Feed Efficiency: Its Economic Impact In Lactating Dairy Cows

摘要

Feed Efficiency (FE) is closely related with profitability in meat producing livestock. Transferring FE directly to dairy where there are multiple requirements (milk production, BW changes, reproduction, growth) complicates the measure, but does not diminish usefulness. Because of the many factors affecting FE, no one FE value can be set as a standard or goal across all cows, all stages of lactation or all herds. Within a herd, changes in FE can be used by dairy managers to help determine the economical impact of feeding and management changes. Improvements in FE will always be profitable whether increasing milk from the same amount of DM fed or getting the same milk production from a lower DM intake.