ABSTRACT
The time to prepare and feed a TMR recipe and how consistently these tasks are performed
on commercial operations have not been described. The objective of this study was
to provide baseline data by describing within and across dairies the time to prepare
and feed the high-producing-cow ration and the time elapsed between ingredient loads
during recipe preparation. Twenty-six dairies in California housing 1,100 to 6,900
cows were enrolled. Records from a 12-mo period were extracted from the feeding management
software (FeedWatch 7). Interquartile range (IQR: Q3–Q1) was used as a measurement of variability. Median recipe load preparation time ranged
from 9 min 18 s to 27 min 0 s. Recipe preparation time was relatively consistent (IQR
<3 min) on 4 dairies but inconsistent (IQR >6 min) on 3 dairies. Time from recipe
preparation to start feeding ranged from 1 min 54 s to 9 min 0 s, with a within-dairy
variation (IQR) ranging from 50 s to 10 min 50 s. The median recipe load feeding time
ranged from 90 s to 10 min 48 s. Six dairies were relatively consistent (IQR <1 min),
but 2 were not (IQR >5 min). The median time elapsed between ingredient loads ranged
across dairies from 40 to 84 s. On 8 dairies often (15 to 49%) there were <30 s between
ingredient loads; likely, leftover ingredients were not returned to the commodity
barn. Consultants and owners can evaluate feed management software records to identify
short, lengthy, or variable recipe preparation times relative to our baseline data.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
March 11,
2017
Received:
January 4,
2017
Identification
Copyright
Copyright © 2017, American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists. All rights reserved.
