How to improve the protein content of milk? [Breeder testimony]

Based in Houchin in the Pas-de-Calais since 2009, with his mother and father in the Les Sources farm, Christophe Dissaux has always wanted to develop the dairy farm while making his work more comfortable. At the time, he took over the family farm, which was milking just 240,000 litres of milk. He then began to develop the unit, reaching production of 360,000 litres of milk with 40 cows milked in 2015. With the system ageing and the 2×4 milking parlour with stall no longer meeting his objectives, he decided to undertake a project for a building with robotic milking. In July 2016, the robot was up and running, and milk production quickly climbed to 480,000 litres. The aim by 2018 is to continue to develop the herd and reach 600,000 litres of milk.

Why work on protein content?

“Contents have always been one of the objectives of Les Sources farm,” explains Christophe. “Firstly, through genetics and the choice of breeding bulls, but also by ensuring that the ration is rich in energy and diversified”. Then, over the last year or so, his dairy has rallied farmers around a common project: producing milk with a high protein content. So Christophe immediately sought the advice of his Unéal technician to look at the various possible ways of improving protein content hrough feed.

What were the dietary options?

As we all know, to produce milk with a high protein content, it is important to have an energy-rich ration. This first point has been monitored for a long time at the Les Sources farm, with one objective: not to fall below 0.94 UFL/kg dry matter in the basic ration. Quality forages such as silage maize and the rye/pea mix ensure a high level of energy. Maize silage provides intestinal-type starch, which is good for protein content. But to go even further and diversify energy sources, Christophe adds dry pulp for cellulosic energy and saturated fats. It’s worth noting that cocoa shell has been tested, without success…

Once the energy criterion had been met, the second point was addressed: PDIE and PDIA coverag.. For these criteria, it is of course necessary to take into account the forage but also the quality of the concentrates. On this last point, Christophe chose to work with Soja 49. However, it has to be borne in mind that this is a raw material, so its nutritional values vary, and it needs special attention for mineralisation and meets the needs for trace elements and vitamins. This is why the farmer chose to use Galaexpert (a personalised feed formulated à la carte by his Unéal technician, see table below) with his soya.

Finally, the last criterion to be taken into account for improving protein content is the balance of the limiting amino acids in the rations of dairy cows, namely Lysine and Methionine. To achieve the objective of 3 points of LysDi (Digestible Lysine) for 1 point of MetDi (Digestible Methionine), there was only one solution: to provide protected methionine. For this feed, he works with a base of Maize, Soya, Dry pulp and Rapeseed supplemented with a core of trace elements and vitamins, monobicalcium phosphate, live yeast and a VivActiv’® core from CCPA, which improves the efficiency of starches and proteins in the rumen.

The choice of providing protected methionine

The product proposed by Unéal to supplement a ration with methionine is called Deltamine. The recommended intake is 50 grams per cow per day. When the product was introduced into the ration in July 2016, Les Sources farm followed these recommendations and added the full dose to the basic ration. However, Christophe soon opted to add 30 grams of the product to the ration distributed at the trough and then supplement the rest individually depending on the stage of lactation and individual production.

In fact, it has been proven that adding protected methionine gives even better results in early lactation. Taking advantage of his robot, the decision was made to incorporate protected methionine into the Galaexpert production feed. In this way, the farmer can target early lactation to optimise his investment and maximise the product’s profitability. Some animals can therefore receive up to 80 grams of Deltamine equivalent.

What have been the results?

And Christophe concludes: “With Deltamine™ I wanted to work on my protein content and I’ve improved it, I’ve also managed to do some preventive work and improve the health of my herd!”