:                       It doesn’t actually slip on. What we have is a ratchet system that you’re going to open up. You wrap it around the cow’s tail. You put the strap back through the ratchet. We put it in what we call “hand tight,” which is basically pushing the strap in, and then you give it two or three clicks of a ratchet, which tightens it onto the tail just enough to hold it in place. It’s like a turtle shell, and it’s actually designed on the concept of a turtle shell because there are no hard edges for the sensor to catch when it’s on a cow’s tail. So, it’s a turtle shell-shaped green sensor that has a little ratchet strap for attachment.

Tom:                           And so, it sends data to a smart device — a cellphone, an iPhone or whatever, right?  

Emmet:                       Yeah. It sends to any phone that can receive a text message. That’s good enough to operate our device.

Tom:                           What if the farm is located in a weak area for cell service?

Emmet:                       Yeah. We’ve pretty much got around that as well. We have a roaming agreement with Vodafone, our connectivity supplier. These big telcos have lots of tier partners around the world. So, for example, in America, AT&T and a lot of other cellphone providers work with Vodafone and allow Vodafone’s internet of things (IoT) service to roam on to their services. So, in most cases, our device will roam on to another network provider because of a deal done higher up the chain with Vodafone themselves.

                                    We’re also sending a very small piece of data. It’s not really like a text message. We gather all the data. We send it to a server in the cloud and that then sends the text message. So, when it’s a smaller piece of data, it’s easier to get out. In nearly all cases, our devices will work even with the lowest cellphone signal.

Tom:                           Electronics are not known to be very moisture-friendly. What if it rains?

Emmet:                       We have a fully watertight product. We conformal coat all our electronics inside the device, and then we have an ingress protection rating on the device as well. So, it’s fully waterproof. It can even be washed in a bucket of water. There are no problems with moisture or rain.

Tom:                           Can more than one of these sensors be used at the same time?

Emmet:                       Oh, absolutely. The unit itself is fully transferrable. We recommend one unit for every 30–40 head of cattle depending on your calving pattern. If you’re calving year-round, it might go as high as one to 60 or 70 cattle. But if you’re compact calving or really tight calving, it might go as low as one to 20. So, what we ask our farmers to do is go out, have a look at what one or two sensors will do for them, and then they make the decision themselves how many they need.

Tom:                           And how about accuracy?

Emmet:                       We’re at 95 percent accuracy across all commercial and pedigree breeds. So, it’s only that 5 percent we miss that are the really easy calvers. So, if you can imagine a really old mature cow putting out a really small heifer calf, her contractions don’t hit the levels that would be required to trigger the device. So, in that case, that’s the 5 percent, and nearly always that calf will be born quite easily without stress, anyway.

Tom:                           Do you consider Moocall technology an industry disruptor, and in what way?

Emmet:                       I think it’s a huge disruptor. When we started to research what was available to farmers in calving detection, there was very little. There were very expensive inserted probes that use a base station. These were generally $4,000–$5,000.

                                    Then there were the old-fashion cameras, which are very expensive and only will work if the cow is facing in the right direction. They’ll never pick up an internal problem in the cow. And, obviously, the alarm clocks we mentioned earlier!

                                       Moocall retails at $299. So, that’s very disruptive against an offering that’s more than 15 times more expensive. And we’re accurate, easy to use. People understand what we’re doing very, very quickly. So, hugely disruptive. The internal probe company that had been operating in Ireland had literally moved out within a year of us launching, and we haven’t seen them since. So, we’re obviously disrupting a little bit!

Tom:                           Do you have other devices under development, ready to roll out?

Emmet:                       We sure do. What I’m really, really excited about is, we have a product going to launch in September. It’s an IoT device again, and it will be in the heat detection and breeding management space. This device will quite simply text you when a certain cow enters her standing heat. That is hugely valuable to any farmer. Once he knows she’s in heat, he can then get his artificial insemination guy or a bull. When the cow doesn’t cycle again three weeks later, we know that she’s pregnant and the exact due date of the calf she’s having. So, all that information will be available.

                                      The sensor is going to auto-populate the breeding management system as well, which is key for all the farmers. You will have a smartphone in your hand with all of your breeding information on it. You will have inputted none of the data. It’s all auto-populated by the sensor. We spoke about disruption a minute ago. This is equally as disruptive. The offering at the moment out there for heat detection again is base station-related and is in the region of $10,000–$15,000 for a system for 50 head of cattle. We’re going to come in one-tenth of that. And, it’s fully mobile.

                                       So now the beef guys have a full solution. Today, they’re using tail paint and very primitive ways of measuring heat. We will give them an option to adopt high-accuracy technology at a very affordable price.

Tom:                           It sounds to me as though there is just a wave of technology entering the agricultural realm. Big changes.

Emmet:                       Huge changes. I see a lot of changes in what I call our area of expertise, IoT, the ability to use the cell phone network to transfer data back to the farmer’s phone so he can act on making informed decisions. I see it in the accelerator that I’m involved in, such as magnetic spraying that reduces drift. You magnetize the water. You break up the particles much smaller. They stick to the plants you’re trying to spray and reduce chemicals and reduce drift.

                                       What you see in the accelerator is probably cutting-edge for what is happening, but there’s so much happening. It’s all about data. It’s all about recurring revenue. And it’s all about making the farmers’ lives easy.

Tom:                           And what about your work do you enjoy most?

Emmet:                       I just love the fact that I’m in a startup. Nothing ever goes as planned. There are so many highs and lows. You’ve got financial concerns and you’ve got staffing concerns. All these problems pop up at a minute’s notice. It’s never, you go in and you think, “Today is going to be clear. I’m going to get loads done.” But it’s that unpredictability of a startup that I love and the challenge of getting over these problems that arise on a daily basis. Keeps you on your toes!

Tom:                           Moocall co-founder Emmet Savage. Thank you so much for joining us.

Emmet Savage spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE17). To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech Idea Lab. For access, click on the button below.

Big data is ready for the farm. But is the farm ready for big data?

Agriculture is the least digitized major industry in the United States, according to a recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute.  

Farmers sometimes struggle to see the benefits of new technologies. Some have been burned by investments that they feel did not deliver, making them reluctant to commit and invest again, according to Alltech chief innovation officer Aidan Connolly.

In Connolly’s view, however, agriculture, with its inefficiencies, offers greater opportunity for improvement than any other industry.

And there is recent evidence that the sector is now racing to catch up at a supercharged pace, spurring innovation that is virtually transforming farming.

However, as drones, sensors, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, smartphones and high-speed mobile internet gather and analyze data, growers and producers are struggling to manage the resulting deluge of information.

Eighty-four percent of U.S. farmers who responded to a recent Stratus Ag Research (SAR) survey said they have high-tech equipment that captures reams of data from livestock, planting, harvesting or crop protection operations. Yet only 42 percent of them are actually transferring this information to a field data management software program for further analysis. 

Connolly has observed that technological solutions are sometimes over-engineered, capturing a lot of information that the purchaser doesn’t see as beneficial. He suggests that these technology companies would benefit by narrowing the focuses and applications of their innovations.

“Entrepreneurs are throwing out a lot of information and analysis and hoping some of it will stick, most of which doesn’t, and indeed it ends up distracting from the real value that they provide,” he said

Establishing that value creates an enormous frontier of opportunity.

For technological entrepreneurs like KEENAN, the Irish feed mixer manufacturer and Alltech acquisition, those circumstances invited a response: expansion into farm data analysis.

“We've been involved with the internet of things (IoT) since about 2011,” said Conan Condon, director of KEENAN’s InTouch. “At that stage, there wasn't much connectivity. There were about 12 million connected devices. Today, there are about 6.4 billion connected devices. So you can see the growth that has happened within six years.” 

Today, more than 2,000 livestock operations, ranging in size from tens to thousands of cows, use the InTouch system, a live review and support service that helps producers apply actionable intelligence to their operations, giving them the benefit of KEENAN’s access to data on more than 1.3 million monitored cows.

Data-gathering technology represents a profound departure from “the way it’s always been done.” John Fargher is a fifth-generation Australian livestock producer and the co-founder of AgriWebb, a late-stage startup producing farm and livestock management software.

“I identified the problem on our own family farm, which is a simple one: farmers and ranchers running their business off pencil and paper,” he said. “We can now track all the inputs and all the outputs across that business and then facilitate data-driven decisions.”

Who sees my farm’s data?

2016 saw investments in data-driven agriculture fall 39 percent from 2015, according to the SAR report.

“It plateaued for one reason: the inability of everybody to share data,” said Condon.

“We're very open to sharing data,” he continued. “Always have been and always will be. Too many people are holding onto what they think is their farm data, and the farmer is not benefitting from the sum of all data.”

Some farmers express concerns about the security of their information. How might companies and government officials exploit and profit from their data? Who gets to access it? Who owns it? Does having data somewhere in the cloud leave it vulnerable to attacks and misuse?

All these questions remain largely unanswered, even as the technology pushes ever forward. Yet Connolly believes it is essential that data clients “are willing to trade this level of privacy in return for gaining greater value from what they are using.”

“Certainly, individual farm data is first in importance, especially to make proper variable-rate decisions and to build data on individual fields,” said SAR survey project manager Krista Maclean. “Better long-term decisions, however, may come from incorporating aggregated data into the decision mix.”

Farmers responding to the SAR survey consider data specific to their farm more useful than aggregated data. But, as application of the technology evolves, observers are seeing room for both.

Aggregated data can predict weather, report the condition of soils and crops, and alert to the presence of pests on a sub-regional basis.

“However, if the data is to be truly actionable and valuable, we need to drill down to the farm level,” said Connolly. “There is no reason to dumb down our offering by trying to make it into something that is not specific to the decisions being taken on an acre-by-acre or even an inch-by-inch basis.”

He suggests machine vision technology as an example. The monitoring and analysis of cattle and pig behaviors, especially in large-scale operations, is challenging, but vital. Pig and cattle behavior can provide information about the barn environment, food and water adequacy, health, welfare and production efficiency. Imaging-based inspection and analysis can offer an automated, non-contact, non-stress and cost-effective option.

“It appears to be capable of generating a benefit of up to $300 per cow,” Connolly said. “It is inconceivable that a producer would not consider using this technology if they are competing with a neighbor who has a $300 benefit over them on a per cow basis.” 

Grape growers and winemakers are also gravitating to high-tech solutions, contracting with firms like the drone-based SkySquirrel of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to keep watch over their grapes using a unique disease detection technology.

“Grapevines infected with disease produce lower quality wines and can cost a winery up to $40,000 per hectare in lost profits,” said Emily Ennett, marketing and business development manager of SkySquirrel. “Our disease detection is 100 times more efficient and significantly more accurate and cost-effective than scouts on the ground.”

SkySquirrel also provides triple-calibrated “Vine Vigour” zone maps for fertilizer applications and to improve the aromatics of wines, drive homogeneity and optimize harvest segmentation.

Big data, from seed to salad

A key driver of farming’s embrace of digital technology is the depth of transparency enabled by data collection and analysis.

Increasingly, Connolly said, consumers — millennials, in particular — are demanding this traceability in their food, such as: where and how it was produced; its environmental footprint; and its benefits with respect to the welfare of animals and farm workers.

“With that in mind, I believe that these technologies allow farmers to connect directly with the end user in a manner that can only be good for both sides, giving the consumers more confidence in the food chain and hopefully allowing producers/farmers to capture more of that value for themselves,” said Connolly.

With the arrival on the farm of big data, the work of the 21st century grower or producer is rapidly being fine-tuned like never before. Out with the guesswork and the questions left open to interpretation, in with unassailable hard facts, an entirely new degree of precision and a sense of reassurance that only a decade ago might have been dismissed as wishful thinking.

"I see a lot of changes in our area of expertise, IoT; the ability to use the cell phone network to transfer data back to the farmer’s phone so he can act on making informed decisions,” said Emmet Savage, co-founder of Moocall, a calving sensor that signals a farmer’s smart device when a cow is going into labor.

“There’s so much happening,” he continued. “It’s all about data. It’s all about recurring revenue. And it’s all about making the farmers’ lives easy.”

The silage we prepare this year will be a key ingredient for next year’s feeding programs. This means that a hiccup in silage preparation can lead to a year of poor forage quality, while a year of exceptional weather and silage management can offer a year of quality feed and optimal herd health. What happens now has long-range consequences, whether good or bad.  

Farmers deal with many factors on a daily basis that are out of their control, with silage being one of them. Understanding what aspects of growing, chopping and ensilaging forages we can control can make all the difference between a year of mitigating forage issues and battling marginal milk production and a year of optimum herd health and prosperity.  

Over my years of experience in silage management, I have developed four practical and proven tips for making great silage.

1. Start with quality

This means you need to make the proper seed selections from the very start! The following factors are important when selecting seeds, so be sure to consult with your seed salesman before you make a decision:

• Yield potential
• Digestibility
• Grain content

2. Proper moisture and maturity

Harvesting your crops at the proper moisture and maturity optimizes the benefit for the animals. For corn silage, the proper moisture should be approximately 65–68 percent.

It is important to remember that chop height is also important. For corn silage, the normal chop length should be 6 inches.

You can increase the quality and digestibility of the corn silage by increasing the chop length to 12–16 inches, but it is important to remember that we lose between 7–15 percent of our yield by chopping at that height.

3. Storage and filling of the harvest

With the popularity of high-horsepower, self-propelled choppers and custom operators, we can get a lot done in a very short amount of time when filling our silage piles, but being able to ensure that we get good packing and preservation of our forages is important. If you are using one of these machines, you may need to increase the quantity of tractors or weight used after placing the silage on the pile. Remember: When a tractor is compressing a pile, it can only efficiently compress up to six inches underneath the tractor tire, so layers need to be added in increments of six inches or less.

A lot of times when I am on the farm, I hear, “When the silage starts coming in really fast, we just let it all come in and spend a few hours at the end packing it down with the tractor,” and that is not something I want to hear. If you aren’t spending the time during the gradual filling of the silage pile and instead wait until the end to pack it down with the tractor, you are significantly decreasing the quality of the silage on the top and wasting time.

4. Be patient!

After harvest and when storing your feed, be patient as to when you are going to feed that silage. I understand there are times when we need to feed before we would like to on our forages, but we would like to try to keep the silage covered for at least four to six weeks before we open the pile or bunker to ensure that fermentation is completed and we have stable feed to provide to our herd. If it works for your operation, I would strongly suggest you allow three to four months prior to opening silage piles or bunkers to ensure you have quality feed for your animals. 

Have a question or comment?

The impact that heat stress can have on a herd, as we all know, can be substantial. When looking at a lactating herd, it is critical to find ways to minimize the effects of heat. But one vital area of the farm that is affected by heat is sometimes overlooked: calves can be extremely susceptible to higher temperatures due to their smaller body mass and higher respiration rate.

Calves and lactating cows experience heat stress at different levels. For a mature lactating animal, the level at which they begin to experience heat stress is at around 60 degrees Fahrenheit and is lower in humid environments. In contrast, calves start feeling heat stress around 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. In the summer sun, calves look for relief in their hutches, but sometimes the hutch environment can be even hotter and more humid than the outside environment.

By managing the following three key areas, producers can ensure that their calves stay cool and healthy during the hottest time of the year.

Drink up: Keep calves hydrated

Though it might seem obvious, ensuring calves have an adequate water supply that is fresh and clean can be a key factor in helping to prevent dehydration. Dehydration can be particularly dangerous during times of gastrointestinal stress, which can hinder a calf’s rate of recovery.

Water acidifiers have been shown to increase water consumption because they make the water more palatable to the calves, which encourages them to drink more.

Shoo, fly — don’t bother the calves!

Hot temperatures go hand in hand with flies. It is extremely important to control flies in the calf’s environment, as flies are a main offender when it comes to transferring dangerous bacteria throughout the herd. Illnesses such as pink eye are known to be spread by flies. Recent research has also shown that flies can be carriers of some strains of Salmonella, which can show up later in life as a cause of mastitis at first lactation.

Common fly control methods include an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) in the feed as well as treating and spraying around hutches with chemicals labeled to assist in fly control.

Easy, breezy temperature maintenance

Adequate ventilation is important for calves, especially if they are kept inside an enclosed area or barn. Some operations may have a more serious ventilation issue when using automatic feeders because the bedding can be more prone to moisture.

Ensuring the bedding remains clean and dry is critical to calf health and longevity. As temperatures rise, ammonia levels tend to rise as well, and wet bedding can pose a serious threat to calves as a result. Utilizing an ammonia binding product can be helpful.

De-Odorase®, a product from Alltech, is commonly utilized in calf barns to control ammonia issues.

Adequate ventilation is also important in the hutch. One key component to hutch ventilation is keeping vents open during the day, as hutches can get too hot if vents are closed. What many people don’t think about in the summer, though, is that hutches can also get too cold on cool evenings if the vents are not closed at night. This is particularly concerning in the summer because usually less bedding is used during this time, and a cold front can be hard on the less protected calves, especially when they are younger.

Heat stress can affect herds in many ways. Herd longevity and the future of operations depend on the health of calves, who rely on farm owners and managers taking the necessary steps to ensure they remain healthy during the summer. 

Have a question or comment?

When we talk about the balancing act of a healthy gastrointestinal tract, we want to make sure that calories, colostrum, cleanliness, comfort, the strength of the immune system and the health of the gut flora outweigh the pathogens that may invade the gastrointestinal tract of calves. In a recent webinar, Dr. Corale Dorn, a veterinarian at Dells Veterinary Services in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, explained how using proper management practices and keeping an eye out for diseases are key to tipping the scales in the right direction for healthy calves.

Calories

We need to adjust our thinking from quarts to the number of calories that calves are receiving through milk replacer.

“When I go out to a farm in the dead of winter in South Dakota and they are only feeding 2 quarts of 20/20 milk replacer every 12 hours, I know we are not hitting anywhere near the calorie requirements that we need,” said Dorn. “If we are completely missing the mark on these calorie requirements, we cannot expect to maintain calf health when pathogens enter the herd.”

If we are getting 2.1–2.5 pounds of average daily gain on Holstein calves, then we have enough calories to keep the calves healthy and growing. 

The calories and protein that they need depend on their weight and the temperature of their environment. For example, during the winter in South Dakota, we need to be feeding at least 6 quarts of milk a day.  This can be pasteurized whole milk or 24/20 milk replacer.

Re-evaluating our thinking when it comes to feeding calves for the calories they need can assist in their ability to endure seasonal changes and other challenges that can impact calf health.

Colostrum

It’s a given that calves need a good measure of colostrum beginning at calving. We know that when we take a blood sample at 24–48 hours post-calving, calves well-fed with colostrum should reach a calibrated total protein of 6.0 grams per deciliter

For calves that require esophageal tubes, we need to make sure they are getting 1 gallon of colostrum within the first six hours of life.

Not only is quantity key, but quality is equally important. Colostrum needs to be clean, high in immunoglobulin (IgG), low in bacteria and fed as soon possible. If colostrum is not fed within one hour, it needs to be cooled to less than 35 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent bacterial growth.

Cleanliness

A standard procedure to ensure milk bottles and nipples are properly cleaned is extremely important to reduce pathogen exposure to calves. It is also vital that the environment the calf comes into is managed properly to ensure cleanliness.

“The maternity pen is the first place the calf is going to be, so ask yourself, can you kneel into the bedding and come out with dry knees?” asked Dorn.  “If you have a large surge in calving, you can have a very dirty pen, so ensuring that pen is cleaned as frequently as necessary is important.”

Calves should be moved to a clean “wet calf” area within the first 15 minutes of life before attempting to stand. Be sure to clean this area vigorously after every calf to prevent pathogens from spreading between calves.

Comfort

The thermo-neutral zone for a calf is 50–68 degrees Fahrenheit.

In the winter, use calf jackets and deep bedding.

In the summer, we start to get anxious when we have semi-opaque housing, as on hot days these hutches can get very hot if not ventilated properly. Looking at ways to provide additional ventilation and water to hutch calves during the summer months is key to keeping calves cool and comfortable.

Immune system

Everything we do impacts the health of the immune system. Normally, when bacteria invade the calf’s system, immune cells attack and swallow up the bad bacteria, destroying them. However, some bad bacteria can evade this immune response.

“The problem with some of the bugs that enter the immune system, such as Salmonella, is that they have developed ways to invade the calf’s immune system by hitching a ride on the white blood cells,” explained Dorn. “Once bacteria join ranks with the white blood cells, we have a breach in the immune system and have bugs we can’t kill, with few medicines or vaccines that can slow down this process. This is where MOS products come into play. When bacteria attempt to attach to receptors on the intestinal wall, MOS blocks the attachment of these bacteria.”

Stop bugs before they take hold in your livestock

Long gone are the days we could just give calves a drug and kill the bug. Dorn advised dairy producers to:

• Keep the maternity pen clean. Be sure to test the bedding regularly to ensure it is not too damp.
• Ensure calves are well-fed! Remember, calves need an adequate supply of energy not only to fuel metabolic activity, but to support their developing immune system.
• Alltech’s Bio-Mos® is designed to feed the gastrointestinal tract and is the original solution to intestinal health issues. It promotes good bacteria and builds defenses, thereby maximizing performance and profitability.

To watch the full webinar, click here.  For more information on how Bio-Mos might be a fit for your farm, visit bio-mos.com.