The best cattle feed for milk is the one that gives you the most milk for your money while your animals stay healthy. Judge a feed by the cost of each litre of milk it helps you make, not by the price of the bag. Read the bag, check that the feed is the same every time, and try it fairly before you decide.
1. Read the bag
A good bag tells you what you are buying. Look for:
- The name and address of the company that made it.
- A feed licence number or quality mark.
- The batch number and the date it was made, and a use-by date.
- The net weight and the MRP.
- What is in it: at least protein, fat, fibre and moisture, and ideally energy, calcium and phosphorus.
- Clear feeding instructions: how much a day, for which animal.
If a bag does not say what is in it or who made it, ask why before you buy.
2. Look for balance, not one big number
A high protein number alone does not make a good feed. A milking animal needs energy (grains), protein (oil cakes and meals), fibre (fodder) and minerals together. Too little fibre lowers milk fat. Too little energy lowers milk and SNF. Ask your vet or nutrition advisor whether the feed suits the fodder you have.
3. Count the cost per litre of milk
A cheap bag can be costly if you must feed more of it, or if milk drops. A dearer bag can be cheaper if each litre costs you less. Work it out like this:
- Write the kg of feed you give each day, and the price per kg.
- Multiply: that is your feed cost a day.
- Divide by the litres of milk you sell that day.
- The answer is your feed cost per litre. Compare that number between feeds.
Also compare like with like. Bags come in 25, 50 or 70 kg, so compare the price per kg. A complete feed (also called TMR feed) has fodder and some moisture already mixed in, and it replaces part of the fodder you would buy. A concentrate does not. So compare what you spend on the whole day's feeding, not only one bag against another.
Make my free Feed Plan — it shows your feed cost per litre of milk.
4. Same every time
Animals do best when their feed does not change. Ask the seller how the feed is checked and how often. A feed that smells, looks or feels different from one bag to the next is a warning sign.
5. Fresh stock
- Check the date it was made. Fresher is better.
- Do not buy bags that are torn, wet, lumpy, or smell sour or mouldy.
- See how the shop stores bags: dry, in the shade, off the floor.
- At home, store bags the same way. Read: Keep your bags fresh.
6. Supply and help
A feed is only useful if you can get it every week, at a fair price, close to you. Ask about delivery, the nearest dealer, and who to call when you have a feeding question.
7. Try it fairly
- Change over slowly, across a week: Switch to TMR feed over a week.
- Feed it for three to four weeks before you judge.
- Keep notes: litres a day, fat and SNF from your dairy slip, how well the animals eat and their body condition.
- Change one thing at a time, so you know what made the difference.
Where Truemeal fits
Truemeal TMR-E is a complete feed in 25 kg bags for cows, buffaloes, sheep and goats. Its nutrient table and feeding instructions are on the TMR-E page. Use the same checklist on it as on any other feed.
