Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The feed is a major cost in the dairy production and there is a constant interest in finding
alternative cost-effective feedstuffs. Competitive dairy producers have to seek ways to
decrease their production costs and the pursuit of cost-effective feed rations contributes
to lower costs of production. An interesting group of protein concentrates are rapeseed
products like ExPro (heat treated rapeseed) which have during the autumn 2008 and
spring 2009 been very favourable compared to other protein feeds.
This study focuses on the feedstuff products ExPro and Raps-Drank 60/40 (rapeseeddistillers
grain). The potential use of ExPro in dairy cow feed rations are also explored.
ExPro is a well known feedstuff but Raps-Drank 60/40 is a relatively new product and
not known for many farmers.
A field study on the use of rapeseed products was made on a limited number of dairy
farms. The main purpose was to study the management of the feedstuffs on the farms.
The Farms were selected in cooperation with two local extension services. Selection
criteria were geographic location in southern Sweden, herd size of 80-200 dairy cows
and that they used ExPro in the feed ration.
Of the 10 farms which were selected, 2 of them actually used Raps-Drank 60/40 as their
rapeseed feed, but they were included in the study despite not fulfilling the original
criteria. The farms were visited and the farmers were interviewed by using a preprepared
question form. An overview of the farms use of the feed products was done.
The detailed results of each interview are shown in the results section.
Detailed feed ration calculations were made on four selected farms and how each feed
was managed. No technical or hygienic problems with usage ExPro and Raps-Drank in
mix feed were reported. Feed ration optimization revealed different outcomes. The
outcome from the interview shows that ExPro was favour compared to soyabean meal.
The hope of this study was to increase the interest for Swedish feed products in the feed
rations on the dairy farms. Even if the study was relatively small, with only a few farms
included the results show that it can be economical to feed dairy cows with ExPro
compared to soybean meal.