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EuroDairy Workshop Report “Improving feed efficiency: sharing lessons across Europe”

Newbury (UK) 16-17 October 2018

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EuroDairy Workshop

“Improving feed efficiency: sharing lessons across Europe”

Newbury (UK), 16-17 October 2018

Submission date: December 2018

Names of the responsible authors and organisations: Martina Dorigo and Ray Keatinge, AHDB

Dissemination level Open

Project deliverable

D3.2: Four technical workshops on resource efficiency

About EuroDairy

EuroDairy spans 14 countries, from Ireland to Poland, and from Sweden to Italy, encompassing 40% of dairy farmers, 45% of cows and 60% of European milk output EuroDairy is an international network to increase the economic, social and environmental sustainability of dairy farming in Europe. EuroDairy fosters the development and dissemination of practice-based innovation in dairy farming, targeting key sustainability issues: socio economic resilience, resource efficiency, animal care, and the integration of milk production with biodiversity objectives. EuroDairy is funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 696364.

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Contents 1. Background

2. Objectives of the workshop

Format

Presentations 4.1 Presentations

4.2 Case studies

Plenary discussion and break-out sessions 5.1 Participant’s expectations

5.2 Main elements of the discussions

Key messages 6.1 Setting targets

6.2 Planning

6.3 Managing and monitoring

6.4 Environmental benefits

6.5 Genetics

Further research and development needs

Implications for policy

Exploitation of results

Acknowledgments

Appendices 11.1 Appendix 1. List of attendees

11.2 Appendix 2. Workshop agenda

11.3 Appendix 3. Formal presentations

11.4 Appendix 4. Case Studies

11.5 Appendix 5. List of indicators proposed by participants

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EuroDairy Workshop Report

Improving feed efficiency: sharing lessons across Europe

Background Within the EuroDairy project, efficient use of animal feed an important consideration, under the theme of ‘Resource efficiency’. An international workshop was convened in England with the aim of sharing knowledge on how to practically improve feed efficiency on dairy farms. This activity augments other outputs from the EuroDairy project, such as webinars and technical leaflets on issues related to feed efficiency, which can be accessed via the project website www.eurodairy.eu.

Objectives of the workshop The specific objectives of the workshop were to:-

1. Present the latest findings and experiences on measurements of feed efficiency on dairy farms, including appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

2. Present the economics and environmental benefits from good feed efficiency 3. Discuss new approaches, tools and techniques which can improve feed efficiency 4. Discuss potential constraints under different production systems, and identify possible solutions

Format This facilitated workshop was run over two days consisting of expert presentations, interactive sessions, and two farm visits hosted by EuroDairy Pilot farmers.

A list of the 28 participants, from six countries, is given in Appendix 1. These were drawn from farmers, researchers and advisors interested or involved in dairy cattle nutrition.

A copy of the workshop agenda is given in Appendix 2.

Presentations 4.1 A PDF copy of the formal presentations is given in Appendix 3.

Thomas Andersen opened the discussion, providing the background for the resource efficiency theme within the project, and the rationale for feed efficiency (as an input-output balance) to be included as a topic.

The presentations covered the following topics:

The economics of feed efficiency: the Irish experience. Teagasc PhD student and EuroDairy Pilot farmer Liam Hanrahan (IRE) described the drivers and targets of economic efficiency of different farming systems in the Republic of Ireland.

The economics of feed efficiency: the UK experience. Kingshay’s Richard Simpson (UK) described how different dairy systems in the UK perform economically and the role of Milk from Forage as a cross-system KPI

Whole farm feed efficiency. Prof. Phil Garnsworthy from University of Nottingham (UK) presented the preliminary results of an AHDB-funded research project focused on measuring the whole farm feed efficiency (WFFE - whole herd, not just milking herd), identifying drivers and KPIs of WFFE in different UK dairy systems.

Measuring and monitoring feed efficiency – European Dairy Farmers (EDF) data. Thomas Andersen from SEGES (DK) talked about the importance of data when measuring and monitoring feed efficiency, presenting the first EDF data on feed efficiency, and the Danish project on precision feeding based on data exchange between mixer wagon and digital devices.

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Genetics and feed efficiency. Marco Winters from AHDB (UK) described the role of genetics in affecting feed efficiency and the ongoing research on genomics and feed intake.

Feed efficiency and environment: the Dutch experience on N and P efficiency. Jouke Oenema from Wageningen (NL) spoke about the Dutch regulations on nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P), the relationship between N efficiency and feed efficiency, and described the tool available for farmers to calculate their nutrient balance (ANCA).

Reducing dietary protein content and the role of home-grown high protein forages. Liam Sinclair from Harper Adams University (UK) provided the rationale for dietary protein reduction in dairy cows and described experimental results and implications of this strategy.

Using Feed Efficiency for practical farm strategies: a Swedish experience. Michael Murphy from Lantmannen (Sweden) presented the experience in a commercial farm and provided indications on ideal feed efficiency values, and associated dietary factors.

How can technology help in improving efficiency? Kingshay’s Richard Simpson (UK) provided an overview of the AgriEpi dairy centres, funded as part of the UK Agri-Tech Strategy, and described the ongoing research on innovative technologies being carried out at these centres.

4.2 Two EuroDairy Pilot Farmers presented their approaches to managing feed efficiency. Additionally, these are presented as additional Case Studies in Appendix 4.

Plenary discussion and break-out sessions

5.1 Expectations from the workshop

At the start of the workshop, participants were asked what they hope to take away from the meeting. In summary, these were to:-

Learn from others around the EU, increase knowledge on the subject Get practical ideas to practically apply on farm Explore new ways of assessing feed efficiency Increase profitability through new ideas Quantify the economic aspects of feed efficiency Learn to identify what can go wrong, and how to make better decisions Explore the role of nutrition and the environment

5.2 Main elements of the discussion

One element of the interactive sessions focussed on a discussion of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). For the majority of participants, feed efficiency represented an important economic indicator/target, implicated in sustainability and increased cost due to wastage. Participants listed KPIs that they deemed relevant to feed efficiency (Appendix 5). Those emphasised by participants are shown in bold.

Purchased feed/concentrates use and cost were the most recurrent factors considered by attendees as affecting feed efficiency. Costs of purchased feeds are volatile and generally not controllable by the farmer. The target is to maintain production with a higher proportion of high quality forage in the diet, increasing the efficiency of use of forages and decreasing feeding costs.

Several milk-related factors, other than yield and composition, were also deemed important, namely, milk from forage, feed conversion efficiency, and lifetime yield. Regarding the latter, an interesting suggestion came forward during group discussion, as to the possibility to extrapolate lifetime feed intake to get a “lifetime feed efficiency”. If we have ‘lifetime yield’, why not having lifetime feed efficiency – accepting that feed intake from young stock would also need to be estimated.

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Key messages 6.1 Setting targets

Feed efficiency is fundamental to the economic success of the dairy enterprise. In most circumstances, it is possible for cows to produce similar amounts of milk with a higher proportion

of forage in the diet, which in turn will decrease the use of concentrates and reduce feed costs. A baseline level of at least 3,000 litres Milk from Forage per lactation, can be achieved by any farming

system. High performing systems can achieve a whole herd feed efficiency in the range 1.5-1.6 (kg Energy Corrected

Milk/kg Dry matter Intake). If cows are group fed, it is more helpful, for management reasons, to use target ranges for each group.

6.2 Planning

Know your resources and your first limiting factor (ceiling on farm milk output, number of cows, availability of land etc.)

Choose an appropriate efficiency indicator: it should be easily measurable, comparable across the chosen farming system, and regularly assessed

When planning to increase production or to expand cow numbers, focus on increasing available land and, if applicable, on greater pasture utilisation rather than increase the use of concentrates; if you don’t graze, focus on increasing the efficient use of high quality forages

Very high yielding cows will require some concentrate supplementation, so target feed efficiency but not at the expense of yield.

6.3 Managing and monitoring

Feed wastage is an important factor that reflects efficiency, and can be addressed very practically on-farm. Feed efficiency is different throughout lactation and different groups have different targets. Focusing on

feed efficiency in low producing groups is particularly useful to keep BCS under control To monitor feed efficiency, data collection and correct definition of the collected information is important.

For example, when talking of concentrates it is important to be clear what is meant by concentrate: is it just bought in feed, or is it – more broadly – everything that is not a forage, even if home grown? Data collection can be difficult in certain instances, such as grazing: in this case, appropriate back calculations and standard values will have to be used.

Technology can help in data collection on feeding, reducing labour and human error. One of the EuroDairy Pilot farms which hosted a visit is using CowManager® - an eartag-based monitoring systems for heat detection that allows also the early identification of sick cows through recording of activity and rumination data. Changes in rumination can be detected, for example, in the majority of the animals when the quality of forage fed changes. Other technologies are currently being researched – such as automated feeders (GEA feeder at the Agri-Epi dairy centre or, for grazing precision, satellites.

6.4 Environmental benefit

A spin-off benefit of improved feed efficiency is to reduce environmental impact. Overfeeding minerals such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) decreases their efficiency of use, increases

their elimination into the environment, and accentuates regulatory barriers. Properly formulated diets will avoid overfeeding, while ensuring animal health and productivity.

6.5 Genetics

Genetics can improve feed efficiency – dry matter intake and efficiency (as Residual Feed Intake- RFI) are heritable (heritability = 0.30 and 15% respectively).

Maintenance has been used so far as proxy for efficiency Increasingly, dry matter intake is being evaluated, with some caveats:

o Individual intakes are required, limiting the data collection to experimental farms with individual measurements

o Intake varies across, and between, lactations with a high variability in early lactation; o Do we want lower or higher intakes?

“Wasted feed” is a new proposed sub-index that, unlike RFI, which assumes we measure all traits with the same degree of accuracy, takes into account the different accuracies of measuring the component traits.

Promising results are coming from the genetic study of the rumen microbiome. There is ongoing research to develop international genomic predictions on feed efficiency, which would

allow selection for more efficient animals.

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There has been some discussion regarding the role of cross-breeding (with specific programs such as ProCross) in increasing feed efficiency. Hybrid vigour could also increase lifetime yield, which ultimately would affect “lifetime” efficiency.

Further research and development needs Gaps in knowledge were suggested, which might be addressed by further research:-

- Focus on reducing wastage at different points of forage-making and feeding out (addressing feed losses and feed utilisation)

- Develop and adopt new technology to increase accuracy: i.e. imaging of TMR particle size for the Penn State Separator (also, more information on how to use the Penn State Separator)

- Investigate rumen microbiome and the role of probiotics and/or special feeds or feeding techniques - Explore more the indigestible fibre concept. The indigestible fibre (iNDF) is the portion of Neutral

Detergent Fibre (NDF) not available for digestion in the rumen. There is increasing interest in using this parameter in analysis, to provide more accurate information on the pool of digestible NDF and on the predicted feed intake.

- Investigate ways to reduce heat increment (improve digestibility of the diet through improved forage quality, additives) to increase the conversion of energy into milk

- Focus on ways to fill the gap between potential and actual efficiency (i.e. whole farm feed efficiency project): this will mean investigating the areas in the farm where there is loss of efficiency (such as young stock and feed wastage)

- Look into exploiting hybrid vigour as an alternative approach. This could be done by creating other specific crossbreeding programs to increase efficiency.

- Use more legumes to make use of nitrogen fixation to increase efficiency of nutrient use.

Implications for policy The efficiency of use of particular nutrients, such as N and P, is a key factor to reduce environmental impact. Some EU countries have already implemented specific regulations for N and P, while others are likely to follow in the future. With incoming regulations on ammonia (Directive EU 2016/2284 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants) N use efficiency will become a key factor, for example, on UK dairy farms.

Reduced reliance on bought-in concentrates to produce milk will increase economic efficiency and sustainability of the farm, while reducing the carbon footprint. While this is not directly related to any current regulation, it is still an important factor in the overall environmental perspective, and increasingly is becoming a supply chain issue.

Exploitation of results The output of this workshop will be reported on the EuroDairy website www.eurodairy.eu. You can find out more about the event, including testimony for those participating by following the following links.

Photostory: https://eurodairy.eu/about/news/key-lessons-from-the-improving-feed-efficiency-workshop-photo-story/

Video: https://eurodairy.eu/about/news/improving-feed-efficiency-workshop-sharing-lessons-across-europe/

Acknowledgements The involvement of EuroDairy farmers presenting, and hosting farm visits, is gratefully acknowledged.

EuroDairy is funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant agreement No 696364.

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Appendices Appendix 1 – List of attendees

Martina Dorigo AHDB – organiser of the workshop and Dairy Scientist (Dairy Nutrition)

Siwan Howatson AHDB – Dairy Scientist (Grassland and Forage)

Rebecca Bennett AHDB – Dairy Marketing and Communications

Stephen West AHDB – Knowledge exchange manager and workshop facilitator

Becky Miles AHDB – Knowledge exchange manager and workshop facilitator

Thomas Andersen SEGES (DK) – Delegate and speaker

Elisabet Nadeau SLU (S) - Delegate

Elizabeth Earle AgriSearch (Northern Ireland) - Delegate

Jouke Oenema WUR (NL) – Speaker

Michael Murphy Lantmannen (S) - Speaker

Richard Simpson Kingshay (UK) - Speaker

Liam Sinclair Harper Adams University (UK) - Speaker

Phil Garnsworthy University of Nottingham (UK) - Speaker

Marco Winters AHDB (UK) - Speaker

Liam Hanrahan Teagasc (IRE) – EuroDairy farmer, delegate and speaker

Ida Widin EuroDairy farmer (Sweden)

Eva Olsson EuroDairy farmer (Sweden)

Dag Arvidsson EuroDairy farmer (Sweden)

Hermannus Geurtsen EuroDairy farmer (Sweden)

Thomas Steele EuroDairy farmer (Northern Ireland)

Neil Dyson EuroDairy farmer (UK) and host

Jane Dyson EuroDairy farmer (UK) and host

Robert Mallett EuroDairy farmer (UK) and host

Robert Craig EuroDairy farmer (UK) and speaker

Roger Hildreth EuroDairy farmer (UK) and speaker

Tom Halton AHDB Strategic farmer (UK)

Jack Halton AHDB Strategic farmer (UK

Andrew Allan Farmer – White Horse Discussion Group (UK)

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Appendix 2 – Workshop agenda

Day one - Tuesday 16th October 2018 10.00 Welcome and introduction to the workshop - Thomas Andersen (Seges, DK) 10.10 Getting to know you – Interactive session 10:50 The economics of feed efficiency

The Irish experience - Liam Hanrahan (Teagasc, IRE) The UK experience – Richard Simpson (Kingshay, UK)

11.40 Refreshment 12.00 How can we measure and monitor feed efficiency?

Whole farm feed efficiency project: preliminary findings - Phil Garnsworthy (Uni. of Nottingham, UK) European Dairy Farmers data for EuroDairy -Thomas Andersen (Seges, DK) Farm Case study - Roger Hildreth (Dairy Farmer, UK)

13.00 Lunch 13.45 Farm Visit – Robert Mallett, Northleaze Farm 17.00 After visit: facilitated wash-up session with refreshment 19:00 Dinner 20:30 After dinner presentation - Genetics and feed efficiency - Marco Winters (AHDB, UK) Day two – Wednesday 17th October 2018 08.30 Feed efficiency and environment: the Dutch experience on N and P efficiency - Jouke Oenema

(Wageningen, NL) 08.50 Reducing dietary protein content and the role of home-grown high protein forages - Liam Sinclair (Harper

Adams University) 09.10 Using Feed Efficiency for practical farm strategies: a Swedish experience - Michael Murphy (PhD, Senior

Feed Advisor, Sweden) 09.30 Farm Case Study - Robert Craig (Dairy Farmer, UK) 09.50 Farm Visit - Neil Dyson, Holly Green Dairy Farm 14.00 Refreshments

How can technology help in improving efficiency? Richard Simpson (Kingshay, UK)

14:30 After visit: facilitated wash-up session and interactive groups 16.00 Summary and close Martina Dorigo (AHDB, UK)

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Appendix 3 – Formal presentations

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Appendix 4 – Farm case studies

The workshop has produced two case studies, available on the EuroDairy website:

Flexibility is the key to success in pasture-based system

Flexibility is the key to success in pasture-based system

Robert Craig – EuroDairy farmer

https://eurodairy.eu/case-studies/flexibility-is-the-key-to-success-in-pasture-based-system/

Home eed Efficiency at Curlew Fields Farm, Yorkshire

Feed Efficiency at Curlew Fields Farm, Yorkshire

Roger Hildreth – EuroDairy farmer

https://eurodairy.eu/case-studies/feed-efficiency-at-curlew-fields-farm-yorkshire/

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Appendix 5 –– List of indicators proposed by participants

Economics

•Margin Over Purchased Feed (/month or /cow) ● Margin over total feed costs• Milk sales minus costs (£/kg) ● Replacement costs•Purchased feed cost ● Margin/ha•Feed cost/litre ● total cost of production

Milk production and composition

•Milk yield (solids?) ● Milk urea ● % bw of solids•Litres (kg MS)/ha ● Kg DM/kg ECM - FCE ● lifetime yield •Milk from forage (/ cow and /ha) or from grazed grass (/ cow and per ha) ● proportion of purchased feed

in the diet

Feed/forage

•concentrates/litre or /cow ● grass growth ● Forage type/quality ●energy intake•Feed/DM intake ● stocking rate ● UME•Forage area + yield ● Utilisation and wastage/losses ● Susbstitution rate

Youngstock

•age at 1st calving ● replacement rate•growth rates

Health and fertility

•Culling (lost in 1st 50d) ● 6wk in-calf rate ● calving interval•Pregnancy rate ● BCS/Body weight

Genetics

•Genomic value ● Breed

Miscellaneous

•Environment (N and P efficiency) ● Rumen fill, manure score•Cow comfort