Dairy One Forage Lab Newsletter

Forage Newsletter No. 9 | January 2020

The Dairy One Forage Lab excels in providing high quality analyses and customer service. Our goal is to provide analytical services designed to meet the expanding demands of modern agriculture. New technology and traditional methods are combined to deliver fast, accurate results.

Relative Forage Quality (RFQ) Update

Introduced in the early 2000’s, Relative Forage Quality (RFQ) is a value used to score haycrop forages. Similar to Relative Feed Value (RFV), RFQ uses nutritional components and predicted performance values to serve as an indicator of overall forage quality. While RFV is based solely on ADF and aNDF values, the RFQ prediction includes CP, ADF, aNDF, fat, ash and NDF digestibility (NDFD48). Fiber digestibility is a critical component of how well the forage will be used by the animal. By incorporating fiber digestibility along with additional forage components, the RFQ scoring system enhances the ability to evaluate forages.

Read more about Relative Forage Quality (RFQ)

Amm-CPE, % of CP

Beginning in January 2020, a new calculation labeled Ammonia Crude Protein Equivalent as a percent of Crude Protein or Amm-CPE, % of CP (may also be labeled as Ammonia-N, % of CP in the literature or by other labs) will automatically appear on reports for certain samples types when the required inputs of Ammonia CPE and Crude Protein are requested.

This value along with soluble protein (SP, % of CP), together show a promising relationship with starch digestibility during ensiling in whole plant corn silage, high moisture corn, high moisture earlage, and snaplage. Although more research is needed to fully understand the relationship to determine valid predictive models, monitoring these values in conjunction with starch digestibility provides users with another tool to better track and understand these relationships.

For more information on starch digestibility and the influence of ensiling time visit:

https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/forage/influence-of-ensiling-on-the-digestibility-of-whole-plant-corn-silage/

https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(14)00151-9/abstract

Phone App Update

The submission of manure and water samples are now available through the Dairy One Phone App!

This free sample submission phone app is available for your Android or iPhone. The phone app stores information such as account number, customer name, email addresses, and customer feeds along with menus for identifying sample types and services, making sample submission quick and easy. The app allows you to assign an individual bar code label to each sample which then becomes its “tracking number”. Once the bar coded data and sample information is entered it is uploaded directly to the lab, so all you need to do is ship the sample!

Please contact Customer Support at 607-375-9962 to receive your manure and/or water kit(s) and bar code labels before using the phone app for sample submission.

Iodine and Selenium- oh my!

Due to an increase in demand, iodine (I) is now available at the Dairy One Forage Lab. Similar to selenium requests, this nutrient will be sub-contracted through the Michigan State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Instead of sending samples to multiple labs, you can now send one sample to Dairy One for all your analytical needs including selenium and iodine.

Read more about iodine and selenium pricing updates

2019 Fall Harvest Summary

The Northeast experienced an extended, wet, and variable corn harvest season. Instead of comparing this year’s fresh corn crop to last year’s, a more valuable comparison is to include the past several years. You’ll note that no value for NDFDom 30 hr is reported for 2014 as this assay only became available at Dairy One in 2015.