🌾 Compound feed
Also known as: concentrate feed
A mix of grain, oilcake and vitamins for high milk yields.
Compound feed is a ready-made mix of several feeds, put together to suit the needs of a particular animal. Feed mills make it as a meal (loose feed), pellets or crumbles. The base is grain: corn, barley, oats, sorghum. Oilseed meal and oilcake are added to it — what is left of the seeds after the oil is pressed out. The best-known example is soybean meal, which is rich in protein. Premixes — a concentrate of vitamins and minerals — also go into the mix.
If grass, hay and silage are the base of a cow's diet, compound feed adds energy and protein. Grain makes the diet more “calorie-rich”. This matters most for high-yielding cows: it is hard for them to get everything they need from grass alone. On large farms, all the feeds are often mixed into one mass right in a feed mixer. That way a cow cannot pick out only what she likes best.
Feed is one of the biggest costs on a dairy farm. What goes into compound feed is strictly regulated. For example, after outbreaks of “mad cow disease” in the 1990s and 2000s, the United States and Canada banned adding certain animal tissues to feed for ruminants.
How it connects to milk
🌾 Compound feed → feed for → 🔄 Feeding → feeds → 🐄 Cow → gives → 🥛 Milk
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Frequently asked questions
What is compound feed for cows made of?
Grain (corn, barley, oats, sorghum), meal and oilcake from oilseed crops such as soy, and vitamin and mineral supplements called premixes.
Why do dairy cows need compound feed?
It adds energy and protein to the diet. A high-yielding cow finds it hard to get everything she needs from grass, hay and silage alone.