Real Science Exchange-Dairy

This episode was recorded at the 2025 Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium. Dr. Felix and Dr. Johnson begin with brief descriptions of their background and interest in beef on dairy research. (3:15) Dr. Felix’s first study in this area compared dairy calves with beef on dairy calves of unknown origin. They were placed in the feedlot and fed and implanted the same. Beef on dairy calves grew faster,...

This Real Science Exchange podcast episode was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series. You can find it at balchem.com/realscience. Dr. Baumgard begins with an overview of the structure and function of the gastrointestinal tract. More than 75% of an animal’s immune system resides in the gut. The focus of this webinar is how heat stress initiates leaky gut, how that lea...

In times of limited forage, dairy producers may need to feed diets lower in forage than is typical but would like to maintain milk production. In this study, two diets similar in neutral detergent fiber (NDF), starch, and crude protein with different amounts of forage were fed to 32 mid-lactation Holstein cows in a crossover design. The control diet (CON) contained high forage (55.5% of diet dry m...

This Real Science Exchange podcast episode was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series. You can find it at balchem.com/realscience.   Dr. Santos begins with a timeline of events that occur during the cow’s transition from the dry period to her exit from the fresh pen. He suggests that cows should be dried off at around 230 days of gestation, then moved to a closeup gro...

In this episode, we honor and celebrate the remarkable career and contributions of Dr. Jim Drackley from the University of Illinois, a pioneer in dairy science and animal nutrition. Jim’s work has reshaped our understanding of dairy cow health, metabolism and nutrition. Dr. Cardoso, Dr. Overton, and co-host Dr. Jeff Elliott are former coworkers or graduate students of Dr. Drackley’s. (0:11) Dr. Dr...

This Real Science Exchange podcast episode was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series. You can find it at balchem.com/realscience. How can we increase milk protein and capture that income opportunity? Dr. Van Amburgh describes the seasonal drop in milk protein observed in the summer months. Heat stress may play a role in altering insulin sensitivity and how the cow pa...

In this study, two basal diets were fed, one low-fat and one high-fat. The low-fat diet contained cottonseed meal and cottonseed hulls and the high-fat diet contained whole cottonseed. This balanced fiber and protein to try and make the difference between the basal diets and just the fatty acids. Basal diets were supplemented with two different fat supplements that had different ratios of palmitic...

This Real Science Exchange podcast episode was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series. You can find it at balchem.com/realscience. Feeding rumen-protected choline in early lactation has consistently increased milk yield and energy-corrected milk yield, which is more pronounced when cows are fed diets low in metabolizable methionine. Choline feeding also increases milk...

Dr. Hernandez recently presented a Real Science Lecture series webinar on this topic. You can find the link at balchem.com/realscience . Dr. Hernandez begins with an overview of how she came to study calcium metabolism in the mammary gland. Over the past number of years, she has worked on research to manipulate what’s happening in the mammary gland in the prepartum period to ensure adequate endocr...

Please note the recording was before the new NASEM model was released. However, there is still a lot of good information from Dr. Weiss beyond those recommendations. This Real Science Exchange podcast episode was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series. You can find it at balchem.com/realscience. Most ration formulation software uses the 2001 NRC mineral equations. The...

This Real Science Exchange podcast episode was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series. You can find it at balchem.com/realscience. Feeding behavior of dairy cows is inherently tied to their dry matter intake (DMI) which is tied to milk production. If we want to change a cow’s DMI, it must be mediated by changing her feeding behavior. (00:23) In a multi-variable analys...

Dr. Weiss and Dr. St-Pierre co-authored this episode’s journal club paper in Applied Animal Science (ARPAS Journal). Bill and Normand share a career-long interest in how feedstuffs and diet variation impact cows. (6:31) Bill and Normand discuss sources of variation, which they divide into true variation and observer variation. True variation means the feed has changed: a different field, change du...

This Real Science Exchange episode was recorded during a webinar, which was part of a series. Watch all the presentations from this series here: https://balchem.com/animal-nutrition-health/resources-categories/real-science-lecture-series/previous-lectures/page/10/ Early in lactation, the cow is incapable of eating enough to meet her dramatically increased requirements. As the cow’s intake decrease...

In part two of a two-part series, the Balchem technical team selected industry research of interest from the 2024 American Dairy Science Association meetings to feature on this episode of the Real Science Exchange.  Smart Cows, Smart Farms: Unleashing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence in the Dairy Sector  Guest: Dr. Jeffrey Bewley, Holstein Association USA (1:58) Dr. Bewley is the Dairy Ana...

Nutritionists are often blamed for transition cow problems like high NEFAs, clinical and subclinical ketosis, and subclinical hypocalcemia. Dr. Baumgard suggests these symptoms are a result of one of two situations: 1. These are highly productive, healthy, and profitable cows; or 2. The symptoms are the metabolic reflection of immune activation, likely stemming from metritis, mastitis, pneumonia,...

The Balchem technical team selected abstracts of interest from the 2024 American Dairy Science Association meetings to feature on this episode of the Real Science Exchange.  Whole Cottonseed and Fatty Acid Supplementation Affect Production Responses During the Immediate Postpartum in Multiparous Dairy Cows Guests: Jair Parales-Giron and Dr. Adam Lock, Michigan State University (0:58) The experimen...

This Real Science Exchange podcast episode was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series.  Shakespeare wrote, “The eyes are the windows of the soul.” Dr. Ollivett believes the lungs are the window to calf health management. The lungs are an indicator organ: respiratory disease is a symptom of management failure. Failure of passive transfer, diarrhea, septicemia, poor nut...

Dr. Nydam and Dr. LeBlanc recently presented a Real Science Lecture series webinar on August 7, 2024. You can find the link at balchem.com/realscience . Dr. Nydam begins with a brief overview of the concepts from the webinar, all based on understanding and applying information from different types of studies on dairy cow health and performance. Dr. LeBlanc adds that their goal was for the webinar...

This Real Science Exchange podcast episode was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series.  The primary goal of a replacement program is to raise the highest quality heifer that can maximize profits when she enters the lactating herd. She carries no limitations that would detract from her ability to produce milk under the farm’s management system. Ideally, one would wish...

Dr. Mitloehner recently presented a Real Science Lecture series webinar on September 11, 2024. You can find the link at balchem.com/realscience . Dr. Mitloehner begins by sharing about the Clarity and Leadership for Environmental Awareness and Research (CLEAR) Center at UC Davis. He established this research and communications center to combat misinformation about sustainability in animal agricult...

Dr. Arshad begins by reviewing the inclusion criteria in the meta-analysis he conducted. He wished only to look at studies where lysine was supplemented in a rumen-protected form. The meta-analysis did not include studies that infused lysine into the abomasum or intestine. In addition, only completely randomized design or randomized complete block design studies were included. Feed ingredients and...

This episode of the Real Science Exchange podcast was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series.  Choline was discovered in 1862 in pig and ox bile (“chole” in Greek). It is a simple nutrient containing five carbons and a nitrogen. Choline is considered a quasi-vitamin since its requirements and de novo synthesis are both higher than the B vitamins it’s similar to. Pigs...

Dr. Kononoff’s lab evaluated retrospective feed mixing records collected from eight commercial dairy farms. Data was divided into 28-day periods. Daily TMR nutrient deviation was automatically calculated from feed mixer data as the actual amount of a nutrient fed minus the target amount from the original diet formulation, divided by the target amount. (5:43) Crude protein, NDF, fat, and starch wer...

Balchem sponsored several abstracts presented at the 2024 ADSA Annual Meeting. This episode consists of five segments, each focused on an abstract. Segment 1: Evaluating the total mixed ration stability of rumen-protected lysine products. Guests: Kari Estes, Balchem; Dr. Mark Hanigan, Virginia Tech This research compared the TMR stability of a Balchem prototype, several commercially available rume...

This episode of the Real Science Exchange podcast was recorded during a webinar from Balchem’s Real Science Lecture Series. Throughout the last 30 years, the dairy industry has moved to producing highly concentrated versions of milk proteins. In cows’ milk, about 80% of the protein is casein and 20% is in the serum or whey phase. These ratios vary by species. There are three major caseins in cows’...