🔄 Feeding

Feeding is how a cow is fed in the barn when she is not grazing or grazes only part of the day. Feed has a big effect on how much milk a cow gives and what that milk contains. Feed is one of the largest costs on a dairy farm.

A dairy cow's diet is made up of several parts. Silage is fermented corn, grass or alfalfa. Hay is dried grass. Compound feed and grain are concentrates: they make the diet more “calorie-rich”. Sometimes cows also get by-products from other industries, such as cottonseed or almond hulls in California. A livestock specialist — an expert in feeding and keeping animals — works out how much of each feed every group of cows needs.

Large farms most often prepare a total mixed ration (TMR). All the feeds are mixed in a feed mixer and handed out as one mass. That way a cow cannot pick out only her favourite parts, and she gets a balanced diet. On farms with milking robots, a cow gets a portion of concentrate each time she comes to be milked, and the system records everything. Milk from cows on such a mix differs from “pasture” milk: it has less omega-3 and beta-carotene.