Mr. Guan Jinsen, is vice-President of Goke. His areas of expertise are

TMR Feeding Machines and other equipment in the animal husbandry area. He is responsible for the Asia-Pacific region.

The Application and Management of TMR Summit took place on Aug. 15th 2015. At this forum, which was organized by Mengniu Milk Sourcing System, Mr. Guan Jinsen clarified the participants about the misunderstandings of TMR. 

This was a good question and answer session with Mr. Guan Jinsen for people from the dairy industry and from Mengniu Milk Sourcing team.

Q：What kind of buildings are suitable for the TMR? Should we build first, then we can buy the TMR machine?

A: Now the barn is built first, then they will buy the TMR machine. There are four kinds of TMR stations in China, such as TMR feed center, stationary TMR Feed Mixer, trailed TMR Feed Mixer, and self-propelled TMR Feed Mixer. In order to reduce the operation cost, the width of the feed alley is between 4m to 6m, the height is above 3.5m. Turning radius of the trailed TMR machines is 7m.

Q： How many kilograms of TMR is the best amount for the cows? In general it should be controlled so that the remaining amount is 3% ~ 5%, is this right?
A: Feeding frequency is two times per day. Leftover feedstuff must be controlled between 3% and 5%. The empty trough must be filled in 2 hours. The distribution of cows influences the feeding frequency. Feed type will be decided by the different dairy herds. There are two times a day for heifers and dry cows. And three times for the milking cows.

Q：What kind of TMR machine is suitable for the farm, which has 500 cows?

A: It’s better to choose a 7m3 TMR. Horizontal TMR is useful for small farms. It is suitable for the beginning of the small farms. The forklift and any other auxiliary equipment are not necessary for the horizontal TMR.  Farm and road  planning, feedstuffs, manpower and auxiliary equipment, etc. will influence the machine type, such as horizontal or vertical.

Q: Is it not good for the cows, if they feed cows with concentrate after feeding TMR ration?

A: PH-value of the rumen will be change from the additional concentrate, it is not conducive to the digestion of dairy cows. Supplementary concentrate will result in the fine/coarse ratio of the TMR to be adjusted.

Q: How can we achieve the expected effect of mixing sheep grass? Sometimes it is difficult for us to cut and mix the sheep grass.

A: precutting of the sheep grass is very important. Let the supplier handle it with fodder grinder, before you buy it.  The mixing time and fuel cost will be reduced.

Q: In order to prevent the cows from digestive discomfort, what about the content change of TMR nutrient?

A: Content change of TMR nutrient must be less than 3%. The stress will appear with the large changes. 

Q: How many kilograms of  ration will mixed by the 8m3 TMR? How to determine the capacity of the TMR mixing machine?

A: What should be noted is that, the processing ability of the TMR machine is generally calculated according to the processing per unit time. Different rations have different density. For example, comparing the ration of lactating cows to the heifers’, a difference of the density is more than 100 kg per cubic meter. Calculated the ration-weight for the milking cows with 300-350kg, and 250-300kg for the heifers. In general, the effective volume of TMR machine is stated volume *85% according to different types. TMR machine need premixed space. It will not mix well if there is no premixed space and this will influence the mixing result such as mixing uniformity. 1m³ of TMR machine can supply 70 cows, so a farm which has 1000 cows just needs a 16 m³ TMR machine.

Q: Is free feeding in the whole day necessary for the cows? What about two times per day? Is this very effective?

A: I prefer free feeding, each empty slot cannot be more than 3 hours.
The effect is much better than two times per day. Otherwise relatively weak cows cannot eat enough food. Group feeding is the basic principle of the breeding industry, in order to supply enough feedstuff and save resources.

Q: Our suppler provide us alfalfa, sheep grass, wheat straw, silage, finished feedstuff.  The loading sequence is sheep grass, wheat straw, silage, alfalfa. Moisture is 55%. Length 3-5 centimeter. First screen-layer is 80%, second layer is 35%, third layer is 40%, and fourth layer is 17%. Ratio of concentrate and roughage is 53:57. It seems like everything goes well, but the cows prefer to stand in the bedding rather than to lie down. Bedding material is dry soil. 5% incidence of hoof disease. So I want to know what should I do to let the cows lie down?

A: Please check the ruminantion, if there are 60% ruminating.
Standing ratio is high, population proportion is 70%.
If there is no problem with rumination, please check the quality of the bedding and the location of the neck rail, if there is a conflict between them. The time of cows standing or lying down are influenced by the quality of the bedding and the neck rail. It is necessary to look at the structure of the bedding. If cows feel uncomfortable, swelling in the legs will appear.  
Please check the setting of the bedding, directions of solar radiation, the temperature in the barn, stress.

Q: What should I pay attention to the TMR feeding process? What about the mixing order, the particle size, mixing time and water content, etc. Could you please tell us about this?

A: Careful attention must be paid to the homogeneity of the nutritionist’s ration, rations of the TMR mixer, and the cows feeding ration. The cow's body condition must be checked regularly, manure for a look at the score, but also to observe the situation of the cow's milk.

Q: How to control the picky eating of milking cows?

A: First of all, analysis the reasons of picky eating, maybe the separation of concentrate and roughage, if there is not enough moisture content, too many times to sort the TMR、no suitable tool to push up the TMR, it will cause the separation. The other reason is poor palatability of TMR, moldy TMR and so on.

Q: Is there a ready-made device with magnet? How much?

A: To many companies, magnet device added on the TMR machine is an option. The price is 5000 to 30000 rmb, determined by the different types and installations. (number, magnetism and length of magnet). Some customers add several high-intensity magnets on discharge doors directly, it is cheap and has some effect.

Q: What is the consequence, if the loading sequence is incorrect?

A: For the horizontal type TMR, you can load the concentrate before the roughage, in order to increase the friction between the blade and the tank, and to improve the cutting ability of the mixing system. For vertical type TMR, it is better to load the roughage before the concentrate, so that the accumulation of lower concentrate at the bottom of the box will be avoided.

A: Dairy ration in summer is much higher, normally from 50%-55%. In winter is 45-50%. For the high yield cows, it will be 50-55%.

Q: What about the relationship between loading sequence and TMR type?

A: For the Horizontal type, in order to improve the cutting capacity, please put the roughage after concentrates. But if you use the vertical type TMR, please put the concentrates after the roughage, in order to prevent the concentrates sinking to the bottom. 

A: it’s ok. The risk is mainly lies in this disease, For example, some cross infection. The residues of the milking cows must be re-mixed with forage to feed the heifers. If at all possible do not feed the residues to the pregnant cows, it is easy to cause the abortion. It’s better not to use the residual feedstuffs for them.

Q: How about the density of TMR for each cubic meter? Is there any relationship with the herd?

A: the unit weight of this TMR is 250-350kg, according to the different ration of the herds. Density of feed composition of dry cows, heifers and milking cows are different.

Q: To make the TMR with some residues of previous TMR processes, will make the ration inaccurate. How can we clean the residues quickly? Do you have any suggestions?

A: If there are a lot of TMR left ,we advise to add some fiber into the horizontal machine to throw out the residual TMR, and increase the speed of the tractor’s PTO , in other words, make the blades of the auger throw the residual TMR out(it is not necessary if there is only a little TMR left ,if the TMR left is 10kg,compared to a 2000kg ration , the scale is only 0.5%, so it is not required)

Q: During the heat stress period, how can we change the additives or raw materials in the TMR diet?

Q: Can sodium bicarbonate be used as rumen buffer？ Is it better against the heat stress? What’s the theory of it?
A: Green ecological feed additives are better to reduce the heat stress. Please follow your nutritionist’s requirement to make the daily ration.
The temperature is high in summer, while the PH of the cow’s body fluid decrease. Cow's breath frequency is also part of the reaction, the carbon dioxide needs to be exhaled. Sodium bicarbonate is used to regulate acid-base balance in animal body fluids.
Adding the right amount of sodium bicarbonate can relieve the heat stress. It can have a certain effect, but does not play a major role. You must pay more attention about facilities, for example ventilation, water spray and shading.

Q：Could we put the whole-plant corn from this autumn into the TMR? How to do it? 
A: First you must know what kind of nutritional ingredient whole-plant corn has. If it is a new kind of nutritional content, you can use it. But you must pay much more attention about DM and CP. Normally for 25kg milking yield, they use 18kg whole-plant corn, 5kg alfalfa, 10kg concentrate.

Q: If we want to put the molasses into the horizontal type TMR, how can I change the mixing order, in order to avoid them caking and flattening.

A: Generally after silage, you can put the molasses into the TMR. Because molasses belongs to the wet feedstuff.

Q: If dairy farmers cannot group the cows, how can they use the TMR. 

A: Until now most farms just mix TMR and there is no standard requirements in the procedure. Non-standard operations make it hard to reach the expected effect and cause waste of fodder even if use TMR technology. The cows must be grouped. Different group has different feed intake. Otherwise, TMR could not be used effectively, at least to distinguish between lactating cows and non-lactating cows. Supplementary feeding is not recommended. TMR's advantage can not be realised.  According to the milking yield and calving number, they will be divided into middle- and low yield. Please follow the experienced veterinarian. According to the actual situation they can group the cow.

Q: How long is the TMR mixing for one time. Is there any variation?

A: For different types, the loading time is not the same. 30-45 minutes is suitable. The pre-cutting of hay is very important. This ensures that the hay can be cut effectively, and it also saves us the cutting time of the mixing. The mixing uniformity is also improved, and machine wear is reduced. After hay-cutting, you can load the wet feedstuff, such as silage and water.

Q: If the whole corn silage is not crushed very well, some of the kernelsare not crushed. How can we increase the cows’ digestibility? 

A: Without maize kernel breakage, the digestibility of corn will be reduced. With horizontal type TMR it is better to break them and increase the corn digestibility.

Q: Is there a time interval between two different kinds of feedstuff, to prevent a too long mixing time?

A: According to different materials, you can directly add concentrate after hays. Be sure, that the hays must be cut for a while, before adding other feed-materials, such as silage or water, and finally mix all together 5-8 minutes.

Q: What is the difference range between the nutrient content of the TMR and the nutrient content of the ration?

A: Keep it less than 3%.

Q: The moisture control of TMR is not accurate. We have no idea, how to control it. Timing determination is very difficult for us. So do you know how to do it?

A: If you don’t measure it hourly, you should go to watch it frequently. Also you can squeeze it by hand. During this process, you can also check the rumination, manure and BCS of cows. In fact, the above details of the observation can also give you a feedback of your mix quality.

Q: How to do the TMR-calibration? For different cubic meters TMR,What’s the weight requirement of the calibration?

A: The most simple calibration method is, with something, which has accurate weights. Because the weighing system of TMR are generally 5 kilograms as a unit of measurement. For example, a person, whose weight is 80 kg, can  stand on the TMR to calibrate the weighing system. If it’s closer to 80kg, it means the TMR is accurate.

A more accurate method is to regularly calibrate the TMR weighing system using the Weight Bridge and concentrate bags. The amount of calibration-weight is suitable to 50% of the load-carrying capacity of the TMR. For the big load-carrying capacity TMR, they need heavier calibration-weights, to improve the calibration accuracy. Weighing error is not clear when lighter weights are used to calibrate it. After the weight value is determined, the weight error can be displayed

Q: Please tell us something about dry matter of roughage, such as brewer's grains, Molasses soybean hulls etc.

A: DM of brewer's grains is 20-25%, DM of molasses is 15-18%, and DM of grain is 12-14%. In general, the feed nutritional value table can be found. The basis of accurate feeding is to quickly and accurately determine the dry matter content of raw materials, which have been recently mixed.

Q: The pellet feed are used instead of concentrate in Taiyuan. The pellet feed will be crushed. I would like to ask the impact of mixing uniformity and adhesion.

A: If you crushed the pellet feed, surface area will be increased. It is better for nutrition absorption. Compared with the pellet feed, after crushing, for the small part, the adhesion will be improved. The mixing uniformity will also be improved.

Q: There is a phenomenon when inspect Penn State Particle Separator (PSPS), the TMR offered by suppliers from Taiyuan on the forth layer is generally between 30% and 36%, and it contains concentrate mostly and tiny silage and alfalfa. Compared with the standard, it is a large gaps to fill. But the manure of cows is normal and no diarrhea and bubble, etc. Please tell us the influence of this feeding way.

A: 1.18mm and 4mm are two kinds of bore diameter on the third layer of PSPS. Observation when the bore diameter is 1.18mm, such as the scale on the first layer, not only need to see the surface of manure, it’s better to inspect the digestion of cows by manure separation screen.

With a high proportion in the fourth layer, the risk of metabolic disease will be increased, such as rumen acidosis, hoof disease. The symptoms will appear gradually.

Q：Before they used the TMR, the feedstuff storage of Taiyuan Farm was built in the middle of the Farm. After using the TMR feed center, the feed center, silage, hay are built on the edge of the farm, the concentrate was transported to the feed center every day.