Feed is crucial to ensure high milk production and good animal health. It is important to ensure that the feed quality meets your requirement. Here are some tips to navigate through feed quality challenges:
1) Feed reputable products
Feeding industry tested products will guarantee you high quality products.
It is highly recommended to use feed ingredients from brand that you trust to ensure consistent high quality.
2) Look for certified products
Feed certifications exist to uphold and promote quality standards.
Third party certification helps to ensure that the feed companies adhere to standards of good industry practices through random audits.
When buying from your mill, request for feed certifications.
3) Observe new feed carefully
When a new load of feed is delivered, managers should pay close attention and look for any major changes in colour, smell or texture.
Have a feed quality standard operation procedure in place to ensure that the feeders spend some time to look at the quality and changes of the feed from day to day.
This will help prevent potential production and health problems.
4) Build relationships with your key suppliers
It is crucial to have a strong relationship with your supplier.
Good suppliers will understand the risk associated with low quality feed.
They will try their best to provide high quality feed in order to maintain good relationship with the producers for future business.
5) Asking questions
Farmers should also know where their feed comes from.
As a producer, you have the right to know where the feed is manufactured.
Deal with trustworthy suppliers who can ensure high quality ingredients are being used.
6) Testing samples
Another important point is to work with forage testing labs to test samples.
Taking a sample test once a month is encouraged to ensure that you are getting the high quality product that is agreed upon.
Having a reliable lab to complete feed analysis is crucial to monitor the consistency of feed ingredients as well as managing any variation.