Mid-South Conference brings livestock nutritionists latest info
By JULIET BRISKIN | Country World Central Texas
May 3, 2001 -- The 2001 Mid-South Ruminant Nutrition Conference was held last week where a forum of the most up-to-date ruminant feeding information in the country was presented.
Sponsored by the Texas Animal Nutrition Council and Texas Agricultural Extension Service, and held this year on April 25-26, 2001, the special livestock (dairy) conference is an annual event held each spring.
In attendance were feeding consultants, beef personnel, feed salesmen, large dairy representatives, and other professionals in the industry concerned with livestock feeding. A series of speakers provided information on products they had evaluated, which are working and what new management practices are proving successful.
Topics covered included strategic uses of feed additives in dairy ration, nutritional management for transition cows, bovine laminits, economic concepts in the analysis of dairy records, nutritional influences on reproduction of dairy cows and comparison of software applications for formulating dairy rations.
The two-day event was an opportunity for professionals in the industry to get together and share information about what problems they have encountered and what remedies work for them. The sharing of information is vital, but "what works for one producer may not work for another," said Don Lewis, president of the Texas Animal Nutritional Council.
The conference provided the latest technical information for those in attendance to take back to their clients with the hopes of helping them become more profitable. "There is such a small margin that the producers work with," said Lewis. "This information is important to help them be as profitable as possible."
Central Texas is one of the primary milk producing areas in Texas with farm sales of approximately $384 million. Texas is the largest milk-producing state in the south and more than 70 percent of the milk is produced in just twelve of Texas' counties. The information provided at the conference is necessary to help keep Texas dairy farms up-to-date and productive. For more information about the conference contact the Texas Animal Nutrition Council in Dallas at 972-952-9212.
