Reducing Feed Waste on Dairy Farms

Feed is usually the biggest bill on a dairy, and some of it never reaches a cow. Most losses are quiet ones, so finding them takes a little looking.

Key points

Walk the full path of feed from storage to cow and note every loss point
Face management and covers cut storage shrink
Accurate scales and careful mixing protect the formulated ration
Small, steady refusals are healthier than empty bunks
Record and review shrink with your nutritionist

Where feed disappears

Feed can be lost at harvest, in storage, during mixing, on the way to the bunk and in the bunk itself. Each loss looks small on its own. Added together over a year, they can rival the cost of a lot of purchased feed.

The first job is to stop guessing. Walk the whole path a ration takes, from the pile or bag to the cow's mouth, and note every place feed is spilled, spoiled, blown away, eaten by pests or left behind.

Storage and shrink

Silage and hay lose value when air, water and time get to them. Loose face management, torn covers, poor packing and slow feed-out all raise losses. Wet, heated or moldy feed is also less palatable, so cows may refuse it, which is a second loss on top of the first.

Commodity sheds, bins and bags need the same attention. Cracked bins, open doors and spilled piles feed birds and rodents before they feed cows.

Keep silage faces tight and smooth, and remove feed at a steady pace
Repair cover tears and keep edges sealed
Sweep up and use or discard spilled commodities
Keep bunker and pile drainage clear so water does not sit

Mixing and delivery losses

Loader buckets, mixer wagons and feed alleys all drop feed. Overfilling a mixer, rough corners and long haul distances with an open wagon add to it. Ask whoever mixes to watch for spills during loading and delivery for a few days.

Accuracy matters as much as spillage. A scale that is off, or ingredients loaded out of order or in the wrong amounts, can make a ration worse than it was formulated to be without any visible waste. Check scales on a regular schedule with the manufacturer's guidance.

Waste at the bunk

Cows pull feed out of the bunk, toss it, sort it and leave refusals. Some refusals are healthy because they show cows had feed available at all times. The goal is a small, steady amount left, not none and not a lot.

Look at the bunk surface, the alley in front of it and the area under the headlocks. Feed trampled into manure is gone for good. Bunk design, barriers and stocking density all play a part, so ask your nutritionist or extension specialist what fits your barn.

Take refusals out of the bunk daily and check their amount and condition
Do not let old feed pile up and sour
Adjust the amount fed when refusals run consistently high or low
Reuse refusals only when your nutritionist agrees they are sound

Measuring and tracking shrink

You cannot fix what you do not measure. Compare what comes onto the farm or out of the field with what the ration records say was fed. Track by feed type so you can see which one leaks the most.

Keep simple records: weigh-backs of refusals, loads delivered, loads fed and notes on weather and storage conditions. Review them with your nutritionist at every herd visit.

Getting the whole crew involved

Feed waste is a team problem. The person driving the loader, the person running the mixer and the person pushing up feed each see something the others do not. Hold a short conversation on what each of them notices, and ask where they think feed is being lost.

Set one simple, shared goal, such as cleaner alleys or tighter silage faces, and check it together every few weeks. People take care of what they are asked to watch.

Give clear instructions in the language each employee is most comfortable with, and post simple reminders where the work happens. Praise improvements, since small habits are what cut shrink over the long run.

Common mistakes

Chasing a lower feed bill by cutting amounts fed usually hurts milk, so the savings disappear. Another mistake is fixing a problem in one place, like the bunk, while ignoring the pile. A third is not involving employees, who see waste every day and often know where it starts.

Pick one or two leaks, fix them, and measure again before moving on.

When to get help: Ask your dairy nutritionist to help set a refusal target and to review shrink numbers at herd visits. If cows go off feed after a change in forage quality, call your veterinarian and nutritionist before the problem spreads.

Sources and further reading

Organization homepages are linked so you can search them for current guidance on this topic.

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