Shrink, weighing accuracy, and weighing precision of mineral supplement in five commercial dairies in the Western United States
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Date
2021-05-10Author
Arce Cordero, José Alberto
Archibeque, Shawn L.
Faciola, Antonio Pinheiro
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Shrink, accuracy, and precision of
ingredient weighing are critical factors of effi ciency in TMR-fed dairy systems. Those factors
have been evaluated for major feeds; however,
we are not aware of any reports for mineral sup plement. Farms commonly mix mineral sup plement with other low-inclusion ingredients
into a premix which is used later as a single in gredient for TMR formulation. Our objectives
were to evaluate shrink, weighing accuracy, and
weighing precision of mineral supplement dur ing premix formulation, and variation in concen tration of minerals in mineral supplement and
TMR, in five large dairies in the Western United
States. We used the automated weight-tracking
system at each farm to account for all the min eral supplement loaded into the mixing-wagon
and collected samples of mineral supplement
and TMR from time of mineral supplement de livery at the farm until 100% of it was consumed.
Mean, standard deviation and coefficient of
variation (CV) for each variable were calculated
with SAS 9.4. Average shrink was estimated at
2.0% for mineral supplement during storage and
loading, ranging from 0.37% to 3.25%. Mineral
supplement weighing deviation from the targeted
amount was 1.54% on average for the five dairies
with a 95% CV. Mineral composition of mineral
supplements averaged 11.3%, 0.27%, and 3.16%
for Ca, P, and Mg, and 215, 881, and 1533 ppm
for Cu, Mn, and Zn, respectively. Mineral com positions in TMR averaged 0.84%, 0.41%, and
0.37% for Ca, P, and Mg, respectively; and 15.1,
71, and 94.5 ppm for Cu, Mn, and Zn, respect ively. The CV of all minerals except Ca, were
larger for mineral supplement than TMR, and
with the exception of P in mineral supplement,
CV of trace minerals were larger than CV values
for macro minerals. Our shrink estimates for
mineral supplement represent an initial approxi mation to this issue. Results of our weighing
deviation analysis suggest some room for im provement on the precision of weighing mineral
supplement at the time when premix is prepared
at the farm, which could improve consistency in
chemical composition of the premix and conse quently reduce the variation (CV values) of min eral concentrations in TMR
External link to the item
10.1093/tas/txab087Collections
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