FEED DELIVERY FREQUENCY: HOW MANY FEEDINGS IS RIGHT FOR YOUR COWS?
In the US, the majority of producers feed their cows once per day. As long as the mixer wagon is sized adequately, feeding once per day seems like an obvious choice. It reduces labor costs, slows the accumulation of hours on the feeding equipment, and on smaller farms it can allow the feeder to do other tasks for the rest of the day. But how does once per day feeding affect the most important part of your farm: the dairy cows?
A high-producing dairy cow should consume between 9 and 14 meals per day, for a total of 3 to 5 hours at the feed bunk. Management practices like overstocking or spending more than 3 hours per day out of the pen for milking can severely limit your cows’ time budget. Furthermore, we know that when a cow’s time budget is compromised, she will prefer to spend the time she has lying down, which reduces the time that she spends eating. To compensate, she will increase her eating rate and sort against the long fiber particles, both of which are associated with an increased risk for rumen acidosis.
So what can dairy producers do to optimize feeding behavior? One solution is to deliver fresh feed more frequently. Research shows that fresh feed delivery most successfully motivates cows to eat, even more so than pushing up the feed. A research study on commercial freestall dairy farms in Ontario, Canada found that farms that delivered fresh TMR twice versus once per day increased dry matter intake by 3 pounds per cow and milk by 4.4 pounds per cow. In addition, twice per day feeding resulted in an increase in feed efficiency, rumination, and eating time.
A study conducted by Cornell University and Miner Institute on commercial dairies found that freestall farms with a high proportion of de novo fatty acids in bulk tank milk were five times more likely to feed their cows twice versus once per day. In addition, the sum of forage and topdress delivery on tiestall farms was eleven times more likely to meet or exceed 5 feedings per day. High de novo farms also had higher fat and protein content in bulk tank milk. Milk de novo fatty acids contribute about one quarter of the fat in dairy cows’ milk, and are synthesized in the mammary gland using acetate and butyrate, which originate in the rumen from the fermentation of forages. Although we didn’t measure rumen indicators directly, we hypothesize that de novo fatty acid concentrations reflect rumen conditions, and feeding more frequently throughout the day was an important part of optimizing rumen health on the study farms.
So we know that feeding more frequently can benefit both the cow and the farm’s bottom line, but is there an upper limit? Research that has compared once versus four or five times per day feeding in freestall facilities has indicated that lying time decreases, with minimal or even negative effects on dry matter intake and milk production. However, research from the 1980s and 90s suggests that feed delivery frequency should be maximized in tiestall herds, especially when the components of the diet are fed individually.
For freestall herds, delivering TMR twice per day should optimize feeding behavior without compromising resting behavior. Tiestall herds, especially those that topdress concentrates separately, should consider feeding 5 or more times per day, with a special focus on splitting topdress feedings into as many meals as logistically possible. If you have considered trying something new this winter, and currently feed once per day, why not give twice per day feeding a try? It might just be that extra step you were looking for to improve the health, efficiency, and productivity of the cows on your farm.