FeedFIT consists of nine modules that include feeding software, loading and mixing, feeder training, FeedFIT tracking, feed costs and budgets, feed center design, clean feed, forage quality and feed lean.

“The first step of the program is to do an assessment of the feed center and get the whole team together to figure out the biggest area of opportunity,” Bender said. “The second step is to understand the capabilities and growing opportunities at the dairy, and we work together to form a strategic blueprint to implement the procedures.”

The people component is a vital focus of the program.

“We need to start and end with people,” Bender said. “We want to inspire change in the process of feeding management and help grow the people involved in the process.”

The mixer is an important piece of equipment for a feeding center.

“The No. 1 goal is to continuously provide a fresh, high-quality, well-mixed and non-sorted ration across the entirety of the feed bunk,” Bender said.

Mixer maintenance and performance is a key focus of the loading and mixing module.

“We want to make sure the mixer is performing at a high level,” Bender said.

“We think there is a difference between weigh back and refusal,” he said.

“Weigh back is something that is left in the feed bunk and the feed is of sufficient quality to be used as an ingredient in another diet,” he said. “Refusal is something the cows refuse to eat.”

Since many dairies have a drive over scale, Bender recommends using it to check the scale accuracy of the mixer.

“The goal is plus or minus 1% of the load weight and plus or minus 20 pounds of the scalehead display,” he said. “Check your mixer when it is full and when it is empty and do it monthly.”

Dyk advises dairymen to pay as much attention to the information in the feed software as the herd software.

“You need to train feeders to use the software and decide who looks at the data on a daily or weekly basis,” he said. “It comes down to a commitment to excellence.”

Since the feeder is an important position on dairy farms, the program includes a feeder training event that is held at the dairy and its feed center.

“We’ve done schools at 20 locations across the upper Midwest and in Germany, Italy and Australia,” Bender said. “We present a master feeder certification to turn feeders into masters of their craft.”

Forage quality targets are important for dairy farms to measure success and identify bottlenecks.

“An average 1,000-cow dairy produces $1 million in forages each year,” Bender said.

“Have a pre-harvest meeting for haylage and corn silage,” he said. “We cannot control Mother Nature, but we can control communications on our farms.”

The clean feed module is related to TMR hygiene goals.

“The goal is to look and identify anti-nutritional factors like molds or mycotoxins,” Bender said. “We need to identify them and then use management strategies to mitigate them and reduce the likelihood they exist on the farm.”

The feed cost and budget module involves forecasting and planning for the future.

“Our FeedFIT tracking module brings data streams in from herd, feed and accounting software,” Dyk said. “We bring all the data together in one spot and then come up with common key performance indicators.”