In this episode of Ruminate This, Dr. Larry Roth, Vice President of Nutrition at Agrarian Solutions, explains why corn silage should be managed like one of the farm’s most valuable assets. He discusses how harvest timing, kernel processing, packing density, dry matter testing, storage management, and feedout strategy all influence forage quality, shrink, mycotoxin risk, feed efficiency, milk production, and components.

Whether you’re managing the dairy or helping producers build feeding programs, you’ll gain practical insights to improve forage management, protect the value of every ton harvested, and support healthier cows, stronger performance, and better returns.

🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!

Scott Zehr: All right. Hey, welcome back to Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. Joining myself today, I have Dr. Larry Roth, our Vice President of Nutrition. I’m Scott Zehr, back in the seat, glad to be with you guys. And Larry, man, what’s more fun in agriculture to talk than to, to talk about than talking about money?
Yeah we have so much money in agriculture, I just… Back on the dairy, I just thought we always had so much money to pass around and… Oh, wait, then reality hit me. Yeah, Larry, we work in tight margins in the dairy world, in, in the beef world, in any world where we’re harvesting crops, where we’re taking a risk in the spring, we’re putting out crops, we’re hoping we have a good growing season, we’re harvesting them, we’re feeding them to try to get an ROI, whether it’s milk or beef or what have you.
And so today’s episode really is I’d like to talk to you about asset management. And, when I think of that term asset management, my brain always goes to some venture capitalist company that has teams of people that help guide the decision-making process on managing their portfolio of assets.
That’s where my brain goes. But when I think about asset management on a dairy really in any farming operation Larry I come to corn silage. I come to the corn that we raise, whether it’s corn silage or even grain corn or high moisture, whatever, could be soybeans, could be haylage, the crops that we’re putting out in the field in the spring and hoping for an ROI later, there’s so many variables that go into getting a good crop.
We’re very weather dependent, time dependent, all of it. And I’m not saying anything new. But there’s a reason the term corn silage season exists, because that’s how it is treated. It’s treated like an event. And there’s a lot of time and energy spent to make sure this harvest season goes off well.
Larry, in, in previous episodes, which is episode 52 back on August 4th of 2025, we talked about the fundamentals of things we need to pay attention to put up good corn silage. And I’d like to talk to you today on how do we manage that asset to make sure we get an ROI.
You’ve told us num- number of times that we need to think of our forage piles as a pile of money. And then I think there’s a term that we’ve talked about on this platform as well of think of shrink as the interest you pay on that money. Larry, I’m gonna throw it to you for your take here starting the episode, but I hate paying interest on money. So I’ll let you kinda take it from here as far as your thoughts on that.
Dr. Larry Roth: Wow. Fantastic, Scott. Yep. So we think of shrink could be the interest that we’re paying. Could be just lost feed, lost opportunity. Asset is gone. We could look at a 20,000 bunker, 20,000-ton bunker that would be worth, what? $1.2 million? And if we had $1.2 million out there i- in dollar bills we would at least put a rock on it so it doesn’t blow away in the wind. We’d at least put some metal over it so it doesn’t get wet when it rains. Scott, what are we doing to protect that asset so that we don’t lose it? And there’s so many places to go there. As you were doing the prelude here, I was thinking our corn silage asset really begins with the soil.
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: What’s the fertility? What’s the conditions when we plant and right afterwards? Do we get a lot of rain on it? Do we not get rain? All of these things that come into affecting corn silage quality. And then we have to think about our plant genetics. Our plant genetics for making corn silage are so vastly improved compared to even 20 years ago.
So temptation becomes I’ll save some money on that seed corn because it’s just for silage. Again, if we’re thinking about our $1.2 million bunker, do we really wanna skimp on seed corn to make…
Scott Zehr: Yeah
Dr. Larry Roth: So a- again, there, there’s so many different things that come into play, and I know that diesel is higher priced right now, and so we might be tempted we’ll just kinda open up the rollers a little bit.
Then we don’t process our corn. And then that corn is gonna show up when we wash out the parlor. It’s gonna show up in lower milk production, or having to do things differently with the diet. We think of the price of diesel, and we think of packing. You only get one chance to pack that pile. And that may be one of the biggest factors. Note I said one of, one of the biggest factors for determining what our shrink is gonna be.
How good a job did we do at packing so that we exclude the oxygen so the yeast don’t grow and the plant doesn’t continue through metabolism? We could think about our plastic that we’re gonna put over. Oh, man, if we could just use a little bit qu- lower quality plastic, that shouldn’t hurt us too bad, should it?
All of these different things that come into play, but it has to begin with the mindset that corn silage is an asset. And that asset is going to affect the cows. It’s going to affect the cows potentially from a longevity standpoint, production standpoint, repro standpoint. All of these things come into play.
So it’s hard to say here’s one thing that we should be doing to protect our asset, when there are so many different factors.
Scott Zehr: Yeah, i- it’s
Dr. Larry Roth: But Scott let’s just start by thinking about corn silage as an asset.
Scott Zehr: I think so. And, I would almost use the example, right? So throughout the last 20 years in dairy, I spent a lot of time on the cow side of stuff, whether it was actually actively on the dairy or in genetics. And boy, the heifer calves were the most sought after asset, rightly right?
And for a number of years, Larry, bull calves were… They were the money that helped put groceries on the table or gas in the truck for the week or maybe pay a few small bills.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep.
Scott Zehr: And then black hidden calves ca- came around and for a while they were treated like a, a little bit more, maybe opportunity than a Holstein bull calf, but now all of a sudden markets have shifted.
Things have happened on the beef side. These calves are now an extremely valuable asset. and so we’ve had to… There’s been a shift in viewing how we view these day-old calves, especially if they’re black hided, into a really an asset that we can capitalize on.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: Larry, I drive down the road time and time again, and I know farms that view those black calves as this premium two-day-old asset. And I see a bunker that’s not covered from 2025 corn silage.
So I think it is fair to really challenge the listener today to be thinking about this as an asset. And inherently, Larry, I think every dairyman out there or anybody that grows corn to then feed the cattle knows they’re working with an asset. But why do we still see such mismanagement?
Dr. Larry Roth: You bet. I think it is a matter of understanding how this asset affects other assets. So you talked about black-hided calves. If we don’t do a good job with our corn silage, we may not have as many black-hided calves. We don’t do a good job with our corn silage, I would contend that it could affect the health and wellbeing of those black-hided calves.
Scott Zehr: We certainly can.
Dr. Larry Roth: So, corn silage is at the center of so much that we’ve got going on. If we’ve got a dairy that is also maybe raising some soybeans from a cash crop standpoint, if we can reduce the shrink, improve the quality of our corn silage, do we need to put up as much corn silage? Can some of those acres, a land asset, can that go into raising a cash crop such as soybeans?
So, let change our mindset to where corn silage is an asset that we have to manage because it affects so many other assets on the dairy.
Scott Zehr: Yeah. I think my hope today, Larry, through our conversation is that somebody listening to this, maybe a nutritionist listening can say, “Oh I think I have a farm in mind that I’d like to go have a visit with,” or a veterinarian listening in the same manner. And if you’re a dairyman today, I want this conversation to feel like, “Hey, thanks for talking about this, guys, ’cause it makes me feel good, ’cause we’re really checking the box.”
But also if you’re somebody putting up corn silage, I don’t want you to take it like you’re doing a poor job, but look at the opportunity. Just if there’s… Larry there’s just not a lot of opportunity anymore for us to ignore the interest we’re paying from the time we plant the corn to the time we ask the cow to convert it into milk.
Dr. Larry Roth: Absolutely. With margins being thin, we need to get a return from everything that we do with that crop. Again, going back to the land, be it owned land that we paid cash for at some point or still have a mortgage on or rent. It took money to put that crop in the ground, put a fungicide on it, to chop it. So again, it’s that mindset. And Scott, you talked about two different types of individuals, somebody who’s… They’re doing a fantastic job, they’re checking all the boxes, but again, there’s so many moving parts on the dairy. Do we really need to do all of this with our corn silage? Yeah, you do, because if you’re not checking those boxes, it’s going to affect other parts of the operation.
Or the other producer who says, “corn silage it’s just a feed. There’s other things that we need to pay attention to.” Yes, it is a feed, but it is probably the largest fed feed on the dairy. And so we gotta put so much emphasis on corn silage quality, corn silage hygiene, and reducing that corn silage shrink.
So, congratulations if somebody’s checking all of the boxes, keep doing that. If somebody’s not checking all those boxes, let’s think of the implications of not going to the nth degree with our corn silage.
Scott Zehr: Yeah, I have a friend of mine, Larry, he ran a custom harvest business for a long time. And, you’d get a kick out of this guy. But if you asked him his favorite time of year, he would tell you resoundingly, “Oh, chopping corn. Oh, I love chopping. I love everything that goes into chopping corn.”
And this crazy nut, he would sit in a chopper for 26 hours a day if he could. If he could get other people to drive truck and back tractor, he’d do it. He preps for corn silage season, you’d think he… and he’ll tell you that’s his Super Bowl. That’s his Daytona 500. That’s his US Open tennis championship.
That’s his Masters Tournament. Whatever sports analogy you wanna throw out there, the Rose Bowl.
How he approaches it. And when you talk about maybe the individual that, that is, is asking are all these steps necessary? I would ask you this, Larry is getting ready for one of the most important 10, 12-day stretches on your farm that important?
Dr. Larry Roth: Absolutely, you bet. Because it’s gonna impact the entire rest of the year, and it may have impacts even past the rest of the year.
Scott Zehr: I…
Dr. Larry Roth: If we have corn silage hygiene issues, maybe it delays re-breeding on the cows, maybe it has an effect upon calf health from reducing colostrum quantity and quality. We’re starting to understand so much about epigenetics and what affects the calf before it is born.
We think of different types of inflammation, heat stress. Heat stress is really just another inflammation. What’s the impact of these mycotoxins on the developing calf inside the cow? Be it gonna be one of the black-hided calves that you talked about earlier, or be it the high genetic value heifer that’s gonna hopefully stay in the herd for a long time as a lactating cow.
So yeah, corn silage, that is probably the most critical stretch of time on the dairy because of its long-term implications.
Scott Zehr: Yeah. Measuring the success of corn silage season, and there’s a lot of downstream stuff. There’s milk production, there’s cow health, there’s reproduction, all the stuff you just mentioned with the calves, that all plays into it. But I, having spent time as a Dairy Comp 305 geek and mining data and looking at data for a number of years. There’s stuff that I would run into and questions that I would have and I’d ask the producer, “where’s the records on this?”
“We actually don’t keep track of that.” “Okay. If you don’t track it, how can I look at it and give advice on it to know what to improve on, right?”
Dr. Larry Roth: If y- if you’re not tracking it, how can you manage it and improve that particular aspect?
Scott Zehr: Exactly. So when I think of the corn silage, you know, we, we have, I’m just thinking in terms of some of these, the clients that, that we visit. The nutritionist is there once or twice a week, or once a week or maybe every two weeks to do a nutrient analysis, to do some dry matter testing. Are we doing kernel processing scores once throughout the season or twice, not at all, five times, right?
But what is it that- one, like what are the things that we should be tracking? How do we… What are the metrics we should look at in a corn silage pile to help us determine if we’re doing a good job or not?
Dr. Larry Roth: Fan- fantastic question. I think one of the items is if we can weigh corn silage coming in, it’s gonna tell us something about how good a job we did raising the crop through all of the different agronomic and weather challenges. Then I would look at my good old bucket of water trick. You mentioned kernel processing scores.
Those are good. It’s a good quantitative measurement. But by the time we get that kernel processing score, the chopper is probably already onto the next farm, or it’s put back in the shed.
So my little five-gallon bucket of water trick is put a couple handfuls of corn silage, fresh chopped corn silage into a five-gallon bucket, maybe two-thirds, three-quarter full, stir it up with a stick, let it sit for a couple of minutes, pour off the water and the forage, and then look and see what you have for kernels in the bottom, because that’s what’s gonna end up on the parlor floor when you wash it next February or March.
That’s gonna be the starch that doesn’t get utilized by the cow. And then I think I would be sending in corn silage samples, maybe taking a composite by day of chopping, send that in so that we’re able to determine what is the quality, nutritive quality of this crop that we’re producing. I could have tremendous dry matter yields, but if the quality isn’t there, so what?
And then measuring nutritive quality of the crop going into the pile gives me an idea of what nutritive value corn silage we’re gonna have coming out of the pile whenever we start feeding it out. And then that enables the nutritionist or the dairy producer to put together a game plan. Man, we got all the starch in the world, we got excellent fiber digestibility.
We don’t need to do anything to complement or make up for deficiencies in our corn silage. But let’s say, for whatever reason, our corn silage is low in starch, maybe we need to get some more starch from off of the farm. Maybe our fiber digestibility is low, maybe we need some kind of higher fiber digestibility byproduct. So I think that nutritive value of the crop going into the pile is so very critical.
Scott Zehr: I’m gonna, I’m gonna jump in there, Larry, because you brought up something really important that is, what’s the old saying? Time is money, right? So if I harvest corn silage in August, and I’m taking composite samples as we’re chopping, the one thing I- you didn’t bring up is when we’re doing these nutrition analysis, we can also do mycotoxin analysis. W- we’ve talked about that in the past. I’m not dwell on that today.
Dr. Larry Roth: Thank you.
Scott Zehr: But in a lot of cases, certain customers that I work with, clients that I work with in the Northeast here, they’re gonna say “I don’t have any leftover corn silage.” But in, in a lot of cases, Larry, we’re gonna not feed this corn silage till December, January? Some cases February or March, right?
If we’re doing some of this measurement now, and you alluded to it, it’s not even so much about coming up with a game plan, but I think of budgeting. So I think of it like a CEO of a business. What nutrition plan do I have in my pile, and how much money do I need to think about budgeting towards off-farm starch and off-farm protein, throughout the rest of the year? I would rather have that conversation in September than the day I open that bunk in April.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Or after you’ve been into that bunker for a month and we discover we have mycotoxin issues, so thank you for bringing that up. We wanna measure mycotoxins on our fresh corn forage so we know what we’re putting into the pile or the bunker from a mycotoxin standpoint.
But yeah let’s know what we’ve got going into the game. And so I think that’s one of the most critical steps is knowing what our corn silage asset is quality-wise, hygiene-wise, before we have to start feeding it.
Scott Zehr: I, I know you like football analogies, Larry, and there’s probably a number of people on our podcast that do. But going back to that Super Bowl mindset of my friend that preps for corn silage like it’s the Super Bowl. Everything that you just described with looking at this corn silage during harvest, that’s pract- that’s practically like watching game film on the opponent. You know what expect when finally get to the day.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep. Or watching game film on yourself…
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: to know what you need to change for next year. We’re into corn silage season, we’re in the middle of it. We may not be able to make some changes this year, but we’re able to start making plans for next year. So I just really think that those fresh corn forage samples are so critical.
I know there’s a lot going on during corn silage season, and we always wanna be safe. But we need to be pulling some samples as we’re building the pile, filling the bunker or filling the silo. How- however we store it, we need to know what our quality and hygiene is going into the feeding period. Feed- feeding for a month and then figuring out what we got is not a winning game plan.
Scott Zehr: No.
Dr. Larry Roth: We need to know in advance.
Scott Zehr: Yeah. Rob Hamacher our VP of market here in at Agrarian Solutions across the US, there, there’s something that he says an awful lot, whether it’s at our staff meetings, I think at one point, or maybe it still is, this little saying was in his email signature, and he truly believes it. Maybe you know where I’m going with this, maybe you don’t. But what he likes to say is, “Teamwork makes the dream work.”
Now, okay, maybe it sounds a little cliché, but it’s true. We don’t do these things on our own. And so I wanna talk about communication for a minute, and ownership of the outcome of this O- ROI, because we’re… this isn’t just the dairyman and his son on a small farm or the dairy and a herdsman and a crop crew and…
We’re talking owners and feeders and crop managers, nutritionists, agronomists, custom harvester, the employees executing the strategy, the vets, the consultants that are watching the data like I used to. That is the team of people that are involved one way or another with this asset. And so talk about the importance of the communication between everybody.
Dr. Larry Roth: It’s funny how different things come to mind, but as you started talking about teamwork, I was thinking of a 2,500 cow dairy that I showed up to buy some calves on the day that one of the brothers was heading out to plant corn. And they were running just a little bit behind because of weather, and his comment was, “I’m gonna go faster today than what we normally do.” Okay. What could go wrong, Scott, with something like that?
We start getting skips. We start not getting corn planted at a good, consistent depth. Yeah, he may get all of those acres planted, but he’s not gonna really know the consequence of that speed up decision until they start chopping and filling the bunker. Then we don’t have as much coming in. Our plants are stressed, so maybe we don’t have the nutritive quality. The plants are stressed early on, so we have more mycotoxin issues.
So comm- communication, teamwork, everybody who has anything to do with that crop understands the importance of their action or responsibility, from the person who orders the corn to the person who puts it in the ground, the person who sprays it for weeds, sprays fungicide, setting the chopper hauling it in, dumping it, not going through the mud and the manure to track it up onto the pile.
All of these things come into play, that we have to understand that each person who has something to do with that crop, that asset, excuse me, determines the success of that asset and how it affects all the other assets on the dairy.
Scott Zehr: That is so widespread. I’m not trying to nauseate the audience with football preferences, but oftentimes American football is talked about as the ul- ultimate team sport with 53 men on each roster. But when you go down through that list of individuals that I just talked about and the scenario you just played out for a 2,500 cow dairy, we’re talking there could be close to 50, 75 different people involved.
And everybody has to understand their role, and it’s discipline. Discipline comes into mind, not in a negative way, but being disciplined in the fundamentals. And it’s always interesting how so many of our conversations, Larry, come back to the fundamentals. And for the people that have been following us along for a while, I used to have a picture that is just rotated on a different wall right now of Vince Lombardi. And, just talking about mastering the fundamentals, and communication is one of those fundamentals, but understanding. Understanding
Dr. Larry Roth: I, I think the biggest fundamental is understanding what our objective is with this asset. Is it as many tons of dry matter? Is it as many tons of starch? Is it as many tons of digestible fiber? Is it as clean of mycotoxins as possible? And it’s not gonna be probably one single objective, but understanding the overall objectives. How is what I do today with this crop influencing the ability of this dairy to accomplish their objectives with this asset?
Scott Zehr: So Larry, as we wrap up today’s show I got a few questions I wanna ask of you, and not necessarily in rapid fire form, but, we’ll go down through a little bit of a list here to leave people something to think about. So question number one, Larry, what are the biggest harvest day decisions that determine whether this asset starts strong or starts compromised?
Dr. Larry Roth: I think, first one is how do we set, number one, the height of the chopper? We’re seeing more in- interest in high chop corn silage. Gonna be higher digestible fiber, higher starch content. I think setting the chopper for destroying kernels so that every kernel is processed. I think also of moisture of the crop, moisture or dry matter, however you wanna look at it, of the crop.
Those are probably the… And then the packing decision. How many pack tractors based upon how much corn silage we have coming in per hour. So are we bringing it in from a long distance away, or is it close-up fields? And then finally, do we have the crew around to cover it and pack it at the end of the day? So how’s that? That’s a whole bunch of decisions.
Scott Zehr: love it and it reminds me of one of your one, one of the, your sayings that I enjoyed the most or have enjoyed the most is letting, reminding people to let the packing tractor determine the speed of the chopper.
Dr. Larry Roth: There you go. Yeah, exactly. That person should have the opportunity to say, “Hey, Mr. Chopper, take a break. You’re getting ahead of me.”
Scott Zehr: Yep. I shared that, Larry, with a dairy farm the one day and we talk about time is money. He goes, “But the guy’s getting paid by the hour to run the chopper.” Ah, as the custom harvester, you’re paying on the cutter bar hour, buddy. Oh yeah, good point. But think about that.
Dr. Larry Roth: So are you paying by the hour or are you paying… I understand what you’re saying, but I bring that back to the quality of crop that we’re creating.
Scott Zehr: Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay.
Scott Zehr: Okay, next question. I like this one. So what storage mistakes are easy to overlook but expensive later?
Dr. Larry Roth: Oh, I think it’s easy to overlook the packing. What you were just talking about. Man, we are really making progress today. We’re bringing in a tremendous number of corn silage tons, but we’re getting ahead of the packer. I think another decision that is easy to overlook is the slopes on the pile, or even with the bunker. Because we gotta get everything packed, and if we get too steep we’re not gonna be able to pack like what we should, ’cause we don’t wanna roll the pack tractor.
So I think, again, it’s easy to overlook what is the rate of corn silage coming in and in relation to the pack tractor or tractors, and then the slope of our pile or bunker.
Scott Zehr: I’m gonna add in a bonus one that I observe too many times, and that is they’re predicting rain for the next two days and we decide to not cover the pile in between the stoppage. It’s a pain in the butt. It takes people, it takes energy, it takes time. But Larry, that pile is money, and that rain is washing pennies right drain.
Dr. Larry Roth: And you know what, Scott? Every day that you’re feeding out of that bunker, you’re going to see that spot where you didn’t cover. And it’s gonna remind you that decision was made back on August 28th not to cover. ‘Cause that line is gonna be there all through that pile or that bunker.
Scott Zehr: Yep. I was on a dairy in another state, I think it was up in Maine, looking at this bunker, and this was six months after they started feeding the pile, Larry. And I… “Oh, right there is where you guys took a break for a week during the rain that you talked about. It’s there.”
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep. Absolutely.
Scott Zehr: the dairyman just kinda hung his head. The weather’s the weather, but control you can control. You can control whether we make the decision to go out and cover it.
Dr. Larry Roth: Absolutely.
Scott Zehr: When corn silage starts feeding poorly, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind?
Dr. Larry Roth: When you say it starts feeding poorly, I’m gonna take that as meaning production goes down. We could also say repro goes down. So, first thing that is gonna go through my mind is, how did we do with those kernels, destroying them? And then secondly, near and dear to my heart, mycotoxin contamination. So is the energy th- there? Is the energy available? And then do we have a hygiene issue?
Scott Zehr: Yep I would agree. And like you did initially with milk and repro, just the way my pegboard works in my head, I like to chase that all the way down through because there’s such a long list of cascading events that happen. It’s not just the three, four pounds of milk today. It’s not just the five points of conception rate over the next 60 days.
It’s elongated days in milk. It’s higher body condition score at calving. It’s compromised calvings. It’s transition health. It’s another lactation. I could go on, but we all know the kind of the downstream there. We talked about this a little bit, but I, about what we’re measuring with that pile, the dry matter, the starch, the fiber digestibility, the mycotoxins that, that, you know when we’re harvesting. But how do we connect that forage analysis to actual cow response instead of treating the lab report like the finish line?
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay. I will add one more to what you just said, ash content.
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: If our ash content is high, it may be telling us something about tracking dirt onto the pile. So your question is, are we just trying to make a good lab report? The lab report is on the corn forage. It doesn’t tell us how the fermentation process went. It doesn’t tell us how good a job of packing we did. Oh, we did a horrible job of packing, so now our, we got some heating, prolonged fermentation, so our sugar content is gonna be lower. Our pH aren’t gonna be low, and our heat damage protein is gonna be higher. So it isn’t just the lab report on the corn forage. The final check is gonna be those assays as we feed out the asset.
Scott Zehr: Yeah. And then, ironically as you were talking, you say the final check, but really then there’s the cow and the story she’s gonna tell. There’s another final check. And, you know, it makes me realize corn silage season when you drive around during corn silage season, and it’s, it feels like a rat race if you’re in a concentrated dairy community like I am.
There’s choppers flying through the fields. There’s trucks going down the road both ways. There’s corn silage flying off the trucks in the air. Litter on the side of the road, right? And it’s, it feels like a rat race. But really what it is the most intense relay race- Yeah … out there because…
and I think that’s how we have to think of it as a relay race, because there’s so many different start-finish lines in the same journey.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: There’s so many points where the baton has to be handed off cleanly to make this thing all come together.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yes.
Scott Zehr: And, I think one other question I wanna touch on is back to communication. Now I’m reminded of a friend of ours named Joel, Larry, and Joel used to like to say, “You cannot over-communicate.” And so just wrap us up with, again, there’s a lot of people involved in this relay race.
In your mind, the perfect scenario, maybe going back to that 2,500 cow dairy you referenced, what’s the value in sitting everybody down for an afternoon with coffee and donuts or pizza and wings and just hammering out the game plan? “We- we’ve been putting up corn Larry, on this farm with the same people for 10 years. Everybody knows what they’re doing,” could be the worst thing you’ve ever said.
Dr. Larry Roth: So let’s say we ran into a situation like that. I don’t need to go in to listen to any meeting about how to do corn silage. I’ve been doing this for 50 years. Okay? Let’s bring in some of our corn silage nutrient assay reports from this year. Let’s review those, what’s good about them, what’s not good about them.
Let’s go over what our current crop is this year, what our chopping plan is. We’re gonna start on August 28th with those fields far away, and then finish with those close up. What changes do we need to make during that time? What changes do we need to make as the crop matures and gets drier? What do we need to do if it’s gonna start to rain?
So go through all of these different situations to remind us of our, how we’ve done in the past, what our challenges are, and again, come back to what our objective, what our grand objectives are with this asset
Scott Zehr: I like that. ‘Cause that’s really I like it when you bring it back to what’s the objective? What are we trying to accomplish? Larry, I’m gonna leave the listeners with one final thought on my end, and I’ll leave the door open for you to do the same. This is a crazy time of year that we’re coming into for people that are harvesting corn.
Whether it’s silage, whether it’s grain corn, high moisture, it’s crazy. We tend to not get enough sleep. Be safe. Be mindful when you’re around the bunks. If you’re out there taking samples, there’s tractors, they can’t see everywhere. To the truck drivers, remember those stop signs are there for a reason.
Other cars in the public, they may not feel the need to come to a full stop, but just be safe ’cause it’s… every year, Larry, it seems like in, in the area that I live within a 60, 70-mile radius there’s some horror stories that just don’t need to happen. But I understand it’s a stressful time of year, but safety first, guys. Safety first.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah. Yeah, no, I think that’s a great one. So what, we put up a tremendous crop, we did a tremendous job of packing, but we lost a guy. We lost a guy for any of the different reasons that you just talked about, be it traffic related, be it rolling a tractor, be it getting run over there while we’re out sampling. We gotta be safe. That- that’s number one. The other thing is communicate to the team the objective with this asset and why it is so important to this business enterprise.
Scott Zehr: There is a lot of meat on that bone, Larry, that we could take a lot of different ways from cow health right down to the paychecks of the people that are scraping manure, and that really great thing to leave people with. I thank you for that, yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah
Scott Zehr: So well, folks, if you found value in today’s podcast, share it with a friend. Hit that share button, send it to them. If you have any questions or you’d like to talk about anything with Larry or I about what we discussed today, that is podcast@agrsol.com. And Larry, we do get back to our listeners when they email us. So with that, Larry, thank you for taking time out of your day today to visit with us again. Great conversation, appreciated that, and we’ll be talking to everybody again soon.
Dr. Larry Roth: All right. Thank you, Scott.

The post 77: Corn Silage Season Is Asset Management Season appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

If DON mycotoxins interfere with protein synthesis, how much milk protein could dairy cows be losing before clinical signs ever appear?

In this Letters from the Field episode, Dr. Larry Roth explores the hidden cost of nutrient chaos. How mycotoxins can redirect nutrients away from production and toward defense, affecting rumen function, liver health, reproduction, immune function, and overall performance.

If nutrients are being diverted from production to defense, what could that be costing your herd?

🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!

Scott Zehr: Hey, welcome everybody to another episode of Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. I am your host, Scott Zehr. And today, Larry, we are doing something that we’ve never done before.
I don’t know why it took me 70-plus episodes to think of this type of segment, but we routinely get questions from nutritionists or veterinaries, dairy farmers across the country, and a lot of times, Larry, we discuss them internally as a team and develop, okay, how, how can we best serve this person regarding this question.
But man, there’s some of these questions that we get from, say, the field that, I think people, people should hear the conversation that we have around this stuff. So-
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah
Scott Zehr: … think of today as like a letters from the field episode. And so Larry, I’m gonna kick it right off with a text message that I received from a nutritionist. Just to frame it up for the listener, this message, the first message I’m gonna read to you guys was forwarded to me from the nutritionist. It looks like it’s a, an exchange between him and probably his tech person. And, then Larry, I’m gonna have some questions for you around this conversation.
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay.
Scott Zehr: so- hey, thanks for the question. DON inhibits the synthesis of protein, therefore likely negatively impacts microbes, which trials have shown lower microbial protein production and lower fiber digestibility. Post-ruminally, DON is tough on the gut health. I don’t know if that’s a function of protein synthesis or by other means. I would have to go back to my notes regarding site impact for Agrarian’s DTX product.
If it does have some activity within the rumen, that could improve rumination. A cumulative effect post-rumen makes sense as well. And then the specific question I received from this nutritionist, “As we try to make more milk protein, I’m wondering how negatively DON is working against us.” That’s what started this whole conversation.
Dr. Larry Roth: Right.
Scott Zehr: The farm I’m referring to has a 13 PPM DON. So at least they’re, not starting with 500 parts per billion or .5 PPM, Larry. Wow, there’s a lot of meat on that bone from a, from a few different places, and I, I think, Larry, where I’d wanna start with, with our conversation today is more on the protein synthesis side.
My question being, if DON is inhibiting protein synthesis, what’s actually happening inside the cow to cause that? And then I’ll… I have some follow-up questions for you as well.
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay. Excellent. So in a previous session, we had called DON the disruptor mycotoxin.
Scott Zehr: Yes.
Dr. Larry Roth: And I think that’s a good lead in here.
So DON alters the rumen microbial population. So if you don’t have bacteria who are fermenting the diet, creating energy, making nitrogen available to be converted into microbial protein, which is the am- ideal amino acid balance for the cow, you don’t have the ideal amino acid balance being absorbed. I think that’s one place.
The other, there’s some thought that the DON molecule may inhibit some of the actual protein synthesis within some of the cells. So if you’re not absorbing the ideal amino acid balance and then you’re inhibiting actual protein synthesis itself in the cells, you’re not gonna have the milk protein created, you’re probably gonna have l- less lean tissue, you’re probably gonna have less of the important organs such as the liver and the kidneys.
And so it’s just kind of a cascading effect, if you will. And it, to me, I think with ruminants, we always have to start with the rumen. They’ve been blessed-
Scott Zehr: Yeah
Dr. Larry Roth: With this 55-gallon fermentation vat between their ribs, and we want that fermentation to be as, both energy efficient and nitrogen efficient as, as it can be, because that sets the stage for the whole rest of the animal.
Then we have to go to the small intestine, and DON can reduce gut integrity at the small intestine, but now we gotta rebuild that small intestine. And by the way, we’re, we need some amino acids, some protein to rebuild that gut tissue. So again, it’s kind of a, if we wanna call it a cascading effect.
This happens, it inhibits this from happening, that makes it harder for another thing to happen. But it all-
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: starts with what’s going on in the rumen, and then what happens to gut integrity in the small intestine.
Scott Zehr: And I, I appreciate your call back to that episode as well, where we previously, nicknamed the different mycotoxins DON being the disruptor. And, and really we, we used that analogy then of all of these things flow downstream.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: So, you know, one of the questions I had thought of is just, what happens first? Does the rumen get compromised or the gut gets compromised, right? The small intestine. And obviously, based on what you said, we’re first gonna see efficiency drop in the, in the rumen, and that’s where-
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: That’s where the fermentation vat lives.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: But again, so the gut health side of that plays into it as well.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yes. Yeah, so I’m gonna say we lose efficiency, both energy and nitrogen efficiency in the rumen first, and then we have issues with small intestine integrity. I, I think that would be the, the proper order.
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: maybe I don’t wanna say proper order, but the, the sequence for these challenges occurring.
Scott Zehr: So Larry, right now, people are trying to feed for more milk protein, so-
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep …
Scott Zehr: I I, don’t know if we can really put a number on it, but if we’re trying to maximize milk protein production-
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep
Scott Zehr: Like, how much could DON be maybe quietly working against us before we ever see clinical signs like loose manure or erratic intakes?
Dr. Larry Roth: Wow, that’s a good question. Again, I’m gonna take you back to our past podcast. Are there other mycotoxins challenging the cow at the same time?
Scott Zehr: Mmm.
Dr. Larry Roth: What is the level of DON? What other challenges might the cow be, be facing? So your, your question was what is the… you were trying to put a number on the- I, yeah, I mean- … reduction in efficiency in…
Scott Zehr: Yeah, it’s, it’s probably a hard thing to do i- in a way, right? But-
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah …
Scott Zehr: I guess the spirit of the question is we inherently know based on research, based on things that we’ve talked about on this platform, DON inhibits protein synthesis, right? And there’s a- downstream effect. I’m just imagining, we’re out there in the real world trying to feed the cows to, to increase milk protein.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yes.
Scott Zehr: And we keep throwing ingredients at it, and we keep changing strategies to try to maximize it. We have genetics that have, gosh, have elevated the cow’s ability genetically speaking to make milk protein.
But Larry, if I told you that there was a farm that was making, their percent protein was 3.6% protein, that’s pretty good. And that was a number that was good years ago too. It just, what is holding that back?
Dr. Larry Roth: From a higher level of, of protein in the milk, perhaps amino acids in the diet and perhaps the ratio of those amino acids. That could be holding them back. And also where else is that protein having to go?
If that protein is being diverted to rebuilding digestive tract tissue, if that protein is being reallocated to repairing liver damage because the liver’s doing a lot of detoxification and other issues are, are going on.
So what all challenges is the cow facing? So there’s a, s- slide that I’ve used at different times that looks at the interaction of maintenance, reproduction, milk production, and then defense, which could be the immune system, it could be reestablishing gut integrity. And when we have metabolic challenges, and I’m gonna go ahead and say social challenges, environmental challenges, the nutrients reallocated to defense grows. Okay? And so if more protein in this situation, this example, is diverted over to defense, we’re not gonna have the milk protein that we could potentially have. If defense wasn’t-
Scott Zehr: Yeah, I’ve-
Dr. Larry Roth: soaking up all that protein.
Scott Zehr: Yeah, I, I feel like we’re maybe starting to sound like a broken record, ’cause I, I think you and I have been talking about nutrient reallocation it seems like for, for the better part of two years.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah, yeah.
Scott Zehr: or, or longer, but on this platform. But it, it’s-
Dr. Larry Roth: I, I really think, Scott, that is what limits nutrient efficiency, milk production efficiency. Where are those nutrients going? Because at, at the end of the day, the cow has a limited amount of nutrients to work with. Okay? She’s eating, for the sake of discussion, 56 pounds of dry matter, 60 pounds of dry matter, I don’t know. and there’s a certain n- nutrients that comes with that.
Well, what percentage of those nutrients get absorbed as energy, BFAs? What percentage of the nitrogen or amino acids she consumes end up as microbial protein or feed protein for her to absorb? Okay? There’s some number for both of those. I think the question is where do those nutrients go in her body?
And different things are gonna cause reallocation of the nutrients, and ultimately it’s that reallocation that affects efficiency. So Scott, if we were to go to a dairy that’s got, oh, man, they’ve got absolutely fantastic, feed efficiency, turning, turning feed into milk, I’m gonna submit to you that that is a dairy that does not have a lot of inflammation going on, that probably does not have major mycotoxin issues.
There’s fires that show up, okay? But that dairy is able to put those fires out rather quickly. So that now nutrients go to more profitable purposes than just maintenance and defense. And so you see what we’ve also done here, Scott, is we’ve broken maintenance away from defense.
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: And I think many times people will put defense under that umbrella of maintenance.
Scott Zehr: Yep.
Dr. Larry Roth: I think we need to separate defense from maintenance.
Scott Zehr: I think that’s fair and, you know I’m, I’m just imagining, I’m trying to, just imagining myself being a nutritionist for a minute and laying down in bed trying to connect all these dots and, and that’s, maybe that’s just giving the listener a little, too much of how my brain works.
I, I tell people my brain’s like a pegboard and it’s covered with pegs and I, I have to make sure all the strings that can connect do connect if they can. And just walking through the cause and effect of this type of conversation, Larry, it would wake me up with night sweats to think that there’s stuff going on that, that is influencing the effectiveness of the ration that I’m putting on paper. And now one, it’s one thing to recognize that. It’s another thing to figure out then what those things are.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep.
Scott Zehr: But we know, bringing this back, we know that some of those things are mycotoxins.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep
Scott Zehr: What are we doing about it? So there was another part of that, that letter that I had read that asked, or that, that the comment was in the message, I would have to go back and look through my notes, and I’m quote, quoting here, “I would have to go back and look in my notes to see what impact DTX has on the site.”
It’s speaking of the small intestine or- or even potentially in the rumen. Maybe let’s walk into that a little bit, because I, I think, you know, at the end of the day, we’re trying to make more mo- more milk protein. DON’s potentially inhibiting us from doing that. We have something that works on DON. So walk us through a little bit of how that actually happens.
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay. I think when I look at how, how DTX works, it’s defending gut integrity, so you don’t have as much destruction of digestive tract lining cells. So you’re gonna have more nutrients, both the amino acids and the energy that would be required to rebuild the gut tissues that are now gonna be available for more productive purposes.
You don’t have, not only DON, with your question. But you don’t have other pathogens entering into the body to cause issues with not only the liver, but the kidney as well. So you don’t have the nutrients going to rebuild those tissues. You don’t have, DON or other, pathogens going through the body for the immune system to attack against, or to attack, rather.
And so those nutrients are gonna be… Those nutrients that would’ve gone to defending and protecting are now available for more profitable purposes. So again, it’s a cascading effect, this time in a positive direction. We’re able to protect against DON at the gut level, so all of these other good things happen.
And because this happens, then this good thing happens, then this good thing happens. So now we have a positive cascade or chain of events.
Scott Zehr: I’m, I’m gonna… I like where you, you went with that from a positive cascade, so I’m gonna kind of circle back a little bit and talk about the, the cascading effect of DON-
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: from a negative light, right? But I, Larry, you have a, a farm enterprise with beef, with chickens, with pork as well, I believe.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep, yep.
Scott Zehr: And maple syrup.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: So- if there’s a little bit of chaos happening around the farm things don’t necessarily go smoothly.
Dr. Larry Roth: Correct, yep.
Scott Zehr: What maybe should have taken you two hours to do chores now took three.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep.
Scott Zehr: We didn’t have something happen that just blew up the whole farm, but just little things all of a sudden don’t work quite as good.
Things don’t flow quite as good. And, you know, I think so many times when we get into conversations about mycotoxins, and DON specifically, we say, “Oh, are the cows showing signs of, you know, loose manure?” What’s the intakes like? What’s the…” wait a minute. If DON is a disruptor toxin, as we’ve called it-
Dr. Larry Roth: Mm-hmm
Scott Zehr: Maybe we’re thinking about this in the wrong way. Instead of DON causing a specific issue like digestive upsets, going back to, the, the analogy there of, of a little bit of chaos-
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep …
Scott Zehr: can just disrupt the whole program, maybe we need to be thinking about DON as, more of a just biological efficiency reduction agent. That’s a really mouthful way of saying that. But e- expand on that, if you could, a little bit.
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay. So as, as you were talking, what was going through my mind, the word of the day is either cascade, ’cause I keep using that, this happens or this happens or this happens, or it’s chaos. Okay?
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: So as I have in my career, both professionally and otherwise, traveled around the world and been to a lot of farms, ranches, dairy operations, beef operations, pork, poultry operations, those who are successful get things done on a timely basis.
That’s time allocation. When chaos happens, time allocation is messed up and things don’t get done on a timely basis. Rather simplistic. But I think that we can look at, here’s a term for you, Scott, how about nutrient chaos?
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: When chaos happens in the cow’s body, mycotoxins, we could say leaky gut, we could say heat stress. We could continue on, but when that chaos happens, nutrients are now reallocated from where we wanted them to go.
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: So, nutritionists can say, “All right, how much lysine does a cow need?” it depends what she has to do with it. If she’s having to divert some lysine to gut rebuilding, her requirement just went up.
So, maybe a term that we could start using is nutrient chaos, which comes from metabolic and environmental and social challenges. And the cow has to resolve that chaos if she wants to live. And if she doesn’t-
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: resolve it, that’s unresolved inflammation, that’s unresolved other things. She doesn’t make milk. She doesn’t get bred back. Maybe she doesn’t live and she’s not on the farm. So our word for the day could either be cascade or chaos. How’s that?
Scott Zehr: Yeah. And they, there’s some symmetry between those two words in this-
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep.
Scott Zehr: …context as well.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep. Exactly.
Scott Zehr: All right, Larry, I’m, I’m gonna do something a little bit different here as we wrap up this conversation.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: we’ll call it a lightning round, if you would. Okay. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna ask you to finish this sentence in a fun, rapid-fire way. Here we go. The biggest misconception nutritionists have about DON is…
Dr. Larry Roth: that it happens in a vacuum by itself. So often DON is gonna be traveling hand-in-hand with other mycotoxins. And again, it starts this cascade of events.
Scott Zehr: Okay. question two: The first number I look at when evaluating a DON challenge is…
Dr. Larry Roth: Hmm. Total parts per million of DON.
Scott Zehr: Okay.
Dr. Larry Roth: Second would be what other mycotoxins are there.
Scott Zehr: Question number three, a farm can have a DON problem even when blank.
Dr. Larry Roth: Even when the DON level is low, because there are other challenges are taking place that reduces the cow’s, or increases the cow’s susceptibility to DON.
Scott Zehr: And lastly, the most overlooked consequence of DON exposure is:
Dr. Larry Roth: Liver function.
Scott Zehr: Hmm.
Dr. Larry Roth: We think of DON as messing up, there’s a scientific term for you. Messing up ruminal fermentation, destroying gut integrity. But we don’t necessarily think of DON as impairing liver function. But if these other things, altering ruminal fermentation and increasing or decreasing gut integrity take place, there’s gonna be greater loads on the liver, and liver function is gonna suffer.
Scott Zehr: So if the chaos cascades.
Dr. Larry Roth: There you go.
Scott Zehr: I only did the lightning round so I could work that in.
Dr. Larry Roth: All right.
Scott Zehr: I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. I think there’s a, a lot of meat on this bone that we could probably dive into. And folks, if you have questions regarding this topic or any, any topic involving, the dairy industry really, but specifically, Ruminant Nutrition podcast@agrsol.com. Ask us your questions. We will get back to you personally, and you never know, it may turn into a Letters from the Field episode with Dr. Roth.
Larry, I wanna thank you for taking time out of your day today to have this conversation. I think there’s some, some good nuggets here for people to think about and, and maybe thinking about old topics in a new light, and I’ll give you the last word.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah. The last word would be just think of the chain of events, the cascading effect that comes from not just mycotoxins, but other challenges as well.
Scott Zehr: Love it. Have a great week everybody, and we’ll be talking to you again soon, from the podcast room here at Agrarian Solutions and Ruminate This.

The post 76: Where Did the Protein Go? appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

Although inflammation is a normal part of the calving and healing process, it can be exacerbated by many different environmental factors. The mammary gland starts producing milk, opening the teat ends to potential pathogen exposure several times a day. The diet changes from a high-forage diet to a low-forage ration altering gut bacteria and pH. Heat stress or feed hygiene issues like mycotoxins can add additional stress to the gut. And importantly, but often overlooked, the uterus must heal itself from calving and defend against pathogen infiltration to prevent infection.

The immune system oversees all these events. The good news is the immune system is effective at protecting itself and resolving inflammation quickly, but it also has a high nutrient requirement. Research indicates that a cow’s dry matter intake can decrease 30% in the week before calving, consequently, the immune system may not have the needed nutrient resources to resolve inflammation quickly and prevent infection.

There are a few things we can do to support cows during this time: 1) support feed intake and 2) provide key micronutrients that she may not be eating. A combination of management and key product usage will help dairy cows calve successfully, resolve inflammation quickly, and become productive cows that increase intake quickly, make milk, and get and stay pregnant.

There is no such thing as a silver bullet product to provide the different types of support needed by transition cows, making a program approach necessary. This allows farms to adapt products to their situations and support their cows’ specific needs. Agrarian Solutions has two key transition cow products that support the cow during this period. BioFresh® Microbial Bolus and Cow Start™ Complete can work in tandem to support dairy cows to defend themselves from inflammation and help protect the farm’s profitability.

BIOFRESH Microbial Bolus can be utilized any time the dairy cow is experiencing low feed intake, which can be detected by cow activity and health monitoring systems. Producers have also had excellent results when using the Microbial Bolus at calving when cows need support to increase feed intake quickly. The bolus utilizes Agrarian’s proprietary bacteria technology to support the rumen and gut microbiome, as well as other important bacteria. This microbial combination encourages feed intake and improves rumen function.

Cow Start Complete is a transition cow supplement used at calving to support the newly calved cow’s essential micronutrients and antioxidants needs, including selenium, calcium, magnesium and vitamin E to support the immune system during this critical period when the cow is not eating enough of these nutrients. An important feature of Cow Start Complete is the slow release of nutrients during the first 48 hours after receiving the bolus at calving, enabling farms to only give the boluses once, hence the slogan: Done once, done right.

Utilizing a program approach can help farms improve cow health with a direct impact to improve milk production and fertility. Cows that calve in well and do not experience a health event are much more likely to become and stay pregnant on the first service.

Authors: Caroline Knoblock, MSc, – Director of Nutrition, Agrarian Solutions and Larry Roth, Ph.D., PAS – Vice President of Nutrition

The post Transition Cow Management: A Program Approach to Health, Milk Production, and Fertility appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

In this presentation, Dr. Larry Roth, Vice President of Nutrition at Agrarian Solutions, explores the biological and economic consequences of mycotoxin exposure in dairy cattle. Originally presented at the Wisenetix Dairy Feed Additive Summit, this discussion examines how mycotoxins influence nutrient allocation, reproductive performance, and herd efficiency, and what producers can do to mitigate their impact.

Key topics covered include:

• What mycotoxins are and how they develop in feedstuffs
• The most common mycotoxins affecting North American dairies, including DON, zearalenone, T-2 toxin, fumonisin, and aflatoxin
• Why multiple mycotoxins are increasingly common in modern dairy production
• How mycotoxins damage gut integrity and increase nutrient demands on the immune system
• The relationship between nutrient allocation, reproductive success, and herd profitability
• Research evaluating traditional mycotoxin binders and their limitations
• Independent field trial results demonstrating improved pregnancy rates with DTX™ technology
• Practical recommendations for mycotoxin testing and mitigation strategies

Dr. Roth also reviews results from a commercial dairy trial involving more than 900 cows, highlighting improvements in pregnancies per service for both artificial insemination and embryo transfer programs.

Watch on YouTube

Listen on your favorite podcast platform

The post Dairy Feed Additive Summit: How Much Are Mycotoxins Costing Your Dairy Operation? appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

Our own Dr. Larry Roth, Vice President of Nutrition at Agrarian Solutions and frequent guest of the Ruminate This podcast recently presented at the Wisenetix Dairy Feed Additive Summit. In the webinar, Dr. Larry Roth and host Dr. Todd Callaway discuss how the impact of mycotoxins extends far beyond feed quality concerns. From gut integrity and immune function to nutrient allocation, follicle development, and conception rates, they examine the biological and economic consequences mycotoxins can have on dairy operations.

Key topics covered include:
• What mycotoxins are and how they develop in feedstuffs
• The most common mycotoxins affecting North American dairies, including DON, Zearalenone, T-2, Fumonisin, and Aflatoxin
• Why multiple mycotoxins are increasingly common in modern dairy production
• How mycotoxins damage gut integrity and increase nutrient demands on the immune system
• The relationship between nutrient allocation, follicular development, and reproductive success
• Research evaluating traditional mycotoxin binders and their limitations
• Independent field trial results demonstrating improved pregnancy rates when using DTX™ technology from Agrarian Solutions
• Practical recommendations for mycotoxin testing and mitigation strategies

Dr. Roth also reviews data from a large commercial dairy trial involving more than 900 cows, highlighting significant improvements in pregnancies per service for both artificial insemination and embryo transfer programs.

Whether you’re a dairy producer, nutritionist, veterinarian, or consultant, this presentation provides valuable insights into protecting herd performance and maximizing reproductive efficiency in the face of mycotoxin challenges.

💬 Have thoughts or a story to share? Email podcast@agrsol.com.

🔗 Stay informed: Get expert livestock nutrition insights, cutting-edge research, and updates on future episodes by subscribing here: agrariansolutions.com/podcast

The post 75: Dairy Reproduction & Mycotoxins: Hidden Threats to Pregnancy Success appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. Before we jump in, I’m just gonna mention something at the top. If you’ve listened to Ruminate This for really any length of time, you probably get the feeling that most of these episodes are pretty free-flowing. To be honest, I usually have just a few notes.
By a few, I mean one to five. And usually if I have a guest, I’ll maybe send a loose outline. I really believe that the gold is always in the dialogue, and so I usually let the conversation go wherever it wants to go. Today is going to feel different. I actually wrote down much of this episode. Not because I have answers.
Quite honestly I don’t, and that’s why I’m doing this episode. But this is a lot… This is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. And I found that every time I tried to record this episode off the cuff, I ended up with more questions than conclusions. So if I sound a little more scripted than normal today, it’s intentional.
This isn’t me teaching. This is me trying to better understand something that I think affects a lot of people in our industry. Normally on this podcast, we’re talking about mycotoxins, amino acids, starch digestion, transition cows, feed ingredients, bunk management strategies, all helpful stuff for producers to become more successful. And we’re gonna continue to talk about those things in the future.
Today we’re talking about people. So a few months back, I came across yet another tragic story involving a young person in our industry who left this world far too soon. He was 22 years old.
I’m not gonna spend much time discussing the particular story because this episode is not about one individual, it’s about a question I found myself asking over and over throughout my career, why is burnout so prevalent in dairy?
Before we go any further, let me be clear about what I mean. Burnout and suicide are not the same thing. Most people who experience burnout recover. They grow and they move forward. But when tragic stories continue appearing in our industry, I think it’s worth asking difficult questions. Agrarian’s creed says that we exist to help others succeed.
Not cows, not just dairy businesses, people. And since they let me have a microphone, and I have a voice, and people out there are willing to listen, I think this is a conversation worth having. So today, instead of discussing what makes cows healthier, I wanna spend a little time talking about the people who care for them.
If I asked a room full of dairy producers why burnout exists, I’d probably hear some familiar answers. We all would. I was a dairy farmer at one time. I would give these same answers: long hours, labor shortages, milk prices, the weather, regulations, financial pressure, market volatility. And every one of those answers is technically true. But what if they’re incomplete?
Because there are plenty of professions that work long hours. There are plenty of professions that deal with stress. There are plenty of professions that face uncertainty, yet agriculture continues to struggle with burnout at rates that are undeniably disproportionate to the size of our industry. Maybe there’s something deeper going on that we need to talk about.
One thing that I’ve observed over the years is that for many producers, the dairy isn’t where they work. The dairy is who they are. The cows aren’t just livestock, they’re family. The farm isn’t just a business. The land isn’t just an asset, it’s legacy. It’s their identity. They feel it’s their internal responsibility. It’s their purpose. And when things go well, that’s incredibly rewarding. But when things go poorly, it becomes incredibly personal.
Because on a dairy, a milk check isn’t just a milk check. It’s my family’s income. A crop failure isn’t just a crop failure. It’s my family’s future for the next year. And a sick calf isn’t just a sick calf. It’s the hope of what she could be over the next five years. Every challenge feels connected to something much bigger. Carrying that kind of emotional weight day after day is exhausting.
And I think there’s a bit of a responsibility trap that’s part of this. And this is what I’ve been thinking about the most. Because maybe burnout isn’t always caused by carrying too much work. Maybe it’s caused by carrying too much responsibility. Let’s think about the average dairy owner. They care about breeding, they care about nutrition, they care about calf health, they care about employees, they care about finances, they care about the equipment, they care about their family, they care about their community.
And because they care, they start carrying. Eventually, they’re carrying every problem. Every decision, every mistake, every crisis, every outcome. Not because someone assigned it to them, but because they genuinely care. The very trait that makes them successful, I think becomes the thing that slows them down or wears them down.
The other thing about agriculture is that it is a culture of toughness. If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re nodding your head right now. I’ve been in it my whole life. We’re tough people. Agriculture has always been built on resilience. It’s one of the things I admire most about our industry. Farmers are among the toughest people I’ve ever met.
The thing about strength though is that there’s a shadow side. Sometimes resilience turns into isolation and toughness becomes silence. Sometimes self-resilience becomes believing you have to handle everything alone. Those aren’t the same things.
I have met a lot of producers who would do anything to help a neighbor, yet many of those same people would never ask for help themselves. Why is that? Why is it easier to carry someone else’s burden than to admit you’re struggling with your own? I’ve seen it firsthand.
We had neighbors. I can remember a specific story. The neighbor’s wife passed away, the fall time of the year. A bunch of neighbors got together to help put the guy’s corn up. Wasn’t a large dairy. There was probably 120, 130 acres of corn to chop. My dad and I, we took our pull-type chopper over. Everybody had pull-type choppers. If I recall, there was three or four pull-type choppers chopping corn for that guy.
But when other farms are struggling and there’s not some external public thing that happens, for the community to see and respond to, why is it so scary for that person to reach out and ask for a hand? Let me think, let me say it like this. What if we’re asking the wrong questions about this problem?
What if instead of asking why are dairy producers burning out, maybe the question is, how much weight can one person carry before something starts to give? Most people don’t wake up one morning burned out. It happens slowly, one responsibility at a time. One season at a time, one challenge at a time. And before you know it, a few pounds added to the backpack every year until one day they realize they’re exhausted. Not because they’re weak, because they’re human.
I don’t have the answers today. I think you can see that I have more questions than anything. But I think conversations like this matter because we need to do more talking about it. Agrarian’s creed says that we exist to help others succeed. And I would implore you to keep in mind that success is n- not only measured in milk shipped, calves raised, or profitability. Success also includes healthy people, healthy families, healthy relationships, healthy leaders.
Maybe burnout isn’t caused by caring too much. Maybe it’s caused by believing you’re responsible for everything you care about. Again, those aren’t the same thing. Learning the difference may be one of the most important lessons any of us ever learn. Until next time, keep asking questions and keep ruminating.

The post 74: Why is burnout so prevalent in dairy? appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

The episode also explores how DTX™ with Livox uses probiotic technology and plant actives like curcumin, naringen, and carnosic acid to support dairy cows during periods of heat stress. Learn how internal biological support may help cows better withstand the stacked environmental insults of summer while supporting health, performance, and resilience.

🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!

🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform

💬 Have thoughts or a story to share? Email podcast@agrsol.com.

Scott Zehr: All right, welcome everybody to another episode of Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. I’m your host, Scott Zehr. And today I’m gonna be joined by Dr. Larry Roth, the Vice President of Nutrition here at Agrarian Solutions. And Larry I’m hoping to have a really good discussion today with you on the topic of heat stress.
However, I’m gonna challenge you a little bit because this topic has been covered a lot in our industry, obviously. This is a north of a billion dollar economic impact in as far as loss is concerned in the US dairy industry. But I think we’ve heard enough in the past about sprinklers and fans and so on, that I have a different take that I’d like you to explore with me today.
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay.
Scott Zehr: And so with that, I guess, welcome, Larry.
Dr. Larry Roth: Good to be here.
Scott Zehr: All right. Dr. Roth we’ve been taught about this a lot over the years, as I mentioned. And I think we’ve almost been taught to think about heat stress as the problem. But based on what we’re seeing now, is it more accurate to say that heat stress is actually exposing everything else we don’t control?
Dr. Larry Roth: I think that would be fair to say. It is another stressor. Sometimes we use the term, Scott, stacked stressors. And so it, shall we say, exacerbates other challenges going on. If our diet, for an example, is kinda marginal in terms of readily formidable carbohydrates, and we’re at risk of subacute acidosis, and now we got heat stress, and it changes eating patterns. It may cause the cows to experience some periodic subacute acidosis, which if the temperature was 20 degrees Fahrenheit and the cows were eating more consistently, would not be an issue. Yeah, so we could go on with other examples, but I think it would be fair to say, Scott, that heat stress is another stressor that we stack on top of everything else with which the cow is dealing.
Scott Zehr: Yeah, and I, I don’t want the audience to be confused. I’m not saying that heat stress is not a problem in and of itself. But I think that the deeper layer is that all by itself it’s maybe not as problematic as when we have all these other stacked things going on that the heat stress then exacerbates, like you said.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough.
Scott Zehr: Yeah. So when you look at things like heat stress, mycotoxins, intake disruptions, are these additive problems or are we actually dealing with more of a multiplicative effect inside the cow?
Dr. Larry Roth: Oh. I think that we may be dealing with more of a multiplying effect. Especially dependent upon how many stressors there are. And when we use that term stressor, I think it’s important, Scott, to say we’re not implying mismanagement.
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: We’re just saying that we’re asking this cow to do a lot. She’s gotta live in a real world situation, eat real world rations, live in a real world freestall barn. So we’re not implying mismanagement. But I would say that…
Scott Zehr: No, and I think the better term is probably environmental insult, right?
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah, there you go. Yep.
Scott Zehr: Yeah. No, and I don’t think, you look at the management practices across the US dairies, we’re- we’ve figured out how to manage groups of cows extremely well and- Yes … and, what we’re looking at here today is the relationship between those environmental insults and mycotoxins. And really again just trying to reframe this conversation in a way that, essentially how do we take this to a step where we can’t control the weather, but here are the environmental insults that we can control, right?
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: So I guess going– you mentioned mycotoxins, so specifically speaking to that, to the mycotoxin challenges, what changes inside the cow during a heat stress event that would potentially make a manageable mycotoxin load all of a sudden a much bigger problem?
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay, fantastic question. What’s that interaction between heat stress and mycotoxins? When cows are heat stressed, they go through a couple of changes. One, increased respiration. They’re getting rid of more moisture, and they also cause greater blood flow to the extremities to radiate heat away, much like the radiator on your truck tends to send engine heat off to the environment.
So all of that is reducing blood flow to the digestive tract. And then the digestive tract needs a tremendous amount of blood flow to provide nutrients for the turnover in cells to also keep those cells alive. And to pull nutrients that are absorbed into the bloodstream to go to different parts of the body.
So if we’re losing moisture through the lungs, and we’re shunting blood flow more to the extremities to radiate heat, what ends up happening is our intestinal lining cells can become dehydrated. They tend to shrink. And we talk a lot about the tight junctions between the cells. It’s like the mortar that holds the castle blocks together so that the barbarians are kept in the digestive tract and out of the body.
So if our intestinal cells start to shrink, we lose our tight junctions. Now we’ve got interstate highways for pathogens, mycotoxins, all of this bad stuff to get through the castle wall, the intestinal lining, and into the body. Flows through the bloodstream, ends up in the liver, the body’s biochemical factory not just processing nutrients, but also getting rid of toxins.
So now we got an extra load on the liver which, depending upon the stage of production, is maybe processing a lot of fats that have been broken down in that early lactation cow. And at any stage of lactation, just doing a tremendous amount of work to make glucose so that we have glucose to make lactose for milk sugar serve as a carbon source for rapidly developing cells like the follicle and the embryo. So it’s, it is a cascading effect.
Scott Zehr: As I’ve heard you say many times.
Dr. Larry Roth: Yep. Yeah. Intestinal cells are short on water, they shrink, and now everything starts to go downhill from there.
Scott Zehr: Larry, the cascading effect, we’ve talked about the downstream effect of a lot of these things over the last number of episodes here. But also you mentioned the liver making glucose, and I think there’s always room for one of the famous Larry quotes that I’ve heard a number of times which is, “No glucose, no lactose. No lactose, no milk.”
Dr. Larry Roth: There you go.
Scott Zehr: And uh, so, you know, as right at the downstream side of that is we see a lot of decreased milk production during heat stress events and essentially we’re just not keeping up with that process, right? ‘Cause we’re diverting stuff to other purposes. So you’ve had the chance over the last shall we say- couple of decades at least to…
Dr. Larry Roth: Nice way to put it.
Scott Zehr: To spend a lot of time not just talking with dairymen and talking with nutritionists, but actually being on farm and seeing the operations and understanding the management.
But when you walk into really high-performing dairies, what are they doing before summer hits that average operations wait too long to address?
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay. That’s a fantastic question. What are the high-producing dairies doing to get ready for heat stress? They know it’s gonna happen. And Scott, it can be as simple as fan maintenance.
Blades are clean, motors are ready to go. Sprinklers, all of the plumbing is right. But we don’t have leaks so that we don’t have too much water flowing where it shouldn’t be, filling up the lagoon. Comfort, the freestalls are bedded right. Curtains are up. We don’t let the sun shine in, but we also want to have air movement taking place.
With cross-ventilated barns, all of the fans are working right. We know that summer is coming. We’re just making sure that everything’s ready to go. Also looking at different feed additives that people are looking at. Things such as betaine and osmolyte to keep water in cells. People are also looking at capsaicin coming from peppers, which excuse me, hot peppers, which can increase blood flow to the extremities.
And I think, Scott, we should be looking at DTX, our cell-wall-deficient bacteria technology that helps to protect digestive tract integrity and what we’ve done with plant extracts that help to protect the intestinal lining cells and also to protect liver health. So it’s a combination of factors.
And I would say over the last number of decades, number one, we’ve recognized that heat stress is an issue. We’ve said that we gotta do something about it and become proactive. Even just consider, Scott, how we design freestall barns now.
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: Consider the cross-ventilated barns, the number that we see. So the industry does stand to have a significant financial loss to heat stress, as you mentioned. But the industry is also making a tremendous investment each year to reduce that loss to heat stress.
Scott Zehr: Absolutely. I love the fact that you brought up the fans first. I’ve probably told you before my dirty fan theory, which is you walk into a barn in the middle of February, and if the fans are dirty, maybe they’re letting other things slide, too. And…
Dr. Larry Roth: There you go.
Scott Zehr: I’ve walked into a number of barns in February where the fans are spotless. There’s not a drop of dust on those blades. Those farms tend to not miss a beat. They have mastered the fundamentals.
And continue to keep up with them. Everything you just described there, Larry is all things that the dairy has for the most part within their control, right? Taking care of water situations, sprinklers, fans…
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah.
Scott Zehr: maintenance, stall care. How often do we see, it’s springtime, I get it. We have planting, we have, we’re ramping up to get ready for first cutting. And the beds didn’t get sanded this week because we just couldn’t spare a person.
Dr. Larry Roth: Right.
Scott Zehr: And it’s just, it’s a recipe for disaster. and so many times these conversations come down to fundamentals and doing things the right way every day, every time. But I think, a- again, it’s like heat stress is a problem. Don’t let it be a bigger problem than what it is, right?
And you mentioned the DTX which is our mycotoxin mitigation product here at Agrarian, and I’m gonna ask you more questions on that in a subsequent episode. But I think the big takeaway that I’d give to producers right now, Larry, is for the first time in my lifetime, there is a research-backed mitigation tool, mycotoxin mitigation tool that is appropriate for the mycotoxins we see in today’s herds.
And we manage so many other things on dairies, some of them extremely well. Here’s a tool for us to look at and say, “Can we just take mycotoxins out of the conversation for now?”
I guess just to reiterate what you said recently, your last comments here, if a producer’s talking to you and you’re a nutritionist and they’re just saying “I can’t control the weather,” maybe just give us three things that you would push back and say, “No, but here are the top three things you can control and are responsible for.”
Dr. Larry Roth: Wow, top three things. I would have to start with ventilation, air movement. Number two would be sprinklers to help wet the cows. Number three, the feed additives so that we can work from the inside out with cows. And you said three, so I gotta stop at that point.
Scott Zehr: Okay. But,
Dr. Larry Roth: but-
Scott Zehr: if you have a couple bonus ones, that’s okay, too
Dr. Larry Roth: I think how we take care of the freestall beds-
Scott Zehr: Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth: comfort. Because-
Scott Zehr: Yep.
Dr. Larry Roth: When it’s hot, cows tend to stand a little bit more, so that’s extra stress on the feet and legs. And cows tend to make more milk when they’re laying down, and there’s a variety of reasons for that. So general cow comfort, and you mentioned water availability. I didn’t mention that before, but I think that is absolutely key.
Scott Zehr: Yeah. Larry I think as we wrap up here, we started the episode talking about stacked, we’ll call it, we’ll say insults, right? And we have-
Dr. Larry Roth: Okay.
Scott Zehr: We’ve talked mycotoxins, we’ve talked heat stress. But also I think there’s maybe some other things that sometimes come into play that we don’t always think about because they’re routine things we have to do, like pen moves, hoof trimming routines, all these kinda normal processes that happen that just add an additional layer to these cows.
And I’m not saying don’t hoof trim during the summertime, but be aware of maybe there’s a way we could look at the weather and say, “Hey, it’s gonna be 15 degrees cooler at the end of the week. Can we move some things around sometimes?”
Dr. Larry Roth: Yeah, that’s right. Can we postpone certain animal movements and so forth until the weather cools down, like you said, this weekend? When the temperature’s gonna go down 15 degrees as opposed to today. So it, again it’s thinking how is this particular item going to affect the cow today? Is this something that I should delay a little bit? Is this something that I should do a little bit differently to minimize the challenge that’s put on the cow?
Scott Zehr: Yep. Yep. One of the saddest things I’d ever seen on a dairy, it was a move from one farm to the other, and it was summertime. And Larry, what could go wrong with 10 cows on a trailer that have to go 30 miles?
Dr. Larry Roth: We get a flat tire, and it’s 100 degrees, and they’re not getting the ventilation and so forth. Yeah.
Scott Zehr: Yep. Final takeaways, Larry?
Dr. Larry Roth: Heat stress is gonna come. What are we doing to get ready? Make our checklist, have our strategy in place, and be prepared to enact that strategy.
Scott Zehr: That’s right. Control what we can control. I like it. Yep. All right. Larry, I’m gonna bring you back for a little more in-depth discussion on what all DTX is actually doing to help the cow from the inside out, on another episode. So with that, I wanna thank you for taking time out of your day to visit with us, Larry, and we’ll be talking again soon.
Dr. Larry Roth: All right. Pleasure to be here. Thanks, Scott.
Scott Zehr: Thanks, Larry.

The post 73: Heat Stress and Inflammation in Dairy Cows appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

What you’ll learn:
– Mycotoxin risk factors
– Gut integrity impact
– Testing strategies importance
– Multiple toxins interaction
– Nutrient reallocation effects

🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!

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The post [Bonus Interview] The Dairy Podcast Show – Dr. Larry Roth: Mycotoxins and Dairy Gut Health appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

In the episode, Dr. Roth explains how mycotoxins can impact dairy cow health, nutrient utilization, gut integrity, liver function, and overall herd performance. He also shares practical information on identifying risk factors, testing strategies, and emerging technologies such as IgY and probiotics that may help improve herd resilience when dealing with contaminated feeds.

The podcast offers valuable information for producers, nutritionists, and industry professionals looking to better understand the hidden performance costs associated with mycotoxin exposure.

Available on all major podcast platforms.

The post Mycotoxins and Dairy Cow Health on The Dairy Podcast Show appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.

The mycotoxin assay summaries presented in Table 1 and 2 and Figures 1 and 2 for the 517 corn silage and 558 TMR samples collected between October 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026 indicate a high number of samples contaminated by two to four mycotoxins. The frequency of multiple mycotoxin-contaminated samples and the compounding effects supports  the regular sampling of feed ingredients and diets, as well as the adaption of time-proven and research-verified mycotoxin mitigation protection. 

Corn silage samples continue exhibiting the familiar pattern of high-risk DON contamination and medium-risk zearalenone (ZEA) levels observed in recent years. However, elevated fumonisin (FUM) levels are being detected. Samples from Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia exhibited high-risk levels of FUM, while an additional five Midwestern states reported medium-risk FUM contamination. 

The TMR contamination levels of DON were in the high-risk category for eight states and 11 states were at a high- or medium-risk level of ZEA. As expected from the corn silage FUM results, 14 states assayed low- and medium-risk levels of FUM in the TMR. More importantly than evaluating individual mycotoxin levels is to note that 11 states submitted TMR samples testing at medium- or high-risk levels for two or three mycotoxins, and Pennsylvania and Virginia assayed medium- or high-risk contamination levels for four mycotoxins. 

The presence of multiple mycotoxins exacerbates the digestive, immune, and reproductive insults of the individual mycotoxins and necessitates a proven mycotoxin mitigation program. For example, DON disrupts digestive function, ZEA reduces reproductive success by imitating estrogen, FUM accelerates leaky gut and reduces liver function, and finally T-2 earns the “assassin” nickname by killing high-turnover gut and immune cells.

The production response observed in high-producing dairy cows supplemented with DTX™ in Roth et al. (2024^a,b) occurred when diets tested at high-risk DON levels and medium-risk ZEA levels. Dairy nutritionists and producers are observing very good milk production and reproductive success outcomes when feeding DTX consuming diets with multiple mycotoxins at medium- and high-risk levels. Contact your Agrarian Solutions representative for advice on developing a mycotoxin testing program and utilizing DTX in your clients’ herds.

^aRoth, L.D., et al. 2024. J. Dairy Sci. 107(Suppl 1):426. (Abstr.)
^bRoth, L.D., et al. 2024. J. Dairy Sci. 107(Suppl 1):426. (Abstr.)

The post Mycotoxin Report: October 1, 2025 – April 30, 2026 appeared first on Agrarian Solutions.