Nutrition is essential to ensure that dairy cows are healthy,
productive, and capable of producing milk efficiently. It contributes to both
the welfare of the animals and the economic viability of dairy farming.
Proper nutrition:
- Positively impacts milk yield and milk quality
- Promotes good health and prevents disease
- Encourages better conception rates and healthier offspring
- Improves longevity and welfare
- Optimises production
This module will describe the fundamentals of practical nutrition in a seasonal farm system, including:
- The building blocks of nutrition and rumen function
- Common dairy feeds and their key applications
- Understanding basic energy requirements of different dairy stock classes
Topics
- Overview of macro- and micro-nutrients
- Basic digestion and metabolism of macro-nutrients
- Common feeds used in seasonal dairy systems: their nutritional
characteristics and uses
- Energy and protein requirements of different stock classes
- How ME demand calculations work - including the effect of feed
quality
- Constraints on Dry Matter Intake (DMI)
- Introduction to using the feeding tools