HISTOR ▶▶▶Y
The US history of TMR − a dangerous game
A look behind the scenes at the creation of the total mix ration (TMR) in its birthplace of California, and resistance to the concept by some parts of the dairy industry before its eventual adoption across the world.
BY TREENA HEIN, CORRESPONDENT T
Dr Dan Loper says he came up with the idea of TMR in the early 1970s.
he total mixed ration, or TMR as it is commonly known, is considered by many to be the biggest de- velopment for the global dairy industry in the last 50 years. It is a complete diet that originated in Cali-
fornia, United States in the early 1970s and is mixed by dairy farmers on an ongoing basis. An advantage of feeding TMR as opposed to feeding forage supplemented with concentrates is the opportunity to make every bite of feed essentially a complete, nutritionally balanced diet for all cows,” notes Dr David J. Schingoethe in his paper A 100-Year Review: Total mixed ration feeding of dairy cows, which was published in 2017. Schingoethe is an ‘Emeritus Professor’ in the Dairy and Food Science Department at South Dakota State University.
Feeding forages and concentrates According to Schingoethe, the first full article on TMR in the Journal of Dairy Science appeared in 1966. Up to that time, dairy cows had been fed only forage. However, Schingoethe explains that factors such as increased milk production, larg- er herds and the popularity of milking parlours led to feed- ing a mixed nutritional concentrate in the milking parlour. There were issues with this feeding system, however, such as mess, labour and not enough time for cows to eat all their concentrate. Also, feeding forage and concentrates separate- ly often also led to problems such as digestive upset and milk fat depression.
What drove the adoption of TMR? Using TMR avoided these issues and, because of its many ad- vantages (including consistent, strong performance), today most dairy herds around the world are fed TMR. Illinois State University Professor Emeritus of Animal Science Dr Michael Hutjens points to a recent Hoard’s Dairyman Market Survey which shows that across the US from 2012 to 2019, the use of TMR increased from 62% to 91%. In his view, two main fac- tors drove the adoption of TMR. “One is larger herd size,” he says. “You need a large number of cows to make mixing on-farm economical. And the availability of nutritionists has made the process possible.” However, Dr Dennis Daugherty, founder of Pine Creek
18 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 29, No. 8, 2021
PHOTO: DAN LOPER
PHOTO: MARK PASVEER
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