Producer Questions and Answers for Promote® I.C.E.® PLUS
By Tim Thompson, Senior Dairy Specialist
Tim Thompson is a Senior Dairy Specialist for the upper Midwest. He has been working in animal nutrition and with dairy farmers for over 38 years. In his current role he performs nutrition services for over 17,000 cows and provides technical support in the upper Midwest region as well as 5 states in the west and SW and 4 states in the East and SE to Cargill / Provimi-Na nutritionists and their customers.
Tim Thompson is a Senior Dairy Specialist for the upper Midwest. He began feeding heat stress feed additives in the late 1990’s and has seen the benefits of Promote® I.C.E.® in dairy rations since 2005. We asked him to answer his most frequently asked questions from producers about heat stress and feeding Cargill’s heat stress additive, Promote® I.C.E.® PLUS.
Are feed additives for mitigating heat stress necessary?
Dairy cows generate great amounts of heat through rumination and milk production and will likely begin experiencing heat stress when temperatures, or more importantly THI (Thermal Heat Index), hit 68 degrees. The thing we must remember is a dairy cow’s basal temperature (where she is most comfortable) is around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. In comparison, a human’s basal temperature is about 72 degrees, and we can start experiencing heat stress around 80 degrees. I tend to ask my producers whether they rely on Gatorade, Powerade, or a similar hydration drink during the summer months and most do. When you think about it, feed additives for heat stress are very similar to the hydration drinks we use to rehydrate when working through the summer heat. Cows need that extra hydration so they can recover and thrive during hot weather too.
A similar question I get asked is why aren’t fans, soakers, and shade enough? While the temperature in a barn may read in the 70s, when you get in between those cows and stalls the temperature can be as much as 10 to 15 degrees hotter. Fans, soakers, and shade are a necessary part of the heat abatement equation and so are feed additives. Feed additives, like Promote I.C.E. PLUS, can work from the inside out to cool cows and help them better tolerate heat.
What results have you seen on farms feeding Promote I.C.E. PLUS?
The obvious results our producers see are improvements to reproduction numbers during the summer months and cattle maintaining their milk production through the heat. Over the years we have worked with neighboring herds where one is feeding Promote I.C.E. PLUS and the other isn’t. During severe heat, the herd feeding Promote I.C.E. PLUS would lose less than half in milk production compared to the non-feeding herd. The greatest advantage we noticed with cows fed Promote I.C.E. PLUS. is almost all returned to pre-heat stress milk production once the heat subsided. On the other hand, the non- Promote I.C.E. PLUS herds tended to experience a “ratcheting down” effect to milk production. These herds would experience an 8-pound drop in milk production per cow and only regain 6 pounds once the heat subsided. The next heat bout brought another 8-pound drop with only a 5-pound return, and as the summer went on the recovery became less and less.
Many times, the first heat wave has little effect on cattle and if you have heat abatement, like fans and soakers, cows will usually come right back. However, it is the continuation of heat stress throughout the summer that really affects cows. As the summer continues a cow’s internal ability to fully recover from heat stress wanes.
Are there long-term benefits to feeding Promote I.C.E. PLUS?
I have a few herds that I no longer do nutrition work for, nor work with through another nutritionist, but they still order Promote I.C.E. PLUS every summer through one of our dealers. One of the biggest wins we have experienced with our producers is feeding Promote I.C.E. PLUS to dry cows. As we know now with lactating cows a higher positive DCAD (Dietary Anion Cation Difference) diet can help mitigate heat stress. However, with dry cows we often push them down on DCAD to a low level and in the case of prefresh animals making them even negative when it comes to DCAD balance. The Promote I.C.E. PLUS advantage is that its ingredients include an osmolyte.
Osmolytes are small organic compounds found in nature that attract water molecules and work with heat shock proteins to protect the cell from damage due to heat stress. They are like electrolytes in the way they help maintain cell hydration. But, unlike electrolytes, osmolytes can be fed to dry cows because they have no effect on DCAD diets.
Further, Geoffrey Dahl from the University of Florida has researched heat stress and the effects on a dry cow’s next lactation and the future lactation performance of the offspring they are carrying. His research has found that these offspring may lose as much 10 pounds/cow/day when compared to herd mates. Research has also shown that heat stress can lower milk production well into the fall, even after the heat is gone. Based on the benchmark of a 60-day dry period, you may expect less milk up to 2 months or even more after heat stress weather ends.
How many herds are you feeding Promote I.C.E. PLUS?
I have Promote I.C.E. PLUS in some capacity on almost all the herds that I do nutrition work for and on a large percentage of the herds I work with through other nutritionists. In total over 300 herds in the Midwest are feeding Promote I.C.E PLUS.
To learn more about Promote I.C.E. PLUS check out our Commercial Dairy Trials and our Lose Less Calculator to visualize the your farm’s additional milk and potential revenue.