SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report

Sections

Basic Information
Additional Info

Status: Approved

Basic Information

Project No. and Title: NC_old2042 : Management Systems to Improve the Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Dairy Enterprises.
Period Covered: 10/01/2021 to 09/30/2022
Date of Report: 12/15/2022
Annual Meeting Dates: 10/13/2022 to 10/15/2022

Boerman, Jackie (jboerma@purdue.edu) - Purdue University; Schutz, Michael (mschutz@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota and NCRA Administrative Advisor; Heins, Brad (hein0106@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Aguerre, Matias (maguerr@clemson.edu) - Clemson University; Chahine, Mireille (mchahine@uidaho.edu) - University of Idaho; Endres, Marcia (miendres@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Ferreira, Gonzalo (gonf@vt.edu) - Virginia Tech; De Vries, Albert (devries@ufl.edu) - University of Florida; Erickson, Peter (Peter.Erickson@unh.edu) - University of New Hampshire; Costa, Joao (costa@uky.edu) - University of Kentucky. Noelia Silva Del Rio (UC - ANR); Ken Kalscheur (ARS -WI); Kate Creutzinger (UW-RF)

Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Minutes from 2022 Business Meeting On October 13, 2022 in Tulare, CA

Introduction from Dr Terry W Lehenbauer (UC Davis – VMTRC), welcome and presentation of the VMTRC duties. After, Dr Sharif Aly and Dr Heidi Rossow presented their research laboratory and research group.

Review of minutes from previous meeting

- Dr Brad Heins moved to approve the minutes. Dr Marcia Endres seconded. Motion passed. Minutes were approved.

Introductions and Meeting schedule

Dr. Boerman asked the group for each member to introduce themselves and went over the schedule for the meeting.

Mike Schutz – NCRA administrative advisor

Overview of the role of the administrative advisor.
Focus of annual report is on multi-state activities and objectives to collaborate between stations.
Re-write of objectives needs to be submitted by October 15^th, 2022. Rewrite needs to be in by December 1^st, 2022.
Update the list serve to ensure that all members are present and new faculty members are invited. Everyone will need to be re-assigned to the group after the re-start.
Reports should include (highlight) the collaboration and the true multistate objectives of the project should be presented in the NC report.

Next year Business Meeting

Dr Boerman volunteered to host in 2023 at Purdue University.
Dr Ward volunteered to host in 2023 at North Carolina State by email, a motion was passed to Raleigh, NC to be the location for the 2023 NC2042 meeting.
Dates: Oct 12-14, 2023 will be the suggested date. Thursday morning until Saturday afternoon.
Annual meeting 2024 – As 2023 is going to be the 1^st year of the new project the plan to go to Atlantic Veterinary College on Prince Edward Island is delayed to 2024. We need to have deliverable outputs in order to hold outside of the US.

New Secretary Discussion:

Elected position

It was moved and seconded to nominate Dr Albert DeVries as the next secretary. Motion passed.

Other business

Discussion about new members to be invited to the new project. A list was made of potential experts to be invited to join the group.

Re-write and objectives discussion

First the group reviewed the comments received after last submission. Dr Gonzalo Ferreira lead the discussion. The summary of this discussion was:

CRIS search should be performed and as a group we should make sure that we have no overlap with any other Multistate group. Google Scholar Search and highlight publications with collaborating stations in the re-write; Collaboration and justification for leveraging funds in the next period.

The objectives of the new project were set after a discussion with the full group.

End of the meeting

It was moved and seconded to adjourn. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 12:50 pm.

Accomplishments

NC-2042 Accomplishments Report

Link for full report : https://github.com/jhcardosocosta/NC2042/blob/main/2022%20NC2042%20Annual%20Meeting%20Minutes_Final2.pdf

Accomplishments: Sustainable dairy production remains the focus of our research group. We are focused around three objectives: 1. optimize calf and heifer growth and development by improving feeding strategies, management systems, well-being, new technologies, and environmental impacts for productivity and profitability; 2. optimize dairy cow performance and well-being by improving nutrition, forage utilization, technology, and management; and 3. evaluate whole farm system components and integrate information and technology to improve efficiency, profitability, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The NC-2042 group has focused research and Extension activities around meeting the objectives listed to improve the sustainable production of milk.

Short-term Outcomes: None to report at this time.

Outputs: 82 reported peer-reviewed publications from members within the NC-2042 group for 2021 – 2022. We would like to emphasize several review articles that were written through collaborations between NC-2042 members.

Activities in collaboration:

Virginia Tech in collaboration with University of Idaho delivered educational workshops to farmers about automatic milking systems.
Dairy calves nutritional and behavioral research done in collaboration between the University of Kentucky and University of Wisconsin –River Falls.
Development and demonstration of dairy decision support tools by many members of the group.

Milestones: In the last year 5 of this 5-year project, we are focused on building collaborations within our group to conduct complementary research and to successfully continue this important research project. We have discussed and were able to frame the re-write of this project.

Impacts

(Objective 1) This group in the last year have investigated many aspects of dairy calves’ housing, nutrition, and welfare. As example, we have conducted research and published results on the role of supplementing rumen protected AA to the dry cow on performance of their offspring. We have evaluated the growth, health and, most importantly, the economic performance of dairy calves in individual housing, group housing, pair housing, and raising calves with cows on pasture in the context of calf health, behavior, and welfare. We have evaluated the AA requirements of growing animals, and we have evaluated the role of nutraceuticals to reduce the use of antibiotics in dairy calves. The impacts of this work are a more comprehensive understanding of dairy calf growth, health, and economic performance to share with dairy stakeholders.
(Objective 2) We have evaluated the feeding value of by-products and co-products across several research stations. We have conducted research to develop the best management practices for forages including alternative forages in Southeastern conditions. We have evaluated the effect of drought stress on the digestibility of forages. We have evaluated combinations of nutritional strategies fed to dry cows on their subsequent performance in lactation. The impacts of this research are improvements in nutritional and management of dairy cattle to continue to have sustainable dairy production.
(Objective 3) This group has developed new insight into the utility of precision technology utilized on dairy farm, investigated the economics of dairy calf raising and benchmarking tools at the farm level, we have developed equations to predict associations between dry period length and milk production, culling, and reproduction in subsequent lactations for economic studies. We have developed infographics describing the different revenue programs available to dairy farmers in the United States. We have developed decision support tools will help dairy farmers understand decision economics and make more informed decisions toward improved profitability. We have utilized multi-year modeling of dairy farms to maximize the use of manure and harvesting of high-quality forages. We have analyzed the economic value of using beef semen in dairy herds. Finally, we have developed multiple systems to collect and integrate data generated on dairy farms. The impacts of this work are to assist dairy farmers and other stakeholders with decision making on the dairy industry by identifying the complex relationships that exist and giving them tools to utilize the data to aid in decision making.

Publications

Publications: Below are an example of the collaborative publications from NC-2042 with a comprehensive list of publications from 2021 – 2022 found at the link below: https://github.com/jhcardosocosta/NC2042/blob/d7c767eccb152d5c275ded9534348fd85fc7130c/NC-2042%20Publication%20Report%20%E2%80%93%202021-2022_Final.pdf

Creutzinger, K. C., K. Broadfoot, H. M. Goetz, K. L. Proudfoot, J. H. C. Costa, R. K. Meagher, and D. L. Renaud. 2022. Assessing dairy calf response to long-distance transportation using conditioned place aversion. J. Dairy Sci. Comm. 3:275-279.
Ferreira, G., H. Galyon, A. I. Silva-Reis, A. A. Pereyra, E. S. Richardson, C. L. Teets, P. Blevins, R. Cockrum, and M. J. Aguerre. 2022. Ruminal fiber digestion kinetics within and among summer annual species as affected by the brown midrib (BMR) genotype. Animals 12(19) 2536; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12192536.
Valldecabres A, J. Wenz, F. C. Ferreira, M. Chahine, J. Dalton, M. E. de Haro Marti, M. Rovai, and N. Silva-Del-Río. 2022. Perspective of dairy producers from California, Idaho, South Dakota, and Washington: Health and business implications of the COVID-19 pandemic during the second wave. Journal of Dairy Sci. 105 (2): 1788-1796. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2021-20924
Ferreira, G., L. L. Martin, C. L. Teets, B. A. Corl, S. L. Hines, G. E. Shewmaker, M. E. de Haro-Marti, and M. Chahine. 2021. Effect of drought stress on ruminal neutral detergent fiber digestibility of corn for silage. Animal Feed Science and Technology 273 (114803).

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