Bovine Banter

Episode 22.1: Penn State Feeding Assessments

• Penn State Extension • Season 22 • Episode 1

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Crops play a crucial role on dairy farms, and forages are arguably the most crucial part of a dairy diet. Feed costs on a dairy farm represent about 75% of total expenses and, in most cases, can make or break a business. Penn State Extension came up with a program to analyze these feeding systems on the farm, called the Penn State Feeding Assessment. The program was designed to analyze the current feeding programs on dairies to help troubleshoot problems and check for efficiencies. Join us this week as we discuss who would benefit from a feeding assessment, what happens during the assessment, and what results to expect. 

Angela:

Welcome to the Bovine Banter Podcast with the Penn State Extension Dairy Team. I'm Angela Brenneman, Dairy Management Educator for Lancaster County, and today I'll be your host. On today's episode, we'll be discussing the Penn State Feeding Assessment Program, one of the programs that are offered through Penn State Extension for our dairy producers. The feeding assessments are a program that focuses on troubleshooting feeding programs on the dairy. We know that crops play a crucial role on dairy farms, and forages are arguably the most crucial part of the dairy diet. Feed costs on a dairy farm represent about 75% of total expenses and in most cases can make or break a business. The feeding system assessment program was designed to analyze the current feeding programs on dairies to help troubleshoot problems and check for inefficiencies. Today I have my coworkers Kasey Hower and Leoni Martins here to help me discuss further about what we do during our feeding system assessments. Hi, Kasey and Leoni. How are you guys today? We're good. How are you? Good. Do you guys want to give a little bit of an introduction about where you guys work, what you do?

Kasey:

Sure. So I'm Kasey Howard, as Angie said, and I'm the dairy educator based out of Berks County.

Leoni:

Yeah, I'm Leoni Martins. I'm an assistant clinical professor of procedure nutrition uh based here at uh State College.

Angela:

Great. And what are both of your roles during the feeding system assessments?

Kasey:

So we kind of all work together on the feeding assessments, but maybe um, I don't know, one or two of us will go depending on where the farm is located in the state. But we, you know, work together to conduct the feeding assessment. Leoni does a little bit more on the data analysis side.

Leoni:

Yeah, I I think we have uh different expertises. Uh, you know, Angie with her uh nutrition background and and and owning a farm uh has that very practical uh experience to you know have good inputs during the feeding assessment. Kasey is an expert in in forage conservation and silages, so that's very helpful. And I have some background with their nutrition overall, so diet formulation and use of feeding strategies to optimize nutrient uh delivery and efficiency. So I guess as a team we we kind of complement each other, and that's kind of what we bring uh in our farm visits. And as uh Kasey said, uh depending on the location and the timeline, uh we're gonna be visiting the farms as a group or individually uh to better serve the producers around uh around Pennsylvania.

Angela:

Yeah, yeah, we have a pretty good nutrition background for all of us, um, which is why this is one of my favorite programs. Um, so I guess the biggest question or what I hear often is who exactly is looking for help with their feeding programs and and who is requesting our help with these programs?

Kasey:

So it would typically be a farm in Pennsylvania or surrounding states, just so we're able to travel to it. And it could be a farm that's experiencing some issues maybe with mycotoxins or they're not meeting their production goals, but really it could be any farm if they're not seeing issues, or maybe they just want to get an extra set of eyes on their ration or make sure what their nutritionist is formulating for them is actually what they're delivering to the cow at the bunk and see if there's any areas where maybe they can improve efficiency or something else.

Leoni:

Yeah, I would add that, you know, sometimes, unfortunately, most of the times when we are called into a farm is because the farms are going through some uh bad issues, right? Milk fat depression or cows are not getting pregnant, and they start thinking that the the issue may be related to nutrition, right? Now, of course, they have their nutritionists, but as Kasey said, a fresh set of eyes to come and help. Uh, that's what's what they're gonna look for. So we had had some uh farms that reached out to us because conception rates were not quite right, or and they were suspecting about mycotoxins, for example. We had farms that were calling us because milk fat was quite low, and they wanted to know why, and most of the times that's related to nutrition. But when we visit the farm, we are pretty much looking to the farm as a whole, uh, not just nutrition. So we will check the Repro data, we will check health data, we'll check transition cows, and usually that request will come from farmers or nutritionists that may want to have some help on their job.

Angela:

Yeah, and you bring up a good point, Leoni. So I think oftentimes people think that uh producers alone are requesting these assessments, but oftentimes we'll also get requests from nutritionists that the farm is working with. They're veterinarians, but you both did prove most of our assessments are producers who are having issues with animal health problems or struggles with like mastitis or mycotoxins or producers that aren't just meeting their goals and want to have another set of eyes. But it really we like to involve everyone on the farm. So with every one of our assessments, we're always including their nutritionist, always including their veterinarian as well, because it really is a team effort. And I like to mention that as well. This does not just have to be producer led. You know, we work with everyone on the farm. When someone requests us to come do a feeding assessment, what does that process usually look like? So where do we start? What happens when we get on the farm? And then what happens after? Let's talk a little bit about what happens in the beginning. So, how does someone request a feeding assessment and what does that look like initially for us to sit down with this farm?

Kasey:

Initially, they just have to reach out to one of us, either myself, Angie or Leoni, to get it scheduled. And then usually we try to collect some basic data, such as like farm location, maybe some issues you're seeing. We would love to get, if you're using DHIA, to get your herd code and your wrap code so we can look up your production data and kind of just get a handle on what's going on and what why you're calling us. And then we would come out for the initial feeding assessment, which is actually like looking at the way you're mixing feed, evaluating your forages, like talking about all the things that Leoni mentioned, looking at cow health and the whole farm overall. And then after that, um, during the feeding assessment, we would also collect some feed samples and send that off for testing to see if it matches what your nutritionist formulated for you. So, like Angie said, too, you're we're involving the nutritionist. So we would need to contact the nutritionist beforehand too to get some batch sheets and a printout of the diet from a nutrient profile perspective. And then, like I said, conduct the feeding assessment, send the feed samples off. Once we get those back, we would put those together in a report and then meet with the farmer, hopefully within like a month or two of getting your feeding assessment and go over the results and any kind of recommendations that we would have. And then after that, follow up within three to six months, see how things are going, what you changed. If you want us to come out, redo another assessment, if you're meeting now meeting your goals or working towards improvement.

Leoni:

Obviously, we like to see this data before going to the farm so we can kind of understand a little bit better the farm system and where the numbers are. When we get to the farm, we try to cross-reference the numbers we see with actually uh what we're seeing the cows. So we'll walk across pens, checking body condition scores, for example, and pretty much as Kasey said, we're gonna collect feed samples, TMR samples, follow the the feeder to see how the mixture mixtures are done. So that means we we need to schedule a time where probably fresh feed is gonna be delivered, and and then we'll follow up with a report. So pretty much we'll be walking the entire farm. Of course, that the the request was maybe specific to some sort of issue, but you know, we'll be walking the entire farm because things are related in a farm, they're not just isolated. So every insights that we may have when walking the farm will be useful for our report and to help the farm, you know, improve their profitability and improve their system.

Angela:

Yeah, I like to remind producers that this is a whole analysis, making sure that we get every information possible to help us will help us find solutions and answers for their farm. So we really do take a deep dive into DHIA data and just management aspects as well on the farm, as well as things like mixing order. So all of that goes into play. So I always say the more information we have, the more accurate information we have, the better when it comes to these assessments. So I always like to remind producers of that. When we think about doing our feed analysis and when we're weighing feed and when we're looking at the mixing process, what are some of the tools that we're gonna bring to the farm with us? How are we gonna use them and why do we have them with us?

Kasey:

Yeah, so one of the things we always bring is our particle separator box. Um I'm sure a lot of people have seen it. It's a series of four sieves in a plastic box that we'll shake out and do the particle distribution analysis. We'll also bring some buckets with us and some flat scales so we can weigh refusals and kind of collect any other feed samples that we might need to. And we'll also bring our own like boot brush and disinfectant and stuff too to make sure we're not spreading anything farm to farm.

Angela:

There's any baleages that need to be sampled. We'll also bring like a forage probe or any dry hay samples, bring that as well. That's pretty common to see if you work with a nutritionist. So that's something that you might have already seen, but that'll all be a part of mainly the feed sampling process.

Leoni:

And uh, we also have the capability of evaluating packing density in the corn silage bunker. So uh we will bring tools to collect some samples and estimate how packed or how well the farm is packing their silage, and that will be related to forage quality and the conservation process. So I guess that completes the list of tools that we usually have with us.

Angela:

Yeah, and when we think about the particle separator, so Kasey brought up the particle separator, and I think that's a pretty common tool that Penn State uses. And when people think of Penn State and we talk about nutrition, I think the particle separator probably comes to mind. But when we think of theoretical length of cut, we talk about that quite often, especially when we're talking about the particle separator. Why is the theoretical length of cut important? Why is it important to the cows? And how does the Penn State particle separator help us determining chop length for our diets? And how do we use that as a tool in terms of chop length?

Kasey:

So a couple different things, both kind of on the front end of when you're making forages, it's important because it's gonna impact how well you can pack that silo, how well it's going to ferment, and kind of how the fermentation's gonna go. And then on the back end, when you're feeding it, it's gonna affect the cow because we think of and think of her rumen and kind of the way that box is modeled and the research around it, it's supposed to mimic the way the particles separate naturally out in the rumen and how it's gonna pass through the rumen. So there's different sizes.

Leoni:

So there's 19, 9, 4, and the bottom, right? Yeah. Yeah, so so uh as Kasey said, it's it's a very practical tool we have available to help us determine if the issues you're seeing with the cows are related to particle size. So that's one immediate answer that we can have using the Penn State particle separator. We get the the TMR or we get your forges, we screen these forages through the particle separator box, and then we have an estimation of how lengthy these forages are. Is the length of forage related to probably particle sorting in the feed bunk? It's not always about having large particle sizes, but it's it's about having the adequate particle size because when we have two large particles, the cows will not consume them. Therefore, the effect that we want to have in the cow in terms of rumination and buffering capacity will not happen. The cows will sort it out and you still have some rumino acidosis, for example. So, this is an immediate information that we can collect on farm with the Penn State particle separator. The other thing is that we encourage producers to use this, and and that doesn't necessarily need to be during the feeding assessment, but if the farm has the Penn State particle separator on farm, they could keep track of particle size during harvest. They determine that that theoretical length and that theoretical length should be farm dependent. For example, a farm that uses a defacer should have probably a longer particle size compared to a farm that doesn't use a defacer because that defacer, when you're removing silage from the silo, will further process the corn silage. These things are farm dependent, and it's very important that the nutritionists and the farm kind of determine their own theoretical particle size. The other things that we can use these particle separators is to evaluate how consistent our TMR mixture is across the feed bunk. So when we we mix uh the feed ingredients in the TMR mixer, we hope that when we distribute that TMR, every single point in the feed bunk will be the same, right? That that's our goal. But the reality is that if we are having mixing issues, point one may be completely different from point two, point three, four, or five down the feed bunk. And measuring the consistency across these different points in the feed bunk can help us understand how well the mixing procedure is, and then this is a starting point for troubleshooting potential opportunities that we we may have to improve the mixing quality. This is a very good tool to use on farms that, you know, as nutritionists we rely a lot.

Angela:

Yeah, and it's it's not black and white, right? So just because we find a result on one farm doesn't mean it's gonna be the exact same on another. And it's very dependent upon what crop they're harvesting, uh, their feeding style, you know, there's lots of factors that go into it. So that's what makes part of this assessment unique, right? It's all dependent upon how your feeding system is, what crops you're harvesting, and what we're looking for in terms of the needs or goals on the farm. And I always like to tell producers, I always love to see proactive producers instead of reactive producers. And I feel like sometimes when it comes to crops and forages, we're a little bit more reactive, depending on the year. And by looking at your chop length and by, you know, making sure we're checking moistures to make sure that we're harvesting an accurate dry matters. Um, those are all things that we can do to be proactive to make sure that we're presenting the most desirable crop to that cow when it's time to be fed out. And most times we're gonna have that crop for the next year. So this is a way to do that. And having a Penn State Particle Separator on farm definitely helps with that at harvest. I know we're still harvesting down here in Southeast VA. So it's definitely going to be an interesting crop that we're gonna have for the next year. But doing the best we can at harvest now to put that in is gonna help us next year when we go to feed out that crop.

Kasey:

Yeah. It's but and you can always, you know, make some adjustments now, but also keep in mind it's easier to make things shorter than it is longer too. I like your point of being proactive about it and making sure we're doing it even at harvest time versus later in the feeding.

Angela:

Yeah, it's a lot cheaper too to do things now instead of after we realize that we have a problem, right?

Leoni:

To add on this theoretical particle size, every time that we aim to have a shorter particle size in our chopper, let's put a number there. If I set it for 10 millimeters, the actual the real particle size will probably be greater than that. And and and the opposite is true. Every time that I set my chopper for a longer particle size, let's say 20 millimeters, probably the real particle size will be a little bit shorter than that. So having the Penn State particle separator will actually give you a good metric on whether you are meeting those goals that you thought you'll set the chopper to to harvest at that specific particle size.

Angela:

Yeah. Yeah, and you brought up a good point with the facers, right? Um, when we put the feed in that storage system, whether a bunk or a silo or a bag or whatnot, that's not the end of the road for that feed, right? So we have to get it out of that storage facility and we have to get it to the cows. And there's more processing that happens in that time period. So you're right, we have to calculate all of that in when we're thinking about what actually gets to the cow and what the cow's actually consuming. One of the next steps that we do in our feeding assessments is we take forage analysis. And so we take samples and we send them off to the lab to get analyzed. When we're doing that, kind of what's our goal? What are we looking for? And why are we sending off feed samples? Are we comparing them to something? Are we, what are we checking for? What kind of tests can we run when we send feed off to the lab?

Kasey:

So we can send, usually we get like a standard wetcom or NIR, look at so your dry matter, your moisture, different fiber fractions, NDF, ADF, crude protein, ash, things like that, and kind of see how that compares to the nutrient profile of what your nutritionist printed out for you for the TMR. But we might also do that for each individual forage too, depending on what's going on on your farm, just seeing the overall quality of that. Maybe we'll do some extra testing for mycotoxins if that's a concern. Um, we don't necessarily do those on every feed sample just because of the expense of it, but we do what we can and maybe some digestibility or looking at starch or in minerals and things like that.

Leoni:

Yeah, I'm gonna use corn silages as an example here, but it could be any forages. And as you both mentioned, the chemical composition is very important on top of the physical aspect of the forage, right? Uh something specifically for corn silage that we are interested in is understanding uh the fiber fraction, so how much fiber we have in that material, and what's the digestibility or the estimated digestibility of that fiber, and the same for starch. So these are two major chemical or nutrients that we are looking into when we're sending these samples out for analysis. On the far fiber aspect of it, we use that NDF value that we collect from the forges and the particle size distribution to calculate something that is called the physically effective NDF, which is the NDF that when it goes in the rumen of the cow will stimulate rumination. And that stimulus will stimulate the cow to produce buffers or bicarbonate in the saliva, for example, and that will help buffer the rumen to keep the pH in an adequate level that will make the rumen microbes happy. So that's one of the reasons why we collect these forage samples and we send them out for a chemical analysis so we cross that information with our particle distribution. The other thing is understanding how much starch we have in the corn silage, but we also looked into the kernels of the corn silage. Maybe we have a corn silage that has high starch content, but if the kernels are not processed right, they are pretty much whole grains, uh, we're gonna lose those grains in the feces, and that starch will not be used by the cow. We do have these chemical analyses to uh help us interpret what we find in the farm uh when we see the cows, when we walk the barns and see the the fecals of those animals.

Angela:

Kind of just helps us look at the whole picture of what's happening on the farm and then what we see in the forages and what's happening with the cows. I always say nutrition is an art and it, you know, there's multiple factors and it's kind of like a balancing act with scales, and it takes multiple factors to figure out what's going on at the cow level, what we see in the forages. So that just kind of gives us a broad picture of how the forages look, and then we can see how they are working in the cow once they're presented to the cow.

Kasey:

Yes, one thing to add on this when we go to the farm and we collect a forage sample, that is just a snapshot of that day. Yes. And you know, we know that forages vary a lot on a day-to-day basis, right? So if farm farms start to measure dry matter on farm, uh, let's say every other day, hopefully it's gonna be consistent, but we'll see some variation there. And the same is true for nutrient composition, all right. So when we get a sample we send to the lab, we like to cross-validate that information with the historical analysis that the farm has been doing for that specific silo. Uh, so that's where it's important to stay in touch with the nutritionists so we can understand if the numbers we're looking at are are actually the true numbers or it happened to be just one bad day. Our collaborative work with the nutritionists and and everybody involved in the farm is very important so we can have a robust outcome or a robust report on what we find.

Angela:

Y eah, yep, that's a really good point. So we talked about kind of the initial meeting with a producer, describing needs of wanting us to come onto the farm, figuring out what the goal of us being there is, going on the farm and doing the assessment. And we talked about some of the tools that we use, but what are some of the other important metrics that we like to dive into and take a look at on the farm to kind of give us a whole picture of what's going on with the cows and on the farm?

Kasey:

To get a whole picture. I mean, we'll look at management of different things too. Um, so one of the questions we'll ask you in our initial kind of consultation is what type of feed mix are you using? So that we can look up that model number and see if you're actually mix putting ingredients in that mixer in correct order according to that manufacturer's instructions and also the way that that feed mixes. Um, like let's say you're for some reason you're adding molasses like second after, and then adding some other forages, like you could get things all clumped up. That's one of the things. Another thing would be if you maybe how often are you calibrating the scale on your TMR mixer or sharpening knives, um, which again we might be able to pick up on the particle separator and cow behavior. Are you pushing up feed? I know body condition score was brought up, maybe just overall cleanliness, even with waters, kind of cow behavior refusals. Are you feeding to an empty bunk every single time?

Leoni:

Yeah, I I think that I think you will agree with me that most farms that we visit, the diets are well formulated. Um they make a lot of sense in paper, right? And we would would expect a certain level of milk production and uh performance of the cows if they are eating that diet, right? So we use those metrics to actually assess whether the diet that we are seeing in paper is actually promoting the response that we would expect in the cows. And in cases where the answer is not, the diet is well formulated, but the cows are not responding, the reason why will be related to some sort of feeding management or cow comfort or you know, transition cow issues. That's why we looked into the farm as a whole and we dig deep dive into uh farm records so we can really understand where the issue lies on and how we can improve that. Sometimes the the answer will be kind of clear, but the farmer will not be able to adopt it because of a workforce issue. Uh, they don't have enough employees, for example, or they would have to hire more people for an additional shift to feed one more time a day. I'm just making a hypothetical case here. So we try to understand all the struggles that the farm have before we make a recommendation. It would be pretty easy to make a recommendation that's kind of universal for everyone, but not all farms would be able to achieve those recommendations. So we try to consider all these aspects and and you know, make a recommendation that is gonna be feasible for the farm and will help them improve their performance. Could be one pound of milk, it could be a little bit more solids. And in a theoretical world, if they were able to adopt every single recommendation that we would give them, let's say cows would improve five pounds, right? But if they are able to implement just a little bit of those recommendations and the cow improves one pound or two, that's still better than they were before. So that's what we try to look at when we investigate DHIA records and performance of the cows. Pretty much we try to understand whether the diet that is formulated is not promoting the response that we would expect and why, and then we try to tackle those those issues.

Angela:

There's lots of moving pieces on a farm, and we're just trying to make sure that what's being presented to the farm and what we're presenting to the cows match, basically, most of the time. And there are so many factors that affect that, which is why we look at all of these other areas on the farm as well. So, just a little bit of a recap with this also is that again, we're looking at DHI records so we can see a snapshot of what the cows have done over the last year. Is there something that we can see or a time frame or a change that might have happened that we can see might have affected the cows at a certain period of time? And so that kind of gives us a look into that, you know, how how often is feed presented to the cows and how often is it pushed up for them? That's another factor that we look at and you know, we'll we'll calculate into the results for that as well. And then we look at cow behavior, like was said too. So we'll look at sorting, we'll look at how many refusals are in the bunk. It really is a full management assessment. After the assessment is done and we have a report ready, what does the final report look like? And what does it, how do we present the final report? And what's the producer going to get back from us after we do all of this and gather all of this information on farm?

Kasey:

So the written, the report is basically just a written report that'll be broken up into different sections of each measurement that we looked at or um evaluated. So there's usually a section on the nutrient profile, how much that matches what you delivered to the cow in the bunk versus what your nutritionist formulated for you. We'll look at your feed, like we said, with your feed mixing order and kind of see if that's optimal for the type of mixer that you have and how long it took you to mix and what the particle distribution was and if that matched recommendations. Anything else that we might have seen on the farm, maybe that you mentioned. So, like if you had a mycotoxin issue and we did mycotoxin testing, what those results look like and what our recommendation would be based on that. Or like Leonie has talked about repro too. Let's say we looked into repro records a lot more after the visit and kind of saw how nutrition may be affecting that and then what our recommendation would be based off of that. But usually we would schedule after the feeding assessment, we would schedule a time to sit down with the producer, their nutritionist, possibly their veterinarian, depending on the issue, and go through this written report with them and our recommendations and kind of sit down and talk about everything together. I don't think I have anything to add.

Leoni:

Uh we try to be as complete as possible in our report and you know, to actually have these third-party observations that since we are outside the farm, we have fresh eyes on the data, and it's easier, I guess, for people from the outside to identify potential issues that whoever's involved on a daily basis may not be able to see.

Angela:

Yeah. And I always like to make it clear to producers anything that we collect data-wise on the farm or anything that we see or pictures that we're taking, that all gets sent back to the producer. So every piece of information that we gather when we're there for the exam, they get to see that information and they get to see what the results of that was or what we found. So I think that's important to note too is that you're going to get every piece of information that we find from doing our assessment in a report that you can go look back at and take notes from. Are we always accepting new forms for the Assessments, how do the assessments work? Where do we get our funding from? Um, you know, can anyone call at any time and say, hey, I would like to do a feeding assessment?

Kasey:

Yeah, pretty much. Um, yeah, at this time, I mean, we're accepting new farms. We'd love to do, I don't know, 20, 30, 40 farms a year if we could. There is some funding available, and I'll let Leoni talk about that because he wrote the grant for it. But these feeding assessments are free to the producer because there is some funding for the feed testing and our mileage and anything else, our time.

Leoni:

Yeah, as a faculty, I spent most of my time thinking about ways to, you know, bring money in and facilitate the work of our educators and students and so on. So we do have some fundings available. And and this is a very strong program for extension because the impact that we may have with these feeding assessments, they are real and they can be big. Because as Angie started this podcast saying, feeding is pretty much the the the big chunk of of our operating costs. So every time that we go to a farm and see opportunities to improve their feeding program and the way that the cows use the nutrients that we're delivering to them, the the economic impact of this can be huge. All right. We do accept farms. Uh, as Kasey said, if we could do 20, 30 farms farms a year, we would love to do that. And you know, please feel free to reach out and we'll be happy to visit your farm.

Angela:

And I think the most common question I get when out in the field or when talking about a lot of the programs that we offer through extension is what does it cost? Um, and I always like to point out to producers that we are here to help them. So this is a free of cost for them per program that we offer currently. And as long as we get the funding for it, we can pass that along to the producers because that is our number one goal, right? Is to help dairy producers in Pennsylvania. Totally free. I like to point that out. And all of our services with the feeding assessment, including the feeding sampling, is 100% free. We want to get on as many farms as we can to help producers with this program. Overall, why is our assessment? We talked a little bit about it, but why is our assessment um important to dairy producers? And and what's the biggest take-home message, I think, for dairy producers and why would they want to consider doing a feeding assessment on their farm?

Kasey:

I guess we've touched on a lot of the different points because like we've touched on how it's the largest uh expense that a farm has is feeding their cows. And it's just helping them be really more efficient and hopefully helping them, helping their bottom line, right? Making sure cows are actually utilizing what you're giving them and you're managing it the best way that you can to be profitable. Why not have another set of eyes, especially when it's no cost, um, just help you out if you can?

Leoni:

Yeah, I would add that we are a neutral party. We're not looking into selling you feed additives, we're not looking into, you know, selling you a product or something. This is kind of our job and extension is to actually see how we can can improve our community and you know, uh work with the farmers, nutritionists, and all their industry professionals on on you know making this industry thrive in in Pennsylvania. Being a neutral party, I think it helps a lot because we can come to the farm with no intentions other than you know collaborating with you to make your business more profitable. I guess that that's the the biggest advantage of extension. For the nutritionists out there, we are not looking into competing with you as well. Again, we want to be part of the work you do and and be part of making the farms more profitable. Feeding is the greatest cost in the farm, and everything we could do to troubleshoot and make you make more sense on the milk that you sell, that's kind of our goal.

Angela:

Yeah, and oftentimes I hear, you know, I'm a dairy producer myself, we all have challenges on our farm. And and oftentimes I've heard being a nutritionist and being in the dairy world, we had to change nutritionists because we had a problem that we just could not get over. And oftentimes I that makes me really sad to hear because a lot of times it wasn't a factor of someone did something wrong. It was a factor of the environment or management or something that happened that year that made a change that doesn't matter how you're manipulating the ration, you needed to fix the root of the problem to get that problem. And I can tell you, as being a nutritionist, sometimes we like another set of eyes to be on the farm, right? And sometimes it's just better to work as a team. So we really do try to work as a team and we're there to help the producer and the other consultants that are on the farm too. And if more minds together usually solve a problem quicker. So that's really what we're there for and the purpose behind these feeding assessments. So thank you, Kasey and Leoni, for coming on here with me today and talking about the feeding assessments. Just a just a quick reminder that the feeding assessments are for dairy producers. It can be for lactating animals and non-lactating animals as well. So we can analyze heifer programs as well. We can also do beef feeding assessments as well for beef producers. So that's something that we can also offer. So we can do non-lactating animals and lactating animals. They are offered completely free through Penn State Extension and are available to everyone in the state of Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. And we are accepting new feeding assessment participants now. So if you're interested in learning more about the feeding assessments or getting signed up for the feeding assessments, um you can contact myself at the Lancaster Extension Office at 717-394-6851, or you can contact Kasey at the Burks County Extension Office. Kasey, do you want to give your number for the Burks office?

Speaker 01:

The Burks Extension Office number is 610-378-1327.

Speaker 00:

And if if not in Lancaster or Berks County, have no fear. We do offer these across the state. But Kasey and I can kind of get us get a picture of where you're at and we can come to you and get set up. So don't worry if you're not a part of Lancaster or Berks County. We can come out and travel to you to talk more about the feeding assessment and how to get it set up on your farm. Um, you can join us next Tuesday. This nutrition series continues uh for Bovine Banter. More on forage management. You can join us next Tuesday. Thanks, guys. Thank you.