Nutrition Tools

Dairy Australia has supported the development of a number of different tools which farmers can use to help them make more informed decisions regarding cow nutrition.

Rumen8

Rumen8 is a user friendly, free computer-based dairy nutritional program to help farmers formulate cost-effective diets. This will ensure the correct balance of energy, protein, fibre, minerals and other nutritional components for Australian dairy cows at different stages of production. It can be used regularly by dairy farmers to adjust their dairy cow diets with periodic help from a nutritionist.

The emphasis on ease-of-use sets Rumen8 apart from many other dairy nutrition programs. This makes the program ideal for quickly creating or checking cow diets by farm managers, owners and visiting nutritionists.

Rumen8 can be downloaded for free from the Rumen8 website. It has been developed with financial support from Dairy Australia and a number of government and not-for-profit organisations.

Also available from the Rumen8 website is the Rumen8 Feed Companion Manual. This manual provides a summary of typical nutritional values of the most common feeds used for Australian dairy cows. It covers over 160 feeds including cereal grains, protein meals and by-products, as well as grazed and conserved pastures and other forages.

Review of various dairy nutrition models

This review is a technical document for nutrition advisors. It reviews 11 computer-based dairy nutritional models which can be chosen to make animal nutrition decisions for dairy businesses. The review compares nutrition models for functionality, sensitivity to data inputs and strengths and weaknesses. As it is more than 10 years old, it is no longer up-to-date. However, it still provides some useful guidance on the range of nutrition models that are available.

Summary report: a review of 11 applied dairy nutrition models used in Australia (PDF, 758KB)

Appendix: a review of 11 applied dairy nutrition models used in Australia. Technical details (PDF, 1MB)

The review covers these nutrition models:

1. Amino Cow
2. Cam Dairy
3. CPM-Dairy
4. Diet Check
5. Feed into Milk
6. GrazFeed
7. RationCheck
8. Rumen8
9. Dairy Predict
10. FeedSmart
11. UDDER

Feed Budgeting Tool

Dairy farmers can manage their herd feed requirements and feed budget with the Feed Budgeting Tool.

Having a feed budget is essential to making the best decisions in regard to managing feed requirements throughout the season.

The Feed Budgeting Tool helps farmers look at feed supply and feed demand over a three, six, nine or 12-month period to assist with making good tactical decisions in regard to feeding cows.

Download Dairy Australia's Feed Budgeting tool.

Dairy Infrastructure – feedpads, dairy shelters and freestalls

Dairyinfrastructure.com.au is an online tool to help farmers make informed decisions in regard to dairy infrastructure projects. It is an initiative supported by Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia.

The website contains useful information for dairy farmers considering investing in a feedpad or barn system, as well as an online Microsoft Excel calculator to help cost any potential investment in a new feeding facility.

The tool is available on the Dairyinfrastructure.com.au website.

Downloads