The Rural Voice, 1993-07, Page 23things were done south of the
border."
A regular reader of Hoard's
Dairyman, he noticed top American
herds seemed to be getting more
production. Through the media he
also followed the findings of a large
herd dairy tour in New York State.
He learned that many of the herds
were using wet distillers grain that
was being shipped from Barrie in
Ontario. "If they could truck it to
New York State and think it was a
bargain then it must be a bargain for
us," he figured.
He started phoning around to see
what was available, what it cost and
what nutritional value it had. He
learned that thousands of tonnes of
wet distillers grains was being
shipped from the Bruce Energy
Centre to very large dairy farms in
the northern U.S. states. Because
there was an increase in alcohol
production at the plant (Bluewater
Distillers Ltd. supplies most of the
medical alcohol needs of Ontario
hospitals and the ethanol for UCO
petroleum's ethanol -blended
gasolines) the company was willing
to look after smaller local customers
who couldn't take a full load at a
time. The Schmidts became one of
the first Ontario farmers to use the
corn left over from the fermentation
process.
While not all of the gains in
production since can be attributed to
the distillers grain, "the amazing
thing was that production took off
and just kept soaring," Schmidt says.
Not that there weren't problems
along the way. The high phosphorous
content of the grain threw off the
calcium/phosphorous ratio needed for
a balanced ration from the normal 2/1
ratio to about 1.2/1 when he
discovered what the problem was.
The result was milk fever and many
sleepless nights lost, as well as a
couple of cows. Once the cause of the
problem was discovered, he says, he
added calcium to the cattle's diet and
the incidence of milk fever returned
to normal.
While he gives high marks to
distillers grains, improved knowledge
of nutrition also had a big impact.
"It's not a case of just throwing
distillers grain in front of them and
they take off," he says.
He brought in nutrition experts
like Brian Tarr of the Ontario
WET DISTILLERS GRAIN - --
(Produced in Bruce County)
An Economical Source of
Energy and Protein for
Dairy and Beef Cattle
CaII for more information
1-800-724-6931
BLUEWATER
DISTILLERS LTD.
VA L METAL I A SOUND BUSINESS DECISION.
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FINANCING 1
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VALmETALI
JULY 1993 19