Dairy Summit Information and Updates

An Invisible Sun

Michael Swanson, Wells Fargo

By Andrea Bloom, Vita Plus

Every dairy producer can look at the current agriculture industry and recognize volatility marketplace. According to Michael Swanson of Wells Fargo in Minneapolis, Minn., that volatility is only going to continue.

“I see more volatility coming, not less,” said Swanson at the Vita Plus Dairy Summit.

According to Swanson, economics are very hard to understand because so many factors contribute to the success or failure of a market, including foreign nations. He used Mexico as an example and stated that over 50 percent of U.S. dairy exports go to Mexico. If Mexican markets fall, U.S. exports will follow suit.

Swanson reminded dairy producers that it has been 25 years since the last major U.S. recession. In the history of the U.S., the economy has not gone that long without a recession. He also warned producers that the normal cyclic “ups and downs” of commodity markets will only become more turbulent in a recession.

However, Swanson was quick to reassure producers that the recession won’t last forever. Because developing nations are demanding more food, increasing global trade will greatly benefit U.S. food producers.

Swanson pointed to three key attributes that will increase U.S. outputs – increased labor, increased capital investment and productivity gains – with the latter two being most significant. Through increased investments and technological gains, he is certain the U.S. will see economic growth. This also holds true for dairy producers.

So what can dairy producers do to navigate through these dynamic times? As Swanson said, the best thing to do is treat your operation like any other small business and get a thorough understanding of your finances. When working with your agricultural lender, be sure to know the current status of your cost of production, assets, liabilities and equity.

Most importantly, have a plan of where you’d like your business to go. After a long career in the banking business, Swanson said he knows bankers don’t like surprises. If they have a good understanding of your operation and your goals, they can better work with you to create a solid plan for surviving these volatile times.

Factors Relating to Starch Digestibility in Lactating Dairy Cows

Pat Hoffman, University of Wisconsin

By Andrea Bloom, Vita Plus

Pat Hoffman works at the UW-Madison Agricultural Research Station in Marshfield, Wis. He said he’ll often be at his office and see dairy nutritionists bringing in forage samples. Recently, he’s also seen a lot of corn samples as well.

What he finds interesting is that even now little is understood about the digestibility of corn and how dairy cattle can best utilize its high energy value.

“In ruminant nutrition, we don’t have a good cereal vocabulary to discuss corn because we’ve always been taught forage,” Hoffman said.

During the Vita Plus Dairy Summit, Hoffman explained that it is essential for nutritionists and producers to understand the biochemistry of what seems to just be a simple kernel of corn. That’s because the digestibility of corn can vary by as much as 20 percent and milk yield is directly correlated to this digestibility.

For years, researchers have known that particle size plays a role in corn digestibility. Now they are beginning to learn that moisture levels, endosperm maturity and genetics are also key components.

According to Hoffman, the first step in understanding corn digestibility is recognizing that corn is not a feed – it’s a seed.

“The principles of how this little seed works has everything to do with feeding cows,” said Hoffman.

All of the starch – the seed’s energy for survival – is stored in the endosperm. That’s also the energy source for cows. Hoffman said that it is very simple for the body to digest starch. But that doesn’t always mean corn can be digested easily.

That’s because the starch in the endosperm is contained within a matrix built by four different types of proteins. The most abundant of these proteins is prolamin – a plastic-like protein that is non-soluble in rumen fluid. Cows must digest the protein before they can even get to the starch. Thus, high prolamin content results in low digestibility.

Prolamin levels increase with seed maturity, and many of the common corn hybrids are naturally high in prolamin. Research has also shown that moisture content is related to the starch digestibility due to fermentation.

Hoffman said, “Prolamin content of fermented corn is lower than non-fermented corn.”

Through the ensiling process, lactic acid and acetic acid – the primary solvents for prolamin – are produced. These acids degrade the corn protein, increasing the starch available to the animal.

Hoffman said he sees a potential for routine analysis of the starch digestibility in corn, but that tool is not quite available to producers just yet. Until then, Hoffman said producers and nutritionists should learn more about the complex nature of a simple seed.

Hoffman stated, “What I challenge nutritionists and producers to do is to start understanding the chemistry of corn.”

Making a Difference in Your Reproductive Program

Dr. Neil Michael, ABS Global

By Jane Fyksen, Agri-View

Dairies can achieve a “consistently high rate” of pregnancies by keying in on fundamentals, maintained Neil Michael, ABS Global’s Director of Global Technical Services.

Michael encouraged producers to key in on “fundamental processes” like: transition period, insemination risk, technician performance, cow activity charting, synchronization efficiency, re-enrollment of open cows and heat abatement. Once they’ve made improvements, it’s essential to establish “routine compliance monitoring programs” to detect “aberrations and drift” that threaten reproductive efficiency and profits, he states.

From troubleshooting reproduction challenges on commercial dairies coast-to-coast, Michael sees “common opportunities” for improvement – cow issues like the amount of time cattle are spending on their feet, analyzing daily cow time budgets and stocking density. “It doesn’t get any simpler than that,” he noted.

He said walkthrough observations” by the management team and outside advisors can take herd reproduction from good to great. Michael shared one case study on an actual operation that was struggling in inconsistency in reproduction. He saw things like algae in the water tanks, cows walking like “camels,” a holding pen that was large enough to entice employees to be too aggressive about bringing in another pen of cows, cows spending too much time waiting to get into the parlor, overcrowding in post-partum pens, and some BVD in the herd.

The dairy made changes, and it showed in better and more consistent pregnancy rates. Water tanks were cleaned daily, with the focus on fresh cows, and more water was made available in the exit alley. The time cows were spending away from their pens was cut dramatically. Three hours is the magic number. It can’t be greater than that, and the less time the better. Michael said an inexpensive timer affixed to the pen gate can reveal exactly how long those last cows are in the pen.

Producers might be surprised at the total time their cows are spending on their feet. Monitor lying index, turn times, lockup times, locomotion scores and stocking density, he advised.

“Extended time on feet is currently one of the largest limiting factors to achieving high production, reproduction and long-lived cows on commercial dairies today, resulting from long holding times, overcrowding and inadequate facilities,” he said.

Michael also recommended monitoring blood progesterone to determine accuracy of heat detection. It’s not overly expensive and can be quite useful.

Progesterone blood testing also monitors synchronization efficiency and cyclicity of animals entering timed AI programs. Test 20 plus head at time of TAI and again (on the same animals) 7 to 14 days post insemination. The goal is to reach 90 percent or greater for both synchronization efficacy and cyclicty. TAI breedings should be coded to allow evaluation of performance in comparison to other insemination types, he added.

Another inexpensive change producers can easily make is putting thaw monitors in every semen canister. He also recommended securing semen tanks with padlocks and limiting access to reduce liability. He warned that children have been badly burned by liquid nitrogen; it’s imperative dairies prevent that liability issue.

Heat stress is always a challenge. He said in addition to monitoring respiration rates post milking, data loggers to record both animal and holding pen temperatures should be utilized to evaluate capacity and functionality of cooling systems. Michael stressed that the holding pen cooling system needs to be fine-tuned just like the farm pickup needs regular tune-ups. Fine tune the thermostat and sprinklers, and adjust the direction of the fans occasionally.

Michael said getting semen in eligible animals represents the “largest opportunity” to improve the pregnancy rate on most dairies today. Insemination Risk or IR for the first breeding should be monitored to ensure over 95 percent of animals are inseminated within a desired breeding window of 25 to 30 days from the voluntary waiting period. Monitor percent bred above and below the desired VWP window (i.e. VWP plus 30 days) for the previous 90 days; less than 1 to 2 percent is an attainable goal at above and below the defined window.

Nutritional & Management Factors Affecting Heat Stress

Dr. Lance Baumgard, University of Arizona

By Jane Fyksen, Agri-View

Accurately identifying heat-stressed cattle and understanding the biological mechanisms by which thermal stress impacts cows is critical for preventing what’s likely the dairy industry’s largest financial burden, said Lance Baumgard, a native of southwest Minnesota on the dairy science faculty at the University of Arizona, a state in which heat stress is the primary topic producers want to discuss when they gather at meetings.

Baumgard, who will be starting a new faculty position at Iowa State University come spring, told producers that heat stress is perhaps as great of a challenge in the Upper Midwest as it is in the scorching Southwest because of the higher humidity and the more abrupt spikes in temperature during late spring and on through summer.

“More dramatic” temperature spikes in the Upper Midwest result in heat-stressed cows for 3 or 4 days, followed by a break in the weather when “cows gorge” themselves, “and boom – you have acidosis,” stated Baumgard. “It may be harder on cows up here than in Arizona.”

Baumgard said the biological mechanism by which heat stress reduces production and reproduction is only partly explained by reduced feed intake. Also responsible are: altered endocrine status, a reduction in rumination and nutrient absorption and increased maintenance requirements, resulting in a net decrease in energy available for production. Reduced gut fill also contributes to this decrease in energy and results in reduced energy balance, partially explaining why cattle lose significant amounts of body weight – muscle as opposed to body fat – when subjected to unabated heat stress.

After pairing “thermal-neutral” cows with cows heat-stressed in special chambers, research shows that the reduction in dry matter intake can only account for about 40 to 50 percent of the decrease in production when cows are heat-stressed. About 50 to 60 percent is explained by “other hyperthermia-induced changes.”

Heat stress results in: less milk, reduced heifer growth, reduced body condition, rumen acidosis and laminitis, decreased reproductive indexes, abortions, and even animal death. Heat-stressed cows pant, resulting in lowered buffering capacity. And the cow drools saliva that Baumgard refers to as “liquid gold to the rumen.” While a cow typically goes to the feed bunk 12 to 13 times in 24 hours, when she’s under heat stress, she may only eat 2 or 3 times in the cool of the night. In other words, she slugs feed.

He suggested dairy producers key in on panting and flank movements to detect cows suffering heat stress --- well before that status is reflected by rectal temperature. It’s only when they can no longer dissipate heat successfully by panting that rectal temperatures rise.

Heat-stressed cows, Baumgard pointed out, are “metabolically inflexible” due to increased insulin action. In other words, the cow doesn’t have the option of oxidizing fatty acids and ketones. Consequently, a heat-stressed cow becomes increasingly dependant on glucose for her energy needs – and less glucose is directed toward the mammary gland. Milk production suffers.

Baumgard said producers often ask him whether their cows are responding to BST during periods of summer heat stress. They do, he says, noting in fact that BST can be a safety mechanism that allows cows to break down more body fat and less muscle.

He said if given plenty of good, clean water, heat-stressed cows will remain well-hydrated. Make sure cows have water and, of course, shade. Dietary bycarb might be boosted. Bypass fat is a good idea, and since cows use potassium to sweat, they need more potassium, too. In Arizona, nutritionists are utilizing more and more ionophore, specifically Monensin, to counter heat stress.

He also thinks direct-fed microbials and yeast are a good idea. Niacin is also something to look at to decrease body temperature. And, as noted, BST has a role.

However, management factors can easily negate nutritional adjustments to combat heat stress. Producers need to try and reduce cow walking distances as well as time spent in the holding pen. In addition to ventilating and cooling the holding pen, he thinks exit-lane cooling is something to be considered. Put water on their backs and fans on them coming down or out of the exit lane of the parlor, he suggests.

Don’t lock up cows mid-day. Feed them early morning and late at night. Push feed up often when it’s hot out and be more diligent about removing old feed. Avoid vaccinating mid-day, as vaccinations cause a little bump in body temperature. And provide shade for those dry cows.

He said heat-stressed cows may have an extra requirement for dietary or rumen-derived glucose precursors. One option to increase rumen propionate production is by feeding highly fermentable starches. “However, this strategy may be risky as heat-stressed cattle are already susceptible to rumen acidosis,” said Baumgard, noting that more research is needed to identify safe methods of increasing dietary or rumen-derived glucose precursors during heat stress conditions.

Still, “any dietary component that increases propionate production – the primary precursor to hepatic glucose production – without reducing rumen pH will probably increase production,” he concluded.

Global Warming - Myth or Reality?

Dr. Tim Ball, Natural Resources Stewardship Project

By Andrea Bloom, Vita Plus

After driving through swirls of December’s first snow, Vita Plus Dairy Summit attendees turned their focus to a very hot topic - Global warming.

Dr. Tim Ball, researcher with the Natural Resources Stewardship Project in Victoria, British Columbia, challenged attendees to question the global warming biases presented by mainstream media.

“What is natural is presented as unnatural,” he said.

According to Ball, many extreme environmentalists label climate change as a gradual process. However, most weather and climate changes occur rapidly, making natural processes seem out of the ordinary. To really understand climate change, the public first needs to understand that fast climate changes are common.

“We live in a world that is instant,” he said.

Ball recognized that dairy producers are right in the middle of the climate change debate. In recent years, methane from dairy cattle has been targeted as an increasingly significant greenhouse gas and a major contributor to climate change.

The only problem with this theory is that atmospheric methane levels have been decreasing over the last 15 years, Ball stated.

Ball noted that carbon dioxide is not the primary cause for climate change either.

“Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant,” said Ball. “It’s the most important gas in the atmosphere and essential to plant growth and thereby the production of oxygen.”

As Ball said, when it comes to climate change, the bottom line is understanding the statistics and looking at the big picture. The public needs to evaluate all biases and formulate their own opinions on this popular topic.

“As a business,” Ball said, “what you need to do is talk to someone who can give you good information and then make your decisions accordingly.”

He recommended a few websites for producers to use to find more facts about global warming and other science topics:

Ball also said it’s important for the media and the public to understand agriculture’s role in serving the environment.

“In my experience, farmers care more about the environment than most,” Ball said. “It is their livelihood, but it is also their backyard, where they live and their children play.”

PRODUCER PANEL - Successfully Navigating, Cow Comfort, Manure Management and Employee Management

Chris Sukalski, Quality Dairy; Gordon & Cathy Speirs,

Shiloh Dairy; Jim Winn, Cottonwood Dairy

By Jane Fyksen, Agri-View

“Navigating Change in a Dynamic Environment” is the theme of the Vita Plus Dairy Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On Wednesday, three Upper Midwest producers shared how they’re successfully navigating cow comfort, manure management and employee management.

LeRoy, Minnesota producer Chris Sukalski and her family co-own a 1,400-acre, 360-cow dairy with her parents, Alvin and Karilyn Reiland and her brother, Scott Reiland. Chris manages the dairy end of the operation, while her husband, Troy, works off the farm. Cow comfort is the cornerstone of Quality Dairy success, evidenced by a herd that consistently averages over 90 pounds of milk, has a 32,000-pound rolling herd average and a cull rate of 23 percent.

This family management team has relied on sand bedding since building their first free stall barn in 1993 at their Spring Valley, Minnesota location. They purchased another dairy in LeRoy, Minnesota in 2001 after running into resistance on a proposed expansion of their Spring Valley farm. The next year they “opened up” the existing free stall barn at their new location and added conventional fans and sprinklers. However, in 2004, they took out mattresses, enlarged stalls and went with sand bedding – and saw production jump 3,000 pounds in a year’s time. In 2006, they added rubber flooring in the holding area and parlor deck.

In hindsight, Chris says they should have ripped the mattresses out before moving the cows in. “We knew sand worked,” she said. She regrets having scarified production that slumped into the mid-70-pounds range before they finally decided to go back to sand in the freestalls.

Chris is happy, however, with their decision to install a radiant heat barrier roof in a recently constructed barn, which keeps the new facility 10 degrees cooler than their older barn in the heat of summer. She describes the material as bubble wrap-like with a layer of tinfoil-like material, which carries an R value if it’s installed with dead air space. Quality Dairy did not, however, do so.

Cow comfort at Quality Dairy extends beyond facilities and sand, to the manner in which cattle are handled by employees. “It’s a whole attitude,” says Chris, who trains her employees not to whistle and hoot and holler when moving cattle. Instead, everyone tells the cows to “move up,” and they’ve learned to respond to that familiar command. If a cow stops to drink, she’s allowed to do so. If cows happen to be eating, they’re not disturbed.

As for navigating in a “dynamic environment,” Chris says 2008 was a “good year.” Concerned 2009 won’t be as good, they’re prepaying inputs, and no doubt, they’re continuing to look for ways to make their cows as comfortable – and productive – as possible.

Also on the Dairy Summit panel were Gordon and Cathy Speirs, who operate a 1,500-cow dairy at Brillion, Wisconsin. With about two-dozen employees, the majority Hispanic, the Speirs view their employee team as the backbone of their business.

Cathy believes in getting to know her employees and their families on a personal level. Building relationships builds “favor and respect,” she contended.

Being an immigrant to the U.S. herself, she genuinely understands many of the challenges facing her employees. She’s found that something as simple as putting up a map of Mexico, with the homes of her workers pinpointed, is appreciated by their employees.

Cathy shared employee management lessons she learned the hard way, like not holding high enough standards and correcting poor milking routines each and every time she saw them, not doing employee reviews and believing new hires when they told her they already know how to do certain things, when in fact, it turns out they didn’t. When employees aren’t corrected, when they’re not doing a job right, they surmise it must be okay – so do their fellow workers.

These producers let their Hispanic employees put in 60 to 70 hours a week and work six days on with one day off. They put in time-and-a-half on holidays. They don’t give performance bonuses, because, Cathy says, “We expect our employees to do it right every time and pay accordingly.” To reward loyalty, they give bonuses at Christmas equivalent to $10 for every month of employment, which can be quite sizable.

They hold regular employee meetings, for which they secure the services of a translator. Their employee manual is in Spanish and is “extensive,” including disciplinary policies. Cathy herself is learning Spanish.

She believes in treating employees with “respect,” drawing a “hard line when necessary,” yet being “compassionate” when needed. She’s thrilled when their employees start using words like “we” and “ours” and “my” in relation to Shiloh Dairy.

Her husband, Gordon, subbed in for panelist Jim Winn, Cottonwood Dairy, South Wayne, Wisconsin. Speirs, who is quite familiar with Winn’s operation, shared insights on manure management at Cottonwood Dairy, which was formed by the merging of three neighbor dairies.

Built in 1998, Cottonwood Dairy went with mattresses and sawdust, but switched to sand in 2004, installing a flush flume system to handle manure. Sand lanes were installed to recapture sand to use for bedding. Winn and his partners, Brian Larson and his cousin, Randy Larson, saw an overnight jump in production of 10 pounds, as well as improved cell count. Last year, they installed manure separators to improve the quality of water in the second of a two-stage lagoon system.

The Cottonwood Dairy management team has learned some lessons the hard way, too. In terms of solid separation, manure and machinery aren’t “best friends.” The ultimate decision to go with sand, however, was a good one. If they’d be starting fresh, they’d go with flush flumes 250 feet long and 12 feet wide.

Gordon added a few thoughts of his own on manure management, one being that producers should perhaps adopt a different mindset and not try to construct a manure management system for 12 months of the year. Manure management solutions don't necessarily have to work 100 percent of the time. Speaking of sand lanes in particular, he feels it's acceptable to turn them off three months of the year.

Management Factors Affecting Feeding Behavior

& Productivity

Dr. Rick Grant, Miner Research Institute

By Jane Fyksen, Agri-View

Dairy producers must provide environments on their dairies that satisfy the behavioral needs of their cattle, says Rick Grant with the prestigious Miner Agricultural Research Institute in upstate New York. He covered “time budgeting” and time spent outside pens, stocking density and grouping strategies.

How producers manage their dairies impacts how successful their cows are at time budgeting, in other words, eating, ruminating and resting – with resting being the most important natural behavior in terms of productivity.

Essentially, the 24-hour time budget represents the net response of a cow to her environment. Deviations in a dairy herd from benchmarked behavioral routines represent departures from natural behavior. Cows typically spent 5 to 5 1/2 hours eating, 12 to 14 hours lying down or resting (including six hours of rumination), 4 hours for rumination while standing, 30 minutes drinking and another 30 for grooming and other social interactions. They need to stay within those perimeters for optimum health and production. They’d best not spent more than 3 1/2 hours outside their pen (i.e. milking, travel time and in headlocks), warned Grant.

“We need to consider designing facilities and developing management routines that allow all cows access to stalls for up to 14 hours a day,” stressed Grant, noting that improper grouping strategies that result in overcrowding and excessive time in holding pens are two common ways of upsetting this time budget – and reducing herd productivity.

Grant reemphasized cows’ “very strong motivation” to rest, explaining that “a key concept is that feeding and resting behavior are linked in dairy cattle.” Management factors that interfere with resting inevitably reduce feeding behavior as well, he said. The benefits of resting are many, including: potentially more milk due to greater blood flow through the udder, greater blood flow to the uterus during late lactation, increased rumination effectiveness, less stress on hooves and reduced lameness, less fatigue stress and better feed intake. In fact, each additional hour of resting time has been shown to result in 2 to 3.5 more pounds of milk per cow per day.

“The bottom line is that lying has a higher priority than eating and social interactions for both early and late lactation dairy cows, and that cows compensate for reduced access to resting by spending less time eating to free up time for making up lose resting activity,” Grant reported.

He stressed grouping first-lactation heifers separately from mature cows. Research has shown that heifers housed separately have greater feed intakes and higher productivity. Heifers housed separately also rest 20 percent more, as resting behavior is affected in mixed groups. Grant noted research revealing that dominant mature cows will lie in stalls nearest the feed manger, while heifers tend to lie in those along the back wall. Heifers that do lie in stalls nearest the feed bunk ruminate less than those lying along the outside wall, perhaps indicating they’re stressed by the possibility of an older cow displacing them at any time.

Further, Grant said heifers will avoid stalls previously occupied by dominant cows. That’s something for producers to think about when considering stocking rate.

Subordinate animals are the first to be affected a stocking rates increase beyond 100 percent. Research at the Miner Institute found that increased stocking rates reduced time spent lying by heifers more than cows, and it appears heifers decrease rumination more than cows as stocking rate increases. Reduced rumination – and a possible increase in feeding rate (i.e. essentially “slug” feeding) – may result in acidosis. “Combined with increased time spent standing, this could potentially increase lameness in heifers just when we want them to start paying off all of the costs we have invested in raising them,” he stated.

The prefresh, close-up pen is acutely impacted by overcrowding. UW research reveals that pens containing both first-calf heifers and older cows that had stocking densities greater than 80 percent of the stalls resulted in reduced milk yield for the heifers during the first 83 days in milk. In fact, for each 10 percent increase in prefresh stocking density above 80 percent, there was a 1.6-pounds-per-day reduction in milk yield for those first-calf heifers. Further, feed intake was markedly reduced at a manger stocking density over 90 percent.

The Miner Institute has a spreadsheet on its website (www.whminer.org) that can help producers further explore this issue of stocking density and management routines on the time budget of dairy cows.

Are Omega Fatty Acids Right for You and Your Cows?

Dr. Silvia Onetti, Vita Plus Corporation

By Jane Fyksen, Agri-View

Omega-3 fatty acids are being heralded in human nutrition as beneficial for everything from reducing blood pressure and preventing cardiovascular disease, to reducing inflammation, improving learning and behavioral problems in kids, boosting immune function in infants and more. They’ve also become a focus of study in dairy nutrition, particularly as a way to improve reproductive efficiency.

Silvia Onetti of Vita Plus zeroed in on Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids – what’s known about them and what still remains a mystery.

Onetti explains that just as amino acids make up proteins, fatty acids make up fats. The “essential” fatty acids – essential because neither people nor cows can synthesize them themselves but must get them in their diets – are linoleic acid (Omega-6), which is in soybeans and Megalac-R to name just two sources, and linolenic acid (Omega-3), in linseed oil and flax. Omega-3 is also supplied by fish oil and is in bypass fat sources like Strata-G for cows. It’s also in fresh grass and alfalfa.

Onetti shared a summary of 31 trials evaluating supplemental fats on conception rate. About half the studies show an average improvement of 12 percent in conception rates. A variety of fats turned out to be beneficial. In several instances, she stressed, reproductive performance improved without improvement in energy status of the cows.

She also cited recent Canadian studies that showed less pregnancy loss when flax was fed. However, recent research on commercial dairies in the Upper Midwest showed no difference in reproductive performance from feeding flax. Perhaps, Onetti speculated, the amount fed (1.9 pounds of rolled flaxseed) until cows were confirmed pregnant wasn’t enough. Researchers, she indicated, were fearful of causing milkfat depression on these working dairies.

However, new research in Florida on a rumen-protected source of fish oil resulted in a higher 60-day pregnancy rate and lower pregnancy loss than with Ca-salt of palm oil.

How might fat supplementation with Omega-3 fatty acids improve reproduction? Onetti lists: Reduced uterine secretion of PGF2 alpha, bigger ovarian follicle and corpus luteum, improved progesterone statute, improved embryo survival and improved pregnancy rates.

What about Omega-6 fatty acid? Linoleic acid is an Omega-6. It’s also a precursor to prostaglandin. Omega-6 might improve reproduction as follows: As a precursor of PGF2 alpha, by increasing uterine involution (i.e. quicker resumption to estrus cycle), improving immune response postpartum (i.e. less post-calving uterine problems).

“In theory,” noted Onetti, Omega-6 fatty acids might be fed pre-calving and for 30 days post-calving, for estrus resumption, and then follow with Omega-3 fatty acids from 30 days post-calving to confirmed pregnant, for decreased embryo mortality.

She stressed a few feeding considerations. First, fatty acids must be absorbed intact in the lower gut. The net amount absorbed is important, she noted. In ruminant diets, “biohydrogenation” must be evaluated. In other words, rumen bugs have a self-preservation mechanism that makes unsaturated linoleic and linolenic acids saturated. Ca-salts of fatty acids are designed to protect the oils from biohydrogenation.

There are other issues to consider such as: Do any of the Omega-3 fatty acid sources carry any negative associated effects, such as low fat test? And, she noted, the cost/benefit ratio needs to be carefully evaluated.

“Reproduction will continue to be a challenge on modern dairy farms,” Onetti concluded. “It certainly appears that specific fatty acids may have a positive effect on reproduction” in terms of estrus resumption, embryo survival and higher pregnancy rates. But “make sure all other variable affecting reproduction are evaluated,” she noted, when evaluating feeding Omega-3 and Omega-6.